Home
The Daily Dose/September 4, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience...
LOVE…EXCITING AND NEW: It was inevitable, we suppose, that made-for-TV-movie drama has hit official Writer's Shack Fave, the Chilean miners, as if being trapped a half-mile underground isn't drama enough.
Reports from the site of the catastrophe indicate that miner Yonni Barrios had both is wife and his mistress show up at a job-site vigil for the 32 Chileans and one Bolivian trapped a half-mile beneath the ground.
Barrios, who has been tasked with using his first aid training to provide inoculations for his fellow miners, might want to stay in the mine as both his wife and mistress have professed eternal love and seem to think they'll be the chosen one when the miners are rescued.
Job Site Update: The Chilean government has authorized an alternate drilling plan that would attempt to drill to a workshop in the mine shaft, an evolution that is estimated to take about half the time as the first plan, which is drilling straight down to where the trapped miners are.
Exciting Caveat: Nobody knows if either plan will work.
Patience, Patience: A casual check of assorted British bookmaker sites failed to turn up any Chilean miner action, but human nature being what it is, we're reasonably certain some will turn up in due course. Sure, there will be some hootin' and hollerin', but greed usually trumps sense.
GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS: On the plus side, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland commuted the death sentence of Kevin Keith because Strickland was worried that recently uncovered evidence might not be presented to an appeals court before his execution, which had been scheduled for September 15.
This is good. Keith was not having any luck in Ohio state court, and the US Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal and his parole board denied his clemency request, so had Strickland not stepped in Keith would have been executed later this month.
OTOH: Well, you know. If he's not guilty enough not to be killed, he should be not guilty enough to be freed. While we do appreciate the difference between being alive and being dead, let's be honest, there really isn't a whole lot of difference between being dead and spending the rest of your life in prison, with no prospect of getting out.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: This country, like a lot of other countries, has executed people for crimes they did not commit. People who deny that are either high or delusional, or maybe both.
It's wrong for governments to execute people for crimes they did not commit because the purpose of government is to protect the liberty of its citizens, and a government that kills people for crimes they did not commit is not protecting the liberty of its citizens. Therefore, the death penalty should be abolished.
On This Date continues its tour of the major league baseball record book:
BOREDOM...EXCITING AND NEW: The Pittsburgh Pirates and the Boston Beaneaters establish the major league record for fewest runs in a doubleheader on this date in 1902 when both teams combined to explode for one (1) run over 18 innings.
Hey Batter, Batter: The Beaneaters, who wouldn't become the Braves until 1912, won the opener 1-0, getting the day's only run in the second inning. Game 2 would be called because of darkness tied 0-0 after nine spellbinding innings.
Oh Yeah: The next day the two teams would combine for 22 runs in splitting a doubleheader.
Dry, Technical Matter: Thrilling the entire nation, this record would be tied by the Braves and Philadelphia Phillies in 1913. The American League record for fewest runs in a doubleheader by both teams is two.
You Aren't Trying To Fill Column Inches, Are You? The record for most runs in a doubleheader by both clubs is 54. This has been done twice. The first time was in the National League on August 21, 1894 when the Beaneaters got a couple late touchdowns and took two from Cincinnati 18-3 and 25-8.
FunFact: Boston's 43 runs is still the ML record - and this isn't even close - for most runs in a doubleheader by one team.
Hey, What About Us?: This two-team mark was matched in the American League on July 4, 1939 when the Boston Red Sox took two from the Philadelphia A's 17-7 and 18-12.
As Long As Your History Books Are Out: Boston's Jim Tabor tied what was then the ML record that day with four home runs in the doubleheader. Along with several others, it is stil the AL record. Three of Tabor's home runs came in the second game, and two of those were grand slams, the second time in big leauge history a player hit two grand slams in one game. Tony Lazzeri of the Yankees had been the first in 1936.
Great Moments In Race Relations, Deep South Edition: Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus calls out the National Guard on this date in 1957 because nine black kids had the nerve to try to enroll at Central High School in Little Rock. President Dwight Eisenhower would get involved, federalizing the National Guard, which took them out Faubus' control, and the Little Rock Nine, as they were known, began attending classes on September 25.
Faubus, however, shut down Central High School for the following school year, though it reopened in September, 1959.
USA! USA! Swimmer Mark Spitz becomes the first Olympian to win seven gold medals at one Olympics, as part of the gold medal-winning 4x100 medley relay team. The record would be eclipsed by American swimmer Michael Phelps, who won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Thought For The Day: Lethargy [is] the forerunner of death to the public liberty. -Thomas Jefferson
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Frederick Douglass actually taught himself to read and write. He was taught the alphabet when he was about twelve-years-old by Sophia Auld, the wife of his master at the time.
Today's Stumper: What United States city was in the final balloting to host the 1972 Olympic Games that were awarded to Munich, West Germany? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
Home |
|