On Today’s Show
➢Canadians still holding on to old paper money have until midnight tonight to spend it, as stores will stop accepting certain denominations in the new year. Some bank notes made between 1935 and 1986 will lose the government’s legal tender status at midnight. The Bank of Canada’s website says the affected notes can still be redeemed or deposited for their face value at a bank or by the central bank, but may not be spent at stores.
➢ Dawn Wells best known for playing the girl-next-door castaway Mary Ann on the series Gilligan’s Island, died Wednesday morning in Los Angeles of complications due to Covid-19. She was 82.
Tina Louise who played Ginger is now the only surviving cast member from the show.
➢ A small Nunavut community of about 1,500 was hit with a record-breaking blizzard Sunday shaking houses and crushing cabins.
Environment and Climate Change Canada says Sunday’s storm brought record wind gusts and heavy snow to communities across Nunavut. In Pangnirtung, winds reached 135 km/h that day.
It destroyed roofs and the storm’s damage affected Government of Nunavut housing.
The Mayor says it’s not unusual for Pangnirtung to see high winds, but they usually hit the community in the summer and fall months when the weather is warmer.
Pangnirtung set a new record Sunday for the highest recorded temperature in the community on Dec. 27, with a high of 4 C. The last record of -3.5 C was set in 2000.
Pangnirtung, which is nestled in a fiord and surrounded by mountains, is the ideal place for a blizzard to brew.
➢ DONALD TRUMP’s former Trump Plaza casino in Atlantic City is being blown up on January 29th, and the city is auctioning off the opportunity to press the button that demolishes it.
Trump opened the casino in 1984. It closed in 2014 and it’s been falling apart ever since.
The auction will raise money for the Boys & Girls Club of Atlantic City.
Mayor Marty Small says, quote, “On his way out, Donald Trump openly mocked Atlantic City, saying he made a lot of money and then got out. I wanted to use the demolition of this place to raise money for charity.”
➢ If you’re curious about your heart health, you can test yourself on the nearest staircase. Researchers at the European Society of Cardiology say that if you can climb four flights of stairs (or 60 individual stairs) in under a minute, your heart and cardiovascular system are in great shape. However, if it takes you longer than a minute and a half, you may want to consider some lifestyle changes. (http://bit.ly/3gQVVLv)
➢ ABC has unveiled the contestant list for “Celebrity Wheel of Fortune”, which premieres Jan. 7th. Stars include: Grey’s Anatomy’s Chandra Wilson, This Is Us’ Chrissy Metz, Community alums Joel McHale and Yvette Nicole Brown, plus ‘Pee-wee Herman’ Paul Reubens, Saturday Night Live vets Kevin Nealon, Leslie Jones and Rob Riggle, Teri Hatcher of Desperate Housewives, Beverly Hills 90210’s Jennie Garth and Bachelor host Chris Harrison, plus others. Wheel of Fortune duo Pat Sajak and Vanna White will host the spinoff, where the celebs compete for the chance to win $1 million for the charity of their choice.
TODAY IS……………….
NEW YEAR’S EVE…..
New Year’s Eve has been celebrated for millennia. Honoring the end of one year goes hand in hand with celebrating new beginnings in the new one.
2010 Post-apocalyptic zombie TV series “The Walking Dead” premieres
2017 Cleveland Browns lost 28-24 to Pittsburgh to become only the 2nd team in NFL history to finish season with 0-16 record
_____________________________________________________________________________
COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
1977 Dolly Parton’s “Here You Come Again” spent its fifth week at #1. It would be the last song to spend that long atop the chart until 1990’s “Love Without End, Amen” by George Strait.
________________________________________________________________________
That’s Why a Ball Drops in Times Square on New Year’s
A giant ball dropping on a pole was an important measure of time not too long ago. It all started when ship captains needed a good way to track time in order to navigate. Delicate machines called chronometers would do so, but they would often get out of sync.
