On Today’s Show
➢ Sarnia police say they have arrested two suspects who apologized after breaking into the wrong home. Police say the residents of the home were watching TV when they heard the door being smashed open on Friday night. They say the residents were confronted by two suspects — one holding a hammer and demanding repayment of a debt.
Police say the suspects offered to pay for the damage and left after they realized they were in the wrong house. Two 27-year-old men are still facing charges of break and enter, mischief and possession of dangerous weapons.
➢ A 24-year-old woman named Brooke Averick from Haverford, Pennsylvania posted on TikTok recently about how the dating app Hinge just told her that her perfect match is . . . her BROTHER.
She filmed a video about the results WITH her brother . . . who makes her more and more annoyed throughout it as he pretends to kiss her in the MOST brother move ever.
➢ Hay is worth more than you likely think. Two men in New Mexico are facing the music after they were hired to deliver $500,000 worth of hay to a big farm. Investigators say they instead stole the hay and sold it to another business, while still billing the big farm for the delivery.
The men are now potentially facing felony charges.
➢20% of people say they’ve hurt themselves setting up their Christmas tree this year, up from 9% a year ago.
(Here’s Chevy Chase cutting the twine on his family’s massive tree in “Christmas Vacation.”)
➢ Tina Fey was a guest on “The Tonight Show” last night, and told a story of how she helped save a guy’s life. (From “The Tonight Show” on Wednesday, December 16, 2020)
TODAY IS……………….
- “Maple Syrup Day”. Canada makes more than 80% of the world’s supply, most of it coming from the province of Québec. The state of Vermont is the biggest producer in the USA.
- “Wright Brothers Day”, honoring the Wright Brothers’ flight at Kitty Hawk NC December 17th, 1903. The first sustained motorized aircraft flight travelled a total of 850 ft.
Orville Wright was the pilot, winning the honors in a coin toss. Wilbur got to run alongside.
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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
Joe Diffie took “Pickup Man” to #1 where it stayed for four weeks, in 1994.
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FOUR RANDOM FACTS
- There’s only one country between Norway and North Korea. Granted, that country is Russia, which is huge . . . but a small part of Norway borders a northwest corner of Russia, and North Korea borders a southeast corner.
- The movie “Grease” was released in Venezuela under the name “Vaselina”.
- Dalmatians became firehouse dogs in the 1800s because the fire engines were pulled by horses, and Dalmatians got along with the horses better than any other breed.
- In Sweden, drivers are required to have their headlights on at all times, even during daylight.
GOOD NEWS
A guy in Houston saw a homeless man holding up a sign that said he was trying to get back to Alabama.
So he stopped to give him five bucks . . . found out he was trying to get home to see his family . . . and offered to buy him a bus ticket.
Now the video is going viral because of how happy the guy is when he finds out he’s going home.
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BIRTHDAYS
[84] Pope Francis (266th Pope of the Catholic Church who took over for Benedict XVI in 2013)
[75] Ernie Hudson, actor (“Ghostbusters”, “The Crow”)/(Grace and Frankie” since 2015)
[74] Eugene Levy, actor (“American Pie” franchise)/(“Schitt’s Creek” 2015-20, “SCTV” 1976-84)
[67] Bill Pullman, actor (“Independence Day”, “Spaceballs”)
Wanted Fugitive Mistakenly Thinks a Cop Is Following Him and Starts a High-Speed Chase
A guy in Tulsa named Tyler Smithee was driving when he saw a cop in his rearview mirror turn his lights on. And instead of pulling over, he FLOORED it.
He tried to outrun him . . . ended up driving through a field . . . and crashed into a tree. Then he tried to flee on foot.
Cops eventually tracked him down and arrested him. It turned out there was a warrant for his arrest connected to a shooting. So that’s why he ran.
But here’s the dumb part: It turned out the cop WASN’T actually trying to pull them over in the first place.
He turned his lights and siren on because he was heading to a separate incident nearby. So he only started following Tyler when he tried to run. He’s facing multiple charges.
Suspect in stolen car chase makes a run for it and ends up neck deep in cow poo
When police stopped a suspected stolen car in Sussex the passenger in the vehicle decided to make a run for it. He set off across farmland in a bid to escape the pursuing cops, but he found himself up to his neck in it when he tried up jump across a pit of manure. Sussex Police wrote “Thanks to determined officers a rescue ensued, and they all ended up safe, but covered in cow poo,” they wrote, adding a poop emoji just for good measure.
