On Today’s Show
A 45-year-old guy named Jeffrey Deskovic was wrongly convicted of murder in 1990 when he was 17, and spent 16 years in jail. Then DNA evidence proved another guy did it, and Jeffrey won a $42 million lawsuit. So he could have sat back and enjoyed the rest of his life. But instead, he decided to become a lawyer, and just graduated from Pace Law School in New York on Monday.
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When you think of distractions in the car you likely think of texting and maybe the radio, but police in Slough, U.K., recently pulled over a driver they spotted watching a video of “scantily clad women dancing around.” It’s not clear what the driver was charged with, but using a smartphone behind the wheel carried a penalty of 200 pounds and six license points in the U.K.
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ENTERTAINMENT
- “How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World” (PG, Animation/Kids):
(Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera)
- “The Upside” (PG-13, Comedy/Drama): A comedic look at the relationship between a wealthy man with quadriplegia and an unemployed man with a criminal record who’s hired to help him. (Kevin Hart, Bryan Cranston, Nicole Kidman)
- “Isn’t It Romantic” (PG-13, Comedy/Romance): A young woman disenchanted with love mysteriously finds herself trapped inside a romantic comedy.
(Rebel Wilson, Liam Hemsworth, Adam Devine)
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Arnold Schwarzenegger received quite a surprise during an event in South Africa. The 71-year-old was drop-kicked by a man while he was chatting with fans at the jump-rope competition for the Arnold Classic Africa multisport event in Johannesburg on Saturday.
In a video shared on Twitter, a man rushes behind Schwarzenegger and kicks him in the back. The actor then stumbles forward as security quickly detains the man. Schwarzenegger is said to be fine after the incident and wrote on Twitter that he is not pressing charges, adding, “I hope this was a wake-up call, and he gets his life on the right track.”
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TODAY IS……………….
- “Wait Staff Day”, set aside for restaurant managers and patrons to show appreciation for the efforts of servers.
- “Red Cross Founder’s Day” marks the anniversary of the American Red Cross, which was founded in 1881 by Clara Barton, the first president of the organization. Barton led the organization for the next twenty-three years.
2005 [14] ‘Tallest Roller Coaster In the World’, Kingda Ka, opens at Six Flags Great Adventure in Jackson, New Jersey (456 feet or 139 meters, still a record)
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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
Garth Brooks‘ No Fences became the first country album certified for shipments of 14 million copies in 1998.
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HOW TO GET THROUGH THE DAY WHEN YOU DIDN’T SLEEP THROUGH THE NIGHT:
☞ Stay hydrated: When you’re dehydrated, you feel even more tired. Drink a large glass of lukewarm water with a squeeze of lemon juice in the morning. You’ll see how it really boosts your energy.
☞ Take a cold shower: Contrast showers (alternating between hot and cold) stimulates your circulation. During the day, splash some cold water on your face or put a cool wet cloth on your neck.
☞ Add variety to your day: When you haven’t had enough sleep, you may be less active and not very productive. If you can, for today, do things that are easy to manage and don’t require too much thought.
☞ Eat the right foods: Don’t overdo the coffee. Grab a refreshing piece of fruit, or foods rich in protein (nuts like almonds or cashews, yogurt, chicken, fish, etc.). Stay away from large meals and fast food.
☞ Try power-napping: A mini-nap at lunch could be a big help, but don’t sleep for more than 20 minutes, or you’ll feel worse.
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RANDOM REPORT
- The English alphabet used to have six more letters: Eth, a “ye” sound . . . thorn, a “th” sound . . . wynn, another “w” sound . . . yogh, a “ch” sound . . . ash, a long vowel sound like “i” in “fine” . . . and ethel, an “oi” sound.
- Only one player has ever died from an injury they got during a Major League Baseball game. Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians was hit in the head with a pitch in 1920, and died 12 hours later.
- The first Sega has the longest lifespan of any video game console. The Sega Master System came out in 1986, and it’s still being produced in Brazil by a company that bought the rights. They even make new games for it.
- The oldest newspaper in the U.S. is the “Hartford Courant”. It’s been published without a break since 1764.
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TODAY’S GOOD NEWS
Robert F. Smith is the founder and CEO of the private equity firm Vista Equity Partners. Last year, “Forbes” ranked him as the 163rd richest person in America . . . worth about $4.4 billion.
This year his fortune is up to 5 billion.
A few months ago, he donated $1.5 million to Morehouse College in Atlanta, which is a historically black school. Then yesterday, they gave him an honorary doctorate, and he spoke at the commencement in front of about 400 graduating seniors.
And during his speech, he announced he was making another donation . . . to pay off the entire graduating class’s STUDENT LOANS. The crowd went nuts when he announced it, but it took a second. It was almost like they thought they’d heard him wrong, because it’s a MASSIVE amount of money.
According to one estimate, it’ll wipe out roughly $40 MILLION of student debt. And Morehouse College says it’s the largest single donation the school has ever been associated with.
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BIRTHDAYS
[68] Al Franken, Former US Senator (Minnesota)/former talk show host (Air America Radio)/former “Saturday Night Live” writer-performer (1975-80, 1985-95)
[67] Mr. T actor (“The A-Team” 1983-87)/movie actor “Rocky III”
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GAME OF THRONES
- Sunday’s series finale of “Game of Thrones”drew 13.6 million viewers for its initial airing. And if you add in replays and early streaming, that figure climbs to 19.3 million. Both set new records . . . not just for “Game of Thrones”, but for HBO’s entire history.
The previous highs were set by last week’s episode, which delivered 12.48 million viewers for its debut airing, and a first-night total of 18.4 million.
According to HBO, “Game of Thrones” Season Eight is averaging 44.2 million over Season Seven.
- Someone made a mash up of all the main characters from “Game of Thrones”rapping the lyrics to Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby”. It’s called “A Song of Vanilla Ice and Fire”, a reference to the original book series, “A Song of Ice and Fire”.
- Someone made a really cool montage featuring ONE SECOND of every episode of “Game of Thrones”. It’s a minute and 23 seconds long. (Obviously, there are some spoilers in it . . . very quick ones.)
It Happened Again: “Game of Thrones” Fans Spotted Two Plastic Water Bottles
A couple episodes back, a coffee cup accidentally made its way into a scene . . . and now, fans noticed two PLASTIC WATER BOTTLES in Sunday’s series finale . . . in two different shots.
The first goof occurs at 46 minutes, 19 seconds into the episode . . .. The second appears a few minutes later.
Some fans are using these mistakes to support their claims that the final season was rushed and sloppy . . . but this stuff happens all the time. One website listed several goofs from previous seasons of “Game of Thrones”, which include accidental laptop power cords and a character wearing jeans.
HBO hasn’t responded, although there’s a good chance the water bottles will be edited out, just like the coffee cup was.
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Less Than Half of Us Now Eat Dinner at the Dining Room Table
According to a new survey, three-quarters of us grew up eating dinner basically every night at the dining room table . . . now that’s down to 48%.
Yes, the majority of people DON’T eat dinner at the dining room table.
So where ARE we eating?
30% of people say the couch . . . only 12% of people ate on the couch growing up. And 17% say they eat in a bedroom . . . only 6% of people did that growing up.
The survey also found 20% of people cook every single day, and 50% cook at least four times a week.
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DOING CROSSWORDS AND NUMBER PUZZLES REGULARLY LINKED TO SHARPER BRAIN
To keep your brain sharp, you need to keep it busy. Researchers from two U.K. colleges found the more regularly adults ages 50 and up played puzzles such as crosswords and Sudoku, the better their brain function.
The people who met that criteria performed better on tests assessing attention, reasoning, and memory compared to those who did puzzles less often or not at all. Researchers calculate that people who engage in word puzzles have brain function equivalent to ten years younger than their age on tests assessing grammatical reasoning, and eight years younger than their age on tests measuring short term memory.
Lead researcher Dr. Anne Corbett adds, “[…] We can’t say that playing these puzzles necessarily reduces the risk of dementia in later life but this research supports previous findings that indicate regular use of word and number puzzles helps keep our brains working better for longer.”
