Sparrow frets over whether or not he got the trash to the curb on time in today’s edition of The Diary of a Nobody. On the one hand, it was out before 8am and the trash guys never come before 8am, on the other hand, the neighbor’s trash can is turned to the side like it is after it’s been collected and Sparrow is unable to remember whether or not it the can had been left out all week.
We could be bothered to produce The Thought for the Day either one or two years ago, so today we offer one from earlier this year, from Will Durant, talking about ambition and patience. The quote comes from The Story of Civilization: The Reformation and concerns the artist Albrecht Durer. Durant asks a lot of his readers and he is not for everybody. In fact, we are enthusiastic readers here and it’s only in the past few years that we’ve been ready to read Durant, but his insights into our human experience are worth the labors he demands.
On This Date:
In 1898: Joshua Slocum completes the first solo circumnavigation of the world, having started out from Long Island in April 1995 and returning to his native Nova Scotia. Originally he had planned to sail eastward, but when he got to Gibraltar he decided the danger of pirates was too great, and set sail westward, crossing the Atlantic again to Brazil. His voyage totaled over 46,000 miles.
In 1993: Anthony Young of the New York Mets establishes a new major league record with his 24th consecutive loss, breaking the record held by Cliff Curtis of the Boston Doves, later the Boston Braves and now the Atlanta Braves. The streak had started on May 6, 1992, and would end on July 28 after 27 straight losses. During this streak Young also had 12 saves.
In 1987: Whitney Houston is at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 with I Wanna Dance With Somebody, the first of two weeks the song would spend at the top. It was Houston’s fourth of seven consecutive #1 songs, still a Billboard Hot 100 record. This was same day Houston’s album Whitney hit #1 on the album chart, marking the first time a woman had hit #1 on both charts simultaneously.
Thank you for reading,
Gaylon
