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The Daily Dose/October 31, 2008
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
Pics will return!
Notes from around the Human Experience...
CAPSULE EARLY VOTING REVIEW: Desert Breeze Community Center, Las Vegas, Nevada: Actually, it was The Woman who early voted today. It is rather convenient for yours truly to vote on Election Day, so I do because it gives me a completely unwarranted feeling of superiority over those who voted early, along the lines of "Okay, you've had your say, but here comes the A team", sort of like the closer coming in from the bullpen for the ninth inning. There is no reasonable basis for this feeling, of course. Everyone's vote counts the same, but still.
Initially The Woman was intimidated by the line at the community center, which was not short. Initially she said screw it, but I pointed out that voting doesn't actually take that long, and there probably were plenty of voting stations - though we couldn't tell from where we were standing - and it was likely they were prepared for a crowd, and I left her to think it over while I went and used the facilities.
We're Not Going To Get A Capsule Bathroom Review, Are We? By the time I emerged from the can The Woman was well into the line, so I pulled a book (Plot It Yourself, a Nero Wolfe mystery by Rex Stout) from the bookshelf and settled in.
We Interrupt This Column For A Word From The Ratings Department: Following is the Official Writer's Shack rating scale:
EX - Excellent; as good as the medium can produce in every respect.
VG - Very Good. Well worth your time.
GD - Good. Worth your time.
AR - All Right. Not completely without merit.
SP - Nothing of substance; a steaming pile, utterly without merit.
Final Rating: EX. The Woman was very pleased with her role in the democratic process, noting this was the first time she had voted in a very long time and that were women in some countries who weren't as equal as she was here in the United States, where she had the pleasure of voting who I told her to vote for. She should have been pleased with her roll because voting is the best deal around. You walk into the booth and for a few minutes you're the star of the show. This country has its faults, and if we don't get our finances in order in a generation or so we are heading for catastrophe, but you can't beat voting for the candidate of your choice. It is one of the fundamental tenants of this democracy.
THIS IS NOT A BULLETIN, NO NEED TO STOP THE PRESSES: The Centers for Disease Control reported this week that the number of new diabetes cases doubled in the last ten years. 90 percent of those cases were Type 2 diabetes, the type that normally hits fat people.
FunFact: Roughly two-thirds of this country is overweight, and a third are really fat.
Dry, Technical Matter: The rate of new diabetes cases has gone from 5 in 1000 in the mid-1990's, to 9 in 1000 by the middle of this decade. 23 million Americans have the disease, and 1.6 million new cases were diagnosed in those over 20 last year.
GO IN PEACE, SERVE THE LORD: The Protestant Reformation, simmering for a couple of centuries, begins on this date in 1517 when malcontent Martin Luther, unaware he was sentencing millions of kids to boring, average childhoods, posts the 95 Theses on the door of a church in Wittenburg, Germany. Luther had the nerve to challenge the authority of the papacy by insisting the Bible was the only infallible source of religious authority and that salvation is given freely by God and cannot be sold by church personnel.
As reward, a tolerant, open-minded Catholic Church, led by Pope Leo X, excommunicated Luther in January, 1521, and in May the Diet at Worms declared Luther to be an outlaw and not only was it a crime to give Luther food or shelter, but he could also be killed without consequence. Luther went into hiding, but ensuing unrest later brought him out and he would later marry and continue with his life's work.
Hit Me: Largely to help President Lincoln's reelection effort, and to ensure Republican domination of Congress, Nevada is admitted to the Union as the 36th state on this date in 1864.
Open Up Those Golden Gates: The first automobile road across the US, the Lincoln Highway, is dedicated on this date in 1913. It runs 3,389 miles, from Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco.
Now, Behold! Metamorphosis! Harry Houdini dies on this date in 1926 of peritonitis, which followed his appendix rupturing, which followed him being hit in the abdomen repeatedly several days earlier by a fan who had taken Houdini up on his claim that he could take any blow to the stomach. Houdini was 52.
Well, It's About Time: After 14 years, drilling is completed on Mt. Rushmore on this date in 1941.
This Will Definitely Affect Your Retirement Benefits: On this date, in 1984, Indian Prime Minister Indira Ghandi is shot to death by two members of her security detail in the garden of her residence in New Dehli.
TRICK OR TREAT! SMELL MY FEET!Today is that curious day when people, children mostly and preferably, dress up like ghouls, princesses and Rambo and go from house to house asking for candy, which home dwellers, as likely as not, produce. A pumpkin often has a face carved into it, its inside hollowed out, and a candle placed inside and lighted and placed outside.
Now You Know: Halloween has its roots in ancient Celtic festival celebrating the end of the harvest, and in the ancient Gael belief that after Oct. 31 the dead began farting around with the living by inducing sickness in people and livestock and damaging crops. To calm the evil spirits, costumes would be worn. The name is derived from All Hallows Eve, because All Hallows Day, also known as All Saints Day is the following day, and has been since the celebration was moved from May back in the 8th century.
FunFact: Halloween was brought to the US in the mid 19th century, when two million Irish emigrated here following the great potato famine.
Thought For The Day: {This} whole book...has been written under the influence of a kind of religious awe produced in the author's mind by the view of that irresistible revolution which has advanced for centuries in spite of every obstacle and which is still advancing in the midst of the ruins it has caused. - Alexis De Tocqueville, Democracy In America
Answer To The Last Trivia Question: John Ford and James Cagney were the first two winners of the American Film Institutes' Lifetime Achievement Award.
Today's Stumper: How did Mount Rushmore get its name? - Answer next time!
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