| | Home
The Daily Dose/September 26, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Yeah, yeah, we know, pics will return...
Notes from around the Human Experience...
WE BE THINKING: While the staff here at the Writer's Shack should have spent this week doing Bottom Ten research or practicing Oriental passion techniques, we actually spent a good portion of time bickering about whether or not the government had any business butting in and bailing out pretty much every aspect of this country's financial life except for Laundromat change machines.
On The One Hand: Free market fans are cringing, saying government has no business bailing out failed private, for-profit enterprises. They have a point. The purpose of government is to provide for the liberty of its citizens, not ensure their financial well-being.
On The Other Hand: Others say the government did well to act, with the alternative, a domestic and global financial crisis that may well have been a catastrophe being a higher price to pay in the long run. They have a point, too. The purpose of government is to provide for the liberty of its citizens. This easier done if the citizenry isn't selling apples on street corners.
Get Your Official Writer's Shack Policy Right Here: The purpose of government is to provide for the liberty of its citizens. With regards to a free market, this means providing that both citizens and businesses have a competitive environment to buy and sell.
So, if the government has to step in and spend a trillion (T) dollars to save people's hard-earned retirements and stabilize the financial system, that's all right. It's our money and its for our benefit; the government is merely spending it on our behalf.
Dry, Technical Matter: Actually, they are borrowing it on our behalf, because we don't have a trillion (T) of anything, much less dollars, lying around. This will push our national debt past the eleven trillion dollar mark.
One More Thing: We would also prefer the government not insure private investments. You invest your money, you take your risks.
AROUND THE WORLD IN MORE THAN 80 DAYS: On this date, in 1580, Sir Francis Drake completed his circumnavigation of the globe, returning to England after almost three years at sea. He returned with one ship, the Golden Hind, and 59 men, after leaving with five ships and 164 men.
I Do Solemnly Swear: On this date, in 1789, President George Washington appoints Thomas Jefferson Secretary of State and John Jay the first Chief Justice of the United States. Jefferson as not Washington's first choice; he had originally offered the position to Jay, who declined it. Jefferson would serve until retiring in 1793, a retirement that would last until his election as Vice-President in 1796. Jay would serve as Chief Justice until being elected Governor of New York in 1795.
Editor's Note: Throughout baseball season, and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the last time the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, On This Date is chronicling the 1908 Chicago Cubs season.
Today's entry is the second in three days that would have merited inclusion in On This Date on its own.
What In The Hell's Going On Here? The National League race is a complete fiasco. Get a load of this: as the day begins, the Cubs are in second place in the National League, a half-game up on the first place Giants!
We are not making that up. The Giants are in first place, a half-game behind the Cubs. The Pirates are in third place, tied with the first place Giants a half-game behind the Cubs.
Uh, Shouldn't There Be Some Dry, Technical Matter Here? The problem, of course, is no one has played the same amount of games. The Giants are 88-52, setting the pace with a .629 winning percentage. The Cubs are 91-54, which is a winning percentage of .628, so technically they're in second place. The Pirates are 91-55, a .623 winning percentage. Teams get a half game credit for each extra game they've played than their opponents, so the Cubs, who are two games back in the loss column but have played five more games (this does not include ties) pick up two-and-a-half games and are actually a half-game up on the Giants, who have a better winning percentage. Similarly, the Pirates, who have played six more games than the Giants, are tied with them in the Games Back column, even though they are three back in the loss column.
Thank You Gaylon, That Was Almost Interesting: So that is how the Giants are in first place, a half game behind the second place Cubs, and tied with the third place Pirates.
Uh, Can We Get Back To Our Talking Point, Please? The Cubs - playing games 18 and 19 of a man sized 24-game road trip - win two from Brooklyn 5-0 in the morning game and 3-0 in the afternoon game.
In the first game pitcher Ed Reulbach goes the distance, throwing a five-hitter and striking out seven.
Thrilled with his pitchers performance, manager Frank Chance tosses Reulbach out there for the afternoon game and Reulbach - making his first starts in a week - throws another shutout, this time giving up just three hits and striking out four.
Get Out Your History Books: Reulbach becomes the first pitcher to throw two shutouts in one day. The feat has yet to be duplicated, and, given that pitchers nowadays have trouble pitching two shutouts in a season, it never will be duplicated.
FunFact: It is far from the first time a pitcher has thrown two complete game victories in one day though. In the 1800's it was a fairly common occurrence, happening 29 times. Reulbach did it for the eighth time in the 20th century, and, in fact, it had been done the day before by Ed Summers of Detroit, who beat Philadelphia twice, including a ten inning, two hit shutout in the second game.
We Get Your Point: In fact, Ed Walsh of the White Sox would do it three days later, beating the Red Sox twice, a team he had beaten twice in one day in 1905. The feat was last accomplished in 1926.
The Post Game Show Is Brought To You By Old Style Beer: The Giants ensure the fiasco atop the National League standings doesn't change by beating the Reds twice, 6-2 and 3-1. In the first game Christy Mathewson won his 35th game. The Pirates win, too, beating Boston 5-0, however since they only won one game and the Giants and Cubs won two, they actually lose a half-game and are in third place, one game behind the second place Cubs and a half-game behind the first place Giants. See above for the explanation about how this could happen.
Great Moments In Technology: On this date, in 1960, Vice President Richard Nixon and Massachusetts Senator John F. Kennedy meet in the first televised debate between presidential candidates.
Thought For The Day: The Thought for the Day will return.
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: The Cleveland Naps were named after second baseman and manager Napolean Lajoie. They would become the Indians in 1915.
Today's Stumper: Would it have been better to have Richard Nixon elected president in 1960 so he could have been assassinated? - Answer next time?
Comments? Recipes? Complaints? Email the Writer's Shack here!
Home |
|