So Captain Robert Wauchope had the idea of dropping a giant ball from an elevated position near the shore. The first dropped in 1829, at Portsmouth, England, marking noon. The idea caught on. Eventually inspired by this tradition, businesses in cities began having their own ball drops. It became a point of prestige for companies to demonstrate that they could keep time, then still a universal challenge. City dwellers apparently became fond of the practice and would actually use the drop to set their own clocks.
Wanting to create a new New Year’s tradition, Adolph Ochs ― publisher of The New York Times and the man responsible for getting the city to name Times Square after his paper ― decided to have fireworks at his Times Square building in 1904. Not being able to secure a fireworks permit three years later, he affixed a lighted time ball to the building that lowered for midnight. The tradition stuck and has continued far past when most people know what a time ball was used for.
FOUR RANDOM FACTS
- An Indian classical music conductor named Zubin Mehtahas the most Grammy nominations without a win, at 18. Brian McKnight is second with 17 and Snoop Dogg is third with 16 noms and no wins.
- George R.R. Martinhas written all of the “Game of Thrones” books using a computer that’s at least 25 years old. It doesn’t even have Windows on it, just the DOS operating system . . . and he uses the 1980s word processing program WordStar.
- There are at least twice as many kangaroos in Australia as people. There are about 50 million kangaroos and 25 million people.
- Golfers who win The Masters get to keep their green jacket for a year . . . but then they have to return it. It gets put in a closet, and then they can wear it whenever they visit from that point on.
GOOD NEWS
After finding childhood journals in the crawlspace of his parents’ home, a Toronto Man tracked down their author, who had hid them there 37 years earlier.
The man, Nick Gunz, says that his parents had found the two notebooks in the crawlspace of their home in Etobicoke. He used social media to track down their author, Alison Jenkins, posting photos of the notebooks on Twitter. Alison had filled the pages with her thoughts when she was about 9- or 10-years-old. After people who knew Jenkins came across the tweet, it went viral.
Jenkins, who currently resides in Vancouver, teaches music and is active on YouTube. She started to receive messages from strangers on Facebook, sharing links to the tweet. Initially skeptical, she eventually checked out the link and realized that the notebooks were hers after seeing the writing on them.
The two are currently coordinating the return of the books to Jenkins.
_________________________________________________________________________
BIRTHDAYS
Ben Johnson 59 Best remembered as the fastest man in the world at 100 meters who won gold medal in the Olympics in 1988, but after failing a urine drug.
[45] “Tiger” Woods, pro golfer (over 100 Tour victories)
[36] LeBron James, pro basketball player
Moments That May Have Actually Made You Smile in 2020
2020 has been a very rough year for pretty much everyone worldwide, with the possible exceptions of: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos . . . L.A. sports fans . . . and BEAVERS in England, which have been successfully reintroduced into the wild there.
So “Rolling Stone” put together a list of “33 Moments That Made Us Smile in 2020,” and it covers everything from entertainment and social media to good news stories and politics.
It’s worth pointing out that not EVERYONE would smile at ALL these things . . . because we’re all different people, and that’s fine. But nevertheless, here are highlights:
- March 22nd: New Yorkers began their 7:00 P.M. cheerfor frontline workers.
- April 2nd: Dolly Partonlaunched her series of bedtime stories for kids.
- April 16th: Disney aired the first “Disney Family Singalong“special.
- July 13th: The Washington Football Teamditched its very controversial “Redskins” franchise name.
- September 20th: “Schitt’s Creek”star Daniel Levy freaked out in a kilt as he gushes over his dad Eugene Levy’s Emmy win.
- September 25th: Nathan Apodaca, a.k.a. “420doggface208,” went viral on TikTok with his 20-second videowhere he rode a longboard, swigged a bottle of cran-raspberry juice, and sang a bit of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams”.
- November 8th: “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air”reunited on HBOMax, and BOTH Aunt Vivs participated.
- December 13th: Smokey Robinson’s“Chanukah” Cameo, where he proved he was unfamiliar with the “CH” spelling of Hanukkah.
