On Today’s Show
➢ A 22-year-old guy in Hawaii named Aina Townsend recently found a woman’s wallet, and rode his child-sized bike six miles to get it back to her. So people in the community rewarded him by pooling their money to buy him a car. He ended up with a 2017 Volkswagen Jetta.
➢ Pennsylvania authorities are urging people to stop throwing their masks into the state’s streams. They borrowed a line from Dr. Seuss’ children’s book “The Lorax,” writing on Facebook, “We are the PFBC; we speak for the fishes. Please listen now to our 2021 wishes: When done wearing your mask, don’t be mean; please throw it in the trash, not in the stream.” They also included an image of a fish wearing a surgical mask. Improperly disposed masks and gloves have been linked to clogged storm drains and sewers, and discarded masks were even found floating in the Mediterranean Sea back in June.
➢ Restaurants are getting creative when it comes to surviving the pandemic. The Little Traverse Inn is located in Leelanau County in Michigan, and has built five ice shanties to continue to allow for outdoor dining in the winter temperatures. The shanties cost a total of $25,000 and were designed and decorated by local artists. Each of the structures contains a private dining room for up to six people. The owner of the restaurant says opening the shanties in December led to an influx of reservations and allowed the business to bring its employees back to work.
➢ A home for sale in Vermont is garnering attention online for an unusual feature — seven jail cells in what was formerly a county jail. The home in Guildhall, listed for sale on Realtor.com, served as the jailer’s residence before it ceased operations as the Essex County Jail in 1969. The jail, attached to the north wall of the home, includes seven cells with barred windows. “The jail still exhibits the original prison cells with barred windows & the Jailers Office,” the listing states. The home, listed for $149,000, also includes four bedrooms, two bathrooms and an updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances.
➢ Chris Evans is the new voice of ‘Buzz Lightyear’. He’ll take over the role of the space hero made famous by Tim Allen, for a new “Toy Story” prequel. Reacting to the news on Twitter, Evans wrote: “I don’t even have words. And just to be clear, this isn’t Buzz Lightyear the toy. This is the origin story of the human Buzz Lightyear that the toy is based on.” The project is aiming for release in June, 2022.
TODAY IS……………….
- “International Kiss a Ginger Day”, an annual event that encourages folks to pucker up and plant one on a redhead (um…with permission, of course!)
FAMOUS GINGERS:
✓ Movie star Emma Stone (“La La Land”) ✓ Actress Amy Adams (“Arrival”)
✓ TV host Conan O’Brien (“Conan”) ✓ Brit ex-royal Prince Harry
✓ Pop star Ed Sheeran (‘Shape of You”)
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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
1969 Glen Campbell was at #1 with Wichita Lineman his twelfth album. The Jimmy Webb penned title track reached #3 on the US pop chart. Webb’s inspiration for the lyrics came while driving through rural southwestern Oklahoma. Heading westward on a straight road into the setting sun, Webb drove past a seemingly endless line of telephone poles, each looking exactly the same as the last. Then, in the distance, he noticed the silhouette of a solitary lineman atop a pole.
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Four Tips to Have a Happier and More Positive Year
Last year was a difficult year for just about everyone. And if you’ve made it your mission to have a better 2021, here are four tips to have a happier and more positive year . . .
- Start as soon as you wake up each day. Scientists have found that your subconscious may be most active right when you wake up. So training yourself to think more positively in the morning can set you up for a better day overall.
Something as simple as looking at yourself in the mirror and saying, “It’s going to be a great day” can have a big effect.
- Drown out the negative thoughts. People have a tendency to put more weight on negative experiences. One study found that we need at least FIVE times as many positive experiences to counteract one negative one.
- Focus on finding more positivity. Fill your day with as many positive thoughts as possible, whether that’s bookmarking sites with funny videos, seeking out encouraging stories, or reading uplifting quotes.
- Hang with people who make you happy. Positivity and negativity can be contagious. If you spend your days hanging around with someone who always sees the worst in a situation, you’re more likely to get caught up in it too.
So think about the people you spend the most time with . . . and which ones lift you up and make you laugh. That doesn’t mean you need to cut out anyone who’s negative, but just keep it in mind so you don’t get sucked in.
FOUR RANDOM FACTS
- ABBA, The Beach Boys, Bob Marley, Diana Ross, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix,
The Notorious B.I.G., Oasis, Queen, Snoop Dogg, and The Who have all never won a single Grammy.
- It’s impossible to poison a possum. They produce a protein that basically neutralizes ANY poison that enters their body. And scientists are trying to use it to build a universal poison antidote for people.
- King Olav V of Norway competed in the Olympics while he was king . . . but not just because he could, because he was actually really good at SAILING. He won a gold medal at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam.
- The first live sporting event broadcast on ESPN was a professional softball game in 1979 between the Kentucky Bourbons and Milwaukee Schlitz.
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GOOD NEWS
Someone at a restaurant in Minnesota recently stole an envelope with around $300 in tips inside.
So, a group of five kids stepped up to help. They’d made some money over the summer helping on their family’s farm.
They pooled it together and gave the staff $200 bucks.
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BIRTHDAYS
[70] Kirstie Alley, actress (“Cheers” 1987-1993, “Veronica’s Closet” 1997-2000)
[67] Howard Stern, satellite radio host (Self-proclaimed “King of All Media”/judge on “America’s Got Talent” 2012-2015)
[57] Jeff Bezos, entrepreneur/internet billionaire (Amazon.com founder & CEO with an estimated net worth of $186 billion, now 2nd in the world to Elon Musk)
AGGRESSIVE SQUIRRELS
People in Queens, New York are being terrorized by an aggressive squirrel, or possibly a group of squirrels. Several people have reported attacks, including a woman who said it felt like she was losing an MMA fight. (A reporter also talked to a kid who said her mom makes her carry pepper spray now, just in case the squirrel shows up.)
CHICKENS TERRORIZE NEW JERSEY MCDONALD’S
The chickens must have been offended by McDonald’s recent announcement about new crispy chicken sandwiches coming to their menu. A McDonald’s restaurant in Washington Township, New Jersey was taken over by a flock of chickens that harassed drive-thru customers and their cars. Police posted about the incident on Tuesday (January 5th) on Facebook, noting an animal control officer was able to catch the birds. They were taken to a nearby shelter where their owner eventually picked them up.
MYSTERY LLAMA FOUND WANDERING LOOSE IN MASSACHUSETTS
Authorities in Massachusetts are trying to figure out where a llama found wandering loose in a field came from. The Newburyport/West Newbury Animal Control noted in a Facebook post that the llama was found wandering a field alone on Monday (January 4th) and witnesses said they had no idea where the animal came from. The creature was taken to Tiny Acres Farm in New Hampshire for temporary lodging while authorities investigate. Animal control is asking anyone with information about the llama or its owner to contact them.
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How Often Do You Clean Your Cell Phone?
By this point, I feel like we all know our cell phone screens are just FILTHY cesspools of germs and bacteria. But is that enough to motivate us to, you know, actually CLEAN them once in a while?
According to a new survey, 8% of people never clean their phones, and 14% say they do it less than once a month. So that’s almost a quarter of people.
But . . . 26% of overachievers say they clean their phone DAILY and another 44% clean it anywhere between weekly and monthly.
If you want some motivation to get on that train, a study out of the University of Arizona once found our phones have 10 times more bacteria than a TOILET SEAT.
TUESDAY JANUARY 12TH
- Alabama beat Ohio State last night, 52 to 24, winning another national championship. Here’s the final call. (From the “CFP National Championship” on Monday, January 11, 2021.)
New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick announced last night (January 11th) that he won’t accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the news coming in the wake of the attack on the Capitol last week by supporters of President Trump. A White House official had said Sunday that Trump would be awarding the nation’s highest civilian honor to Belichick. In his statement, Belichick didn’t directly say he’d turned down the offer from Trump, who’s a longtime friend, instead saying, “the decision has been made not to move forward with the award” in the wake of the attack. He continued, “Above all, I am an American citizen with great reverence for our nation’s values, freedom and democracy. I know I also represent my family and the New England Patriots team.”
- It is ever too late to right a wrong? Cindy Gaylord is the chair of the Westfield Historical Commission in Massachusetts and says a man contacted City Hall in December and asked to talk to someone with the commission, he said he had something that belonged to Westfield and wanted to return it. Gaylord arranged to meet up with the man in person and he told her he had attended Westfield State University in 1980 and ended up stealing the bronze sword from the sculpture of Gen. William Shepard, a Revolutionary War hero, in the city’s downtown. He admitted it was a drunken mistake, and recently rediscovered the sword while going through family belongings, so he decided to try and return it. The statue’s sword was replaced decades ago, but Gaylord says the original will likely have a new home at a local museum.
- Right before Christmas, we heardabout a waitress in Maryland who got a tip for $2,020. Turns out someone also left a “2020” tip for a waitress in Massachusetts named Hayley D’Auteuil. She says she showed the receipt to one of her co-workers, because she wasn’t sure it was real at first.
- Did you make a new year resolution to eat better? Here’s comedian Ted Alexandro on the weird diets people go on.
THE NEW WAY TO HAVE IT YOUR WAY:
Not only has Burger King updated its logo for the first time in 20 years the restaurant has announced a number of changes aimed at making it “the restaurant of tomorrow” according to their parent company. Many branches have halted indoor dining not only due to the pandemic, but also because they are getting major overhauls and adding some interesting ordering and eating options…like food lockers, conveyor belts and even motorcycle lanes.
Future Burger Kings will have 3 car collection options – drive-in, drive-thru and curbside collection, plus outdoor dining. And, check this out…most of these lanes will include CONVEYOR BELTS because the kitchens will be on the second floor in busier areas. What’s the ‘food locker’ option? Order food on the app and pick it up in a metal box, for later. The first new-look BK will open soon in Miami, and shortly afterward in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Luke Combs’ Wife Is Recovering from COVID, and Luke Once Got Sick from Drinking a “Shoey”
LUKE COMBS’ wife Nicole is recovering from a “brutal” case of COVID-19. She revealed it Saturday on her Instagram stories, saying that she had “all the symptoms, except for a fever.”
Quote, “It’s beat me up. It’s brutal, but you know I am on the up-and-coming and I am feeling great these last two or three days and hopefully, I test negative soon.” She didn’t say if Luke got it or not. Her last pics of them together were posted on Christmas.
In much lighter Luke Combs news. He’s on tonight’s episode of “Straight Up Steve Austin”. The promo is out and there’s a segment where they belly-up to a bar in Nashville, and Steve asks him about the “shoey” he did in Australia a few years ago.
Luke gave the details. Quote, “The crowd started chanting “shoey”, [so] I took my boot off, filled it up with beer, and then drank my whole beer out of it. Actually, I ended up getting sick, so I don’t know what that says about what’s going on in these boots.”
The show aired last night on USA Network.
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CARRIE UNDERWOOD OPENS UP ABOUT HER ‘INDEPENDENT’ TODDLER
Carrie Underwood‘s son’s have two very different personalities, according to the superstar. Her oldest, five-year-old Isaiah, has always been very affectionate and likes to cuddle, however Carrie tells us that one-year-old Jacob is the total opposite. [“He’s always been like, ‘No, put me down, leave me along, you’re in my way,’ so he might be a little more independent. I feel like he’s getting a little more cuddly the older he gets and he seems to be getting a little sweeter, but he’s definitely my kind of rough and tumble, kind of a bull-in-a-china-shop kid. One of Isaiah’s little friends that is kind of around them calls him ‘Jake the trouble make’ and I would say that is accurate.”]
Carrie is working on her next studio album, the follow up to 2018’s Cry Pretty, which is tentatively scheduled for release sometime this year.
FAST FACTS
Carrie is a guest on Loretta Lynn’s upcoming album, Still Woman Enough, which is due out on March 19th. She and Reba McEntire team up with Loretta on the album’s title track.
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JON PARDI WANTS ‘TEQUILA LITTLE TIME’
Jon Pardi just released a brand new single this week called “Tequila Little Time.” It’s all about having fun, as Jon tells us: [“I feel like this goes great on a boat, a lake or pool and just any kind of atmosphere of having a good time. It’s about picking up a girl that’s down and maybe, maybe we want to do a shot of tequila? There’s no answer, but maybe. She starts feeling better, and it’s fun. It’s just a fun song.”]
Jon co-wrote “Tequila Little Time” with Rhett Akins and Luke Laird for his latest album, Heartache Medication. It follows up the album’s previous two chart-toppers, “Heartache Medication” and “Ain’t Always The Cowboy.”
