On Today’s Show
FRIDAY JANUARY 4TH – WHAT’S HAPPENING
Hospital emergency rooms in Montreal are over capacity and wait times are reportedly up in Winnipeg as the flu spreads in Canada.
In Quebec, emergency room doctors are urging people to stay home if they can.
A dozen emergency rooms were over 100 per cent capacity at the start of the weekend.
In the latest weekly Flu Watch report, the Public Health Agency of Canada said that instances of influenza across Canada “continued to increase” just before the Christmas holidays.
The report showed that in Quebec as in the Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and New Brunswick, the flu was considered “localized,” the second most severe category before the illness becomes “widespread.”
The next round of Public Health Agency of Canada reporting on cases of the flu across the country will be released today (Jan 4)
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A wildlife park in Australia has issued a New Year’s warning after a big increase in the number of the potentially-deadly funnel-web spider.
The Australian Reptile Park, which is located outside Sydney, Aus., issued a warning to the public saying they’ve “been inundated” with funnel-web spiders, some of which are bigger than ever recorded.
Funnel-web spiders are a family of 35 arachnid species native to Australia.
Some of the spiders in the family produce venom potentially fatal to humans, although there haven’t been any deaths since the invention of antivenom.
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ENTERTAINMENT
- “Escape Room” (PG-13, Action/Horror): Six strangers find themselves in circumstances beyond their control, and must use their wits to survive. (Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell)
- “The Vanishing” (R-Rated, Mystery/Suspense): Three lighthouse keepers on the remote Flannan Isles find a hidden trunk of gold, leading to their mysterious disappearance. (Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan)
- “American Hangman” (Not Rated, Drama): An unidentified man posts a live feed on social media showing that he has kidnapped two strangers and intends to kill one before the day is out. His intention is to hold a capital “trial” online. (Donald Sutherland, Vincent Kartheiser)
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TODAY IS……………….
“Spaghetti Day”, celebrating the Italian pasta dish that seemingly everyone loves. Marco Polo brought the recipe for pasta back to Europe with him after his famous trip to China in the 13th century.
“World Braille Day”, observed on the anniversary of the 1809 birth of Louis Braille of France. In 1829, he published “Method of Writing Words, Music & Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use By the Blind”. Today, the ‘Braille method’ is used in virtually every language as the standard form of reading and writing by those with vision-loss.
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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
January 4TH, 1966 Deana Carter is born in Nashville. The daughter of guitarist Fred Carter, her 1996 hit “Strawberry Wine” nets the Country Music Association’s Song and Single of the Year. She also co-writes the Kenny Chesney/Grace Potter duet “You And Tequila”
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RANDOM REPORT
- The last time a volcano erupted in Canada was Mount Meager in British Columbia . . . 2,400 years ago.
- Watching a horror movie can burn up to 200 calories – the same as walking for 30 minutes.
- The world’s largest Dairy Queen is in Saudi Arabia.
- During your lifetime, you’ll eat about 60,000 pounds of food. That’s the weight of about 6 elephants.
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TODAY’S GOOD NEWS
A woman in Washington State found a Walmart shopper’s engagement ring in her new Instant Pot box on Christmas Day.
Shiloah Avery told Q13 Fox that after ripping open the package and removing the pressure cooker, she immediately spotted the ring — which was comprised of a wedding band and an engagement ring— sitting at the bottom of the box.
Meanwhile, not far from where Avery lived, Joann Johnson had been searching for the lost ring, which she misplaced a few months back at a local Walmart while opening and inspecting an Instant Pot she was thinking of buying.
Johnson, who had lost the ring shortly before her 20th anniversary, took to the town’s Facebook page to see if anyone had stumbled upon it, but didn’t have any luck until Christmas Day, when she saw Avery had posted a picture of the Instant Pot box to the exact same Facebook page, captioning it with, “I found a ring.” Johnson soon connected with Avery ─ whom she called her Christmas angel ─ and retrieved the ring.
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BIRTHDAYS
[89] Don Shula, NFL player/coach (2-time Super Bowl winner as a player, most regular season wins as head coach (328)
[53] Deana Carter, country singer
[30] Kevin Pillar, MLB baseball player (center fielder for the “Toronto Blue Jays”)
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PASSING: THE FUTURE:
Some people just do NOT want to do things the normal way. Even when it comes to dealing with their remains after they’ve passed. With that in mind, here are some recently-developed ‘offbeat’ methods of post-mortem planning:
☞ Get shot into space: Mesoloft — a company that specializes in launching human remains to an altitude of about 24,084 meters (80,000 ft), using balloons — is one of many businesses trying to convince you to slingshot your ashes high up into the sky.
☞ Turn you into diamonds: Your cremated remains can be pressed into diamond form using a 13,000-pound industrial machine. Once cut and polished, the diamond can be laser etched with a “unique identifier.”
☞ Live on as a coral reef: If you’d like your remains to serve a useful purpose — like protecting fragile underwater ecosystems — consider having them strapped to a “Reef Ball.” The ball mimics reef material and allows sea life to attach to it. Eternal Reefs uses a special blend of concrete and combines it with your cremated remains.
☞ Be digitally resurrected: Sweden-based funeral agency Fenix Begravning and others are using sophisticated AI algorithms to create an interactive digital identity based on a deceased person. This digital self can mimic how a person speaks through text only, but they hope to expand to verbal communication in the future. The technology behind it is an algorithm that’s fed the deceased person’s social media, chatlogs, and even emails.
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HEALTH NEWS – THE KEY TO A LONG LIFE?
People who drink moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee and are overweight in their 70s live longer lives, according to researchers at UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders.
The researchers started a study in 2003 to look at what makes people live past 90.
They say participants in their study who drank moderate amounts of alcohol or coffee lived longer than those who abstained from either drink.
In addition, people who were overweight in their 70s lived longer than people who were normal or underweight in their 70s.
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FRIDAY DECEMBER 4TH
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
[89] Don Shula, NFL player/coach (2-time Super Bowl winner as a player, most regular season wins as head coach (328)
[53] Deana Carter, country singer
[30] Kevin Pillar, MLB baseball player (center fielder for the “Toronto Blue Jays”)
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- NBA
San Antonio 125 Toronto 107
Demar Derzan first career triple double in his first game against the Raptors spoiling Kwai Leonard’s return to San Antonio.
NHL
Minnesota 4 Toronto 3
Boston 6 Calgary 4
Montreal 2 Vancouver 0
CHATHAM MAROONS HOCKEY ON CFCO TONIGHT
LEAFS TOMORROW NIGHT at 6:30 playing host to Vancouver
- 2. Washington Capitals announced that Alex Ovechkin, who’s the NHL’s leading goal-scorer, will skip the league’s All-Star Weekend later this month to get some extra rest. The NHL recently instituted an automatic one-game suspension for uninjured players who choose not to take part in All-Star Weekend, so Ovechkin must sit out either the game before or after the All-Star break. Fans had voted Ovechkin to be captain of the Metropolitan Division All-Star team. The NHL’s All-Star Game will be played on January 26th.
- • “Escape Room” (PG-13, Action/Horror): Six strangers find themselves in circumstances beyond their control, and must use their wits to survive. (Deborah Ann Woll, Taylor Russell)
- “The Vanishing” (R-Rated, Mystery/Suspense): Three lighthouse keepers on the remote Flannan Isles find a hidden trunk of gold, leading to their mysterious disappearance. (Gerard Butler, Peter Mullan)
- At least one ‘tragedy’ has a happy ending. Krispy Kreme stepped in to comfort Kentucky police officers mourning the loss of a doughnut truck that caught fire on New Year’s eve (December 31st.) The Lexington Police Department shared photo of them ‘mourning’ the loss of the doughnuts, and in response Krispy Kreme sent them a huge delivery of their doughnuts yesterday (January 3rd.)
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FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE’S DUET WITH JASON ALDEAN IS A ‘BIG OLE ANTHEM’
Florida Georgia Line’s new album, Can’t Say I Ain’t Country, will feature a few duets, among them one with their buddy Jason Aldean, called “Can’t Hide Red.” While Jason has recorded some songs co-written by FGL members Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley in the past, this is their first vocal collaboration.
Brian says that while the song was good to begin with, Jason’s contribution took it to another level.
Can’t Say I Ain’t Country also features a collaboration with Jason Derulo. The album will be released on February 15th.
CHECK IT OUT
FGL recently earned their first Grammy nomination for Best Country Duo/Group Performance for their collaboration with BeBe Rexha on “Meant to Be.” The 61st Grammy Awards will air live on CBS on February 10th.
KIP MOORE – FIVE QUESTIONS
In a game of “FIVE QUESTIONS” KIP MOORE said he’d spend “bonus waking hours” surfing in Costa Rica . . . the advice he’d give his 13-year-old self is to “Chill out.”
The thing he must have on the road is a booklet that writes his lyrics in.
If he had to choose between pizza or burgers, he’d go with pizza. And his most memorable fan encounter was getting tackled by a woman who wanted to tell him that she loved him.
WILLIE NELSON TRIBUTE BRINGS OUT MORE STARS
A Willie Nelson tribute concert is schedule for this month and most everybody wants to be there. Artists added to the lineup include Chris Stapleton, Emmylou Harris, Eric Church, Jimmy Buffett, and Steve Earle.
The All-Star Concert Celebration previously announced Vince Gill, John Mellencamp, Kris Kristofferson, Sheryl Crow, and several others.
The concert takes place next Saturday January 12 in Nashville and it’s being filmed for a future A&E Special.
85-year-old Willie Nelson recently released his 67th studio album and he will be performing as well.
