On Today’s Show
➢ Oregon Ducks forward Sedona Prince posted video of the “weight room” – one standing rack of hand weights – the female players were given for the NCAA tournament. . . compared to the fully-equipped men’s facilities. It went viral and then she posted a follow-up clip after the NCAA apologized and upgraded the women’s facilities.
➢ A Minnesota farmer whose crop was badly damaged by a hail storm ended up having the harvest rescued by a company that turned the damaged peppers into a special hot sauce.
Dana Jokela, owner of Sogn Farm in Cannon Falls, said the pepper crop was destroyed by a hail storm right before the planned harvest, and it looked like a total loss. Jokela said one of the farm’s clients, Cry Baby Craig’s Hot Sauce, offered to step in and rescue the damaged fruits. “They all took whatever peppers could be used, a lot of scratch and dent,”. The company turned the damaged peppers into a hot sauce aptly called Hail Fire. The company’s owners said all profits from the sauce is going directly to the farm.
➢ A 16-year-old girl in St. Petersburg, Florida named Torrie Norwood got certified in CPR last month . . . and then saved her friend’s life after a car crash the very next day. The friend had a huge gash on her head and didn’t have a pulse, but she’s back home now and should make a full recovery.
➢ There’s a social media influencer in Medellin, Colombia named Mauricio Gomez, and he recently got a QR code tattooed on the back of his neck . . . if you scan it with your phone, it’s supposed to take you to his Instagram page.
That’s bad enough, but it gets worse . . . because the tattoo DOESN’T WORK. It might be because it faded and blurred, or because his skin stretched . . . but either way, he now has a huge QR tattoo that won’t scan.
COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
Trace Adkins‘ Songs About Me album was released in 2005.
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GOOD NEWS
A guy in Texas named Marcos Perez has been donating blood every two weeks for 37 YEARS . . . specifically blood “platelets,” which take longer.
And pretty soon, he’ll hit the ONE-THOUSAND mark. He just did his 962nd blood donation.
(A blood transfusion saved his life as a baby. And after donating his 80th gallon of blood, he did an interview about it, mentioned his blood donor’s name, and got to meet him.)
Here he is telling the story of how it started.
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BIRTHDAYS
[90] William Shatner, Montréal QC, actor (“Boston Legal” 2004-08, “Star Trek” 1966-69)
[73] (Sir) Andrew Lloyd Webber, London UK, music composer
[49] Elvis Stojko, Newmarket ON, retired figure skater (3-time World champion, 2-time Olympic silver medalist, 7-time Canadian champ)
[45] Reese Witherspoon, actress
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SCIENCE NEWS
- In space news: A study found that if you had a house on the Moon, your living expenses would be around $325,000 a month . . . Mars might have underwater oceans. . .and the Mars rover sent back the first audio of itself driving around. It doesn’t go very fast though . . . less than a tenth-of-a-mile an hour. But that’s still three times faster than the other rovers we’ve sent up there.
We just got some more exclusive audio of the rover cruising around Mars. You may want to turn the volume up to make sure you can hear it.
- In other space news: China and Russia are planning a Moon basetogether, but it’s not clear when they’d start. And researchers in Arizona want to bury a giant doomsday freezer on the Moon filled with the DNA of seven million species, just in case things here on Earth go south.
- In animal news: A study in the Netherlands found your dog’s feetare probably cleaner than your shoes. Researchers in Japan discovered certain sea slugs can decapitate themselves and grow a whole new body. And the oldest known pet cemetery was recently discovered in Egypt. It’s almost 2,000 years old. So far, they’ve found over 500 cats, three dozen dogs, 15 monkeys, a falcon, and a fox.
- And in animal news: Engineers at Stanford finally pinpointed the exact reason hummingbirds hum. (No, it’s not because they don’t know the lyrics.)
It took 12 high-speed cameras . . . 2,176 microphones . . . and three years of math to figure it out. So it’s a LOT more complicated than this. But basically, the way their wings flap creates a bunch of sounds at different frequencies . . . the loudest being 40 and 80 hertz. And the harmonics of it all creates a nice humming sound.
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GREEN, NOT BLUES:
Those who are struggling mentally during lockdown are being urged to try gardening as a way of dealing with stress, anxiety and depression. The horticulture charity Thrive says that the health benefits of gardening are extensive, both mentally and physically.
Thrive is offering a free 4-week calendar of simple daily activities to help would-be gardeners connect, learn, stay active, and take notice of the natural world, in hopes of fostering mental health.
CEO Kathryn Rossiter says that research shows many people’s mental health has suffered during the pandemic, and “gardening and being in nature can make a world of difference.” The organization says all it takes is 15 minutes per day.
DOWNLOAD LINK: https://www.thrive.org.uk/how-we-help/what-we-do/why-gardening-is-good-for-our-health/spring-forward-with-our-wellbeing-calendar
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LIVIN’ IN A VAN
Several months into the pandemic, married couple Jