Home
The Daily Dose/February 8, 2010
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Notes from around the Human Experience, as our Saints go marching in...
DID WE CALL IT OR WHAT? Our Saints.
From their uniforms to our triumphant tour of the Superdome a few years ago to our love of beignets, we knew our Saints would win Super Bowl XLIV Sunday. Really, there was never a doubt.
I mean, sure, they trailed 10-0 after the first quarter and didn't their first lead until the the third quarter, and then promptly blew that, but still, there was never a doubt. Us Saints fans believed to too much.
The Final From Whatever The Home Of The Dolphins Is Named Now: New Orleans 31, Indianapolis 17.
A Pretty Good Game: History won't be talking about this one forevermore. Super Bowl XLIV was good, but not great. Well, the onsides kick to start the second will be talked about forever and ever. It was simply one of the best calls in the history of sports but a Super Bowl where the winning margin was 14 points almost by definition cannot be called one of the best ever.
Mr. Manning, History On Line Two: Peyton Manning's Hall of Fame bust can still be cast, but he needed a win Sunday to put himself on the short list of the all-time best NFL quarterbacks. His numbers were very good - 31 for 45, 333 yards - but a late interception returned for a touchdown sealed the loss.
Call Of A Lifetime: New Orleans coach Sean Payton's decision to attempt an onsides kick to start the second half will be talked about as long as the NFL is around. Trailing 10-6 coming out of the halftime locker room despite having dominated the second quarter and scheduled to kick off to the Colts and unable to afford falling further behind, the Saints kicked the ball off to the left where after a scrum where several rules of etiquette and gentlemanly behavior were violated before the Saints were awarded the ball.
Never mind they scored and then lost the lead. That's academic. That was the ballgame right there, barring, of course, the type of comeback that would have had Manning being called the best ever, which of course didn't happen because nobody was beating our Saints today.
Dry, Technical Matter: The Saints win their first Super Bowl. The Colts fall to 2-2 in the Super Bowl, having also lost Super Bowl III to the New York Jets and winning Super Bowl V over the Dallas Cowboys and Super Bowl XLI over the Chicago Bears.
FunFact: With the Saints now out of the Super Bowl futility racket, only the Detroit Lions, Cleveland Browns, Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars have not appeared in the Super Bowl. Well, the New Jersey Nets haven't, but they're not in the National Football League, either.
Thought For The Day: The quality of any mans life is a full measure of that persons personal commitment to excellence and to victory, regardless of what field he may be in. - Vince Lombardi
AS IF WE DON'T HAVE ENOUGH TO WORRY ABOUT WITH THOSE ZANY IRANIANS: Over 60 years after the United States first did it, Iran sent animals into space this week.
No, we're not sure the significance of this either. The Iranian Space Agency sent a rodent, two turtles and some worms on a suborbital space flight. Wow.
Details of the flight are few, though it is known the animals were returned safely to Earth and Iranian officials are hailing the flight as complete manifestation of Iran's technological expertise and how it is proof the infidels - like the evil United States - cannot impede Iran's progress and their destiny to out actual human being into space, a mere 49 years after the Soviet Union - a country that long ago ran its course and no longer exists - did it.
AT LEAST IT WAS QUICK: Mary Queen of Scots was executed on this date in 1587 because it was suspected she was involved in a plot to assassinate her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I. Mary had become Queen of the Scots in 1542 when she was all of six days old. She married the future King of France when she was 16, was widowed after a couple of years, returned to Scotland, married her cousin but he died, too, in an explosion, and then she married the man who was generally suspected of murdering him which didn't please her subjects and eventually she abdicated and fled to England, where Elizabeth promptly had her arrested.
Great Moments In Tolerance: The seeds for the Salem Witch Trials are planted on this date in 1692 when a Massachusetts doctor suggests that two daughters of a preacher who are acting funny may actually be witches. His diagnosis is actually taken seriously which led to a variety of women, who were probably guilty of nothing more than having PMS or a fever, being charged and tried. In all, 29 people were convicted of witchcraft, 19 were hanged and one man who refused to enter a plea was crushed to death anyway.
What Should We Name Our Football Team? The College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia is chartered on this date in 1693 by, and this is a coincidence, King William III and Queen Mary II of England. It is the second-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, trailing Harvard which was founded in 1636. US Presidents Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and John Tyler were educated at William and Mary.
I Do Solemnly Swear: Richard Johnson becomes the only person to date elected Vice-President by the United States Senate on this date in 1837. When the electoral votes for the presidential election of 1836 were counted earlier in the day, Martin Van Buren had been elected president, but Virgina got snitty and its electors refused to cast their votes for Johnson, a Democrat, leaving him one short, but the Senate, voting - and we know this will surprise you - along straight party lines, 36-16. Johnson would continue to annoy his fellow Democrats in office and would not be nominated for reelection.
If You Are Within The Sound Of My Voice: On this date, in 1922, President Warren Harding installs the first radio in the White House.
Don't Forget To Breathe: Nevada becomes the first state to execute someone in the gas chamber on this date in 1924 when prisoner Gee Jon is executed in Carson City.
Great Moments In Civil Rights: Three blacks are shot to death and 28 are injured, most of them from being shot in the back, after police fire into a crowd of protesters at a bowling alley in Orangeburg South Carolina on this date in 1968.
Great Moments In NASDAQ: The NASDAQ stock market index debuts on this date in 1971. The NASDAQ is now the largest stock exchange in the world by trading volume.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: Super Bowl XLIII between the Arizona Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Steelers was the last time the Super Bowl featured a team making their Super Bowl debut against a team that had won the Super Bowl before.
Today's Stumper: Who was Martin Van Buren's running mate in the 1840 presidential election? - Answer next time!
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
Home |
|