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TUESDAY MAY 21ST
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
[68] Al Franken, Former US Senator (Minnesota)/former talk show host (Air America Radio)/former “Saturday Night Live” writer-performer (1975-80, 1985-95)
[67] Mr. T actor (“The A-Team” 1983-87)/movie actor “Rocky III”
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- The Golden State Warriors are headed to their fifth straight NBA Finals. They beat the Portland Trail Blazers 119 to 117 last night, to take the Western Conference Finals 4 games to none. The Bucks and the Raptors play tonight, with Milwaukee leading the series 2 games to 1.
NHL tonight San Jose vs St Louis Blues lead the series 3 – 2
MLB
Boston 12 Toronto 2
Detroit was off
- John Lithgow told a story about a how a guest conductor, Thomas Beecham, couldn’t get his orchestra to show any enthusiasm. So he told them, “I want you to play for two people, the person who is hearing Brahms Second Symphony for the first time, and the one who’s hearing it for the last time.” And Lithgow went on the explain that that’s how he views acting. . . a selfless act for other people, not yourself.
- A neighborhood in Boston is dealing with three wild turkeys that randomly harass people and peck at them.
- Firefighters in Phoenix responded to a house fire last Thursday. And when they went inside, there were hundreds of snakes and other reptiles. Apparently the person who lived there was a bit of an enthusiast. Fire Captain Greg Hawk says the whole thing was pretty surreal, but they just focused on saving as many animals as they could.
- “Game of Thrones” being over, along with steel, whiskey, and beef. (From Fallon, Corden, and Seth on Monday, May 20, 2019)
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Travis Tritt’s Tour Bus Was Involved in a Fatal Crash, But He and His Crew Are Okay
TRAVIS TRITT’s tour bus was involved in a fatal crash early Saturday morning. He’s okay and no one on the bus was injured, but two people in the other cars died. This was after his show in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
It was caused when a Jeep traveling on the wrong side of the road crashed head-on into a pick-up truck. His bus was sideswiped while trying to avoid it. He posted a photo of the crash scene and talked about it in a series of Tweets.
He wrote, “I’m told [it] was the result of someone who was obviously driving drunk or impaired. A sober reminder to never drive if you’ve been drinking or impaired. Uber or Lyft is just a phone call away.”
He did NOT have to cancel any other shows.
GARTH BROOKS BREAKS ATTENDANCE RECORD FOR PITTSBURGH’S HEINZ FIELD – The Garth Brooks tour continues to break records. On Saturday (5/18) he played a sold-out show at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, singing to the biggest crowd attendance in the stadium’s history. Garth had this to say about performing to more than 75-thousand fans: [“I know music is supposed to be the whole reason why we’re here…but the truth is, I think music is the voice of hope. So, I think the real reason I’m here is for this place to have a memory they can take with them and share with complete strangers…and to love one another and be a little more kinder and gentler with each other.”]
FAST FACTS
It was also the biggest ticketed show in Pittsburgh history.
Garth has also broken attendance records in St. Louis, MO at The Dome at America’s Center, Glendale, AZ at State Farm Stadium, Gainesville, FL at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium and two sold-out nights at Minneapolis, MN’s U.S. Bank Stadium.
Garth has purposefully sets ticket prices below $100.
ERIC CHURCH SET TO BE FIRST ARTIST TO PLAY SOLO AT NASHVILLE STADIUM –
Eric Church is about to make more history. For the first time in its 20+ year history, Music City’s Nissan Stadium will host a live show featuring a single artist with no opening act. Throughout his Double Down Tour, his shows have averaged 3 hours long and this will mark Eric’s first performance there.
The last time Eric Church played in Nashville, it was to a 19,000 arena crowd. For football games, the stadium hold upward of 65,000.
Just last year, Kenny Chesney set the concert capacity record with over 55,000 fans in attendance. The concert takes place this weekend, Saturday, May 25.
FAST FACTS
He’ll perform music spanning his entire six-album catalog.