(RollingStone.com has the whole list.)
(What’s the one moment from 2020 that sticks out to YOU as a moment you smiled . . . and it’s okay if it isn’t a pop culture, nationwide moment. Maybe it was something local or personal?)
_________________________________________________________________________
SCREEN DREAM:
We’ve all been there. One moment of distraction or inattention, and the next thing you know, you’re staring at a cracked smartphone screen. And not only can that give you a headache, you’re probably looking at a hefty repair bill too. But now, researchers in South Korea say that’s about to become a thing of the past, because they’ve created a self-repairing electronic material that will seal cracks in damaged phone screens.
The team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology say “colorless polymide” is as transparent as glass but has the strength to resist scratches even after being folded thousands of times. Their screen coating, made by adding oil-filled microcapsules to a mix of silicone and a coating of colorless polymides, can repair 95% of a screen’s damage in just 20 minutes.
‘Memory Cop’ Spots More Than 2K Suspects
Who needs RoboCop when you have Andy Pope? The Birmingham, England, police officer is a “super recognizer” who has now spotted more than 2,000 suspects.
The 43-year-old officer, nicknamed “memory man” spends most of his time patrolling transport hubs. Pope, who has an uncanny ability to recognize faces from CCTV footage, still photos, and police briefings, received an award in 2018 after he had identified 1,000 suspects, sometimes years after they were first sought.
He says he once recognized a suspect sitting in a restaurant when his car was stopped at a traffic light. Pope says this has been “a year like no other “but he can still recognize suspects when they are wearing masks. “I’ve made sure I’m fully updated on the images of people wanted by the force, and its paid off, I’ve even been able to spot some in Birmingham city center while they’ve been wearing face coverings.” He adds: “I have been asked many times how, but its impossible to explain. It’s just an instinct that is the person and thankfully its proven right.”
THURSDAY DECEMBER 31ST
- Zdeno Charawon’t be returning to the Boston Bruins after agreeing to a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals. The longtime Bruins captain posted a farewell to Boston on Instagram minutes before the Capitals announced Chara would be heading to D.C.
In the post, Chara says the Bruins informed him that “they plan to move forward with their many younger and talented players” and that he respected their decision.
Chara will turn 44 in March and is coming off a deal that paid him $3.75 million last season but had a $2-million cap hit. As a result of the NHL’s realignment for the 2021 season, the Bruins and Capitals will play against each other in the East Division and face off eight times during the 56-game season.
- Christmas isn’t enough to stop people from starting at their screens. A study finds people will spend an average of 49 minutes a day during the week of the holiday “mindlessly scrolling” through stuff on their phones. On top of this, people will spend 116 minutes per day watching TV, and 95 minutes watching movies (with Home Alone, Elf, and Love Actually topping the must-watch list.) Also, 37 percent said they are looking forward to spending the week between Christmas Eve (December 24th) and New Year’s Eve (December 31st) lying in front of the TV and “double screening.”
- Ben Johnson 59 Best remembered as the fastest man in the world at 100 meters who won gold medal in the Olympics in 1988, but after failing a urine drug.
[45] “Tiger” Woods, pro golfer (over 100 Tour victories)
[36] LeBron James, pro basketball player
- 1952 Hank Williams was scheduled to perform in West Virginia but due to an ice storm in the Nashville area, Williams could not fly, so he hired Charles Carr, to drive him to the concert. When they arrived at a hotel in Knoxville, Tennessee, Williams complained of feeling unwell and saw a doctor. Carr and Williams checked out of the hotel, and at around midnight in Bristol, Virginia, Carr stopped at a small all-night restaurant and asked Williams if he wanted to eat. Williams said he did not, and those are believed to be his last words. Carr later stopped for fuel at a gas station in Oak Hill, West Virginia, where he realized that Williams was dead.