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Do Optimistic People Live Longer?
In survey research which followed over 70,000 people over 10-30 years, researchers discovered that “individuals with greater optimism are more likely to live longer and to achieve “exceptional longevity” that is, living to age 85 or older.”
This result held true even after accounting for chronic illnesses, health behaviors, depression, and age. How might optimism affect longevity?
The authors of the study explain that, “Optimistic individuals tend to have goals and the confidence to reach them.
NEW YEAR’S EVOLUTION:
It seems that because of the state of the world in 2020, many of us will be changing up our New Year’s resolutions.
In a survey of 2,000 people, 71% said that they will concentrate on learning life skills or setting practical goals in 2021, rather than more traditional resolutions such as going to the gym or losing weight. Some of the top-planned resolutions for next year are saving money (62%) and learning a new skill (50%).
Over half of us (54%) plan to better budget in 2021 and 49% hope to pay down debt. 68% say they want to move away from “traditional” resolutions and focus more on experiences – like spending more time with family (53%) and traveling more (49%).
THURSDAY JANUARY 17TH
- A videoof a Denny’s waitress quitting in the middle of a shift is making the rounds online. Two guys walked in while filming her and claimed they didn’t have to wear masks because of a religious exemption, which isn’t true. And she’d finally had enough of it. (At the end, one of them told her not to believe everything the media tells her, and she said, “Yeah, [eff] yourself.”)
- Ellen DeGeneres took time out of her busy schedule of screaming at her staff to make a videosaying she feels “100 percent” now. She also said, “excruciating back pain” is a symptom of COVID-19 she wasn’t aware of.
- • “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Kristen Wiig, Carrie Underwood
- “Dolly Parton’s Coat of Many Colors” (NBC): In 1955 Tennessee, 9-year-old Dolly Parton and her family discover the healing power of faith and love while struggling to overcome tragedy.
- IKEA is selling tiny homes, there will be no Times Square gathering for New Year’s Eve, and college students are drinking less. (From Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers on Wednesday, December 16, 2020.)
GABBY BARRETT MAKES BILLBOARD HISTORY
Gabby Barrett has broken Billboard‘s Hot Country Songs record this year as her debut single, “I Hope,” is now the longest-leading Number One hit by an unaccompanied female artist in the history of the chart with a 20-week reign.
Gabby tells us that 2020 was a blessing for her, not only because of the success of “I Hope,” but also because she was able to take the time to absorb and appreciate all of her feats. [“From working very hard, it feels absolutely amazing to see all of these things happening, and I’ve been very thankful as well that his year I’ve been able to sit more in the backseat rather than performing and moving at a thousand miles per hour constantly so I’ve been able to let kind of everything that’s been going on soak in which has been really, really nice and I would’ve never expected all of this from this song, so the Lord has been very gracious to me and I’m just very thankful.”]
Gabby was the only Country artist included in Rolling Stone’s 10 Biggest Breakthrough Artists of 2020, and listed as one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in Music.
PARKER McCOLLUM’S FAVORITE CHRISTMAS MOVIES
Christmas movies are out in full force, and even though we’ve seen some of them dozens of times, they’re always fun to watch. Parker McCollum says that some of his must-watch movies date back to his childhood.
[“Favorite Christmas movie – this is gonna sound kind of goofy, but one of them is definitely Annabelle’s Wish, because Randy Travis narrates it. I used to watch that when I was really little with my mom, but I mean, Christmas Vacation is a phenomenal movie. And I always really liked the Santa Clause series with Tim Allen. I always thought those were really good, even the newer ones.”]
Parker is inching towards his first Number One hit with “Pretty Heart.” The song currently sits at Number Three on the Mediabase chart.
RANDY HOUSER REVEALS COVID DIAGNOSIS
Randy Houser is the latest country singer to fall victim to COVID-19. He shared his recent diagnosis on Tuesday (Dec. 15th) night via Instagram Stories alongside his wife, Tatiana, who revealed their family, including toddler son Huck, have been quarantining for the last several days.
Randy was anticipating a negative COVID test yesterday at the 10-day mark. At press time, he hadn’t disclosed test results.
FAST FACTS
Artists who previously tested positive for COVID include Parker McCollum, Lee Brice and FGL’s Tyler Hubbard.
Country artists who succumbed to COVID this year include Joe Diffie and Charley Pride.