THOMAS RHETT ‘2020 HAD SEVERAL SILVER LININGS’
Thomas Rhett knows that 2020 has been a challenging year for a lot of people, but he’s finding some bright spots to look back on. He explains: [“You know, 2020 has definitely been hard in many ways, especially for a lot of different families who have either lost work or people that have been on the front lines working in hospitals, or teachers trying to teach three year old’s how to learn their letters and their numbers. But for us, I think 2020 has had several silver linings, and for me, I think I was going at such a rapid pace that 2020 definitely forced me to slow down. And so I hope I can take that mindset back into 2021.”]
FAST FACTS
Thomas Rhett’s rescheduled 2020 tour is set to kick off on June 3, 2021.
RASCAL FLATTS’ GARY LEVOX CREATES CONTROVERSY ABOUT NASHVILLE BOMBING –
Rascal Flatts’ Gary LeVox stirred up controversy over a post about the devastating bombing that occurred on Christmas morning in Nashville.
He had shared an image that conspiracy theorists claim shows that Nashville was hit by a missile instead of a bomb. Along with it, he wrote: “HMMMMM???? It will be interesting to see what cover up happens with this crap! Let’s see what they come up with. What are your thoughts?”
In a radio interview following his post, he said, he was simply asking questions.
While he stops short of endorsing any conspiracy theory about the bombing, he expresses repeated doubts about the official story that’s been released.
The complete footage, with a clear shot of the explosion has been released by the Nashville Police Department and is available to view online. According to multiple fact-checkers, the image that Gary was referring to had been altered to look like the original.
They’re still investigating the bomber’s motive, but several media outlets have reported that they are looking at the possibility that he was paranoid about 5G technology and that his attack was directed at the AT&T building that sustained heavy damage in the explosion.
The Wild Ride of 2020 . . . As Told Through Country Songs
Here’s one way to do a 2020 Year-In-Review. WhiskeyRiff.com matched each month with a country song that summarized our mood and/or feeling at the time. Are you willing to revisit the nightmare? Okay, were we go . . .
January: “Here For The Party”, Gretchen Wilson. A party to start a new year and a new decade. Oh, how our hopes were high.
February: “Wish I Didn’t Know Now”, Toby Keith. We were still cruising along with concerts, award shows, and the Super Bowl, but . . . as Toby says, “I wish I didn’t know now what I didn’t know then.”
March: “I Saw a Tiger”, Joe Exotic. The terrible COVID-19 tiger arrived, and as we all locked down, at least we agreed on one thing: Carole Baskin killed her husband.
April: “I Hate Everything”, George Strait. By now it’s clear the pandemic has us in a chokehold. Everything that’s fun is canceled, and to top it off, the disease takes Joe Diffie and John Prine.
May: “Six Feet Apart”, Luke Combs. Social distancing had us watching Livestream concerts, until we got bored. Exactly how long WILL we have to stay six feet apart?
June: “Black Like Me”, Mickey Guyton. The tragedy of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor was another punch to the gut . . . and nobody in the country music community spoke more powerfully than Mickey Guyton.
July: “Mr. Mom”, Lonestar. No school, no family vacations, and parents stuck working from home. More dads than ever find themselves being “Mr. Mom”.
August: “I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink”, Merle Haggard. Was Summer 2020 a complete waste? At this point there’s nothing to do but just stay here and drink.
September: “The Boys of Fall”, Kenny Chesney. Will football happen? Maybe. Then again, maybe not. Hey, whatever form it takes, we’re in.
October: “I Will Always Love You”, Dolly Parton. This is US loving Dolly for . . . asking “Playboy” to help celebrate her 75th birthday, for bringing Stephen Colbert to tears with just her voice, and for donating $1 million to help get us a vaccine.
November: “The Snake”, Eric Church. Oh yeah, that election. Voters went to the polls to choose between . . . a rattlesnake or a copperhead?
December: “If We Make It Through December”, Merle Haggard. Let’s see . . . We’ve been through social distancing, mask debates, protests, no concerts, no restaurants, lives lost, and a brutal election cycle. If we can just make it through December . . .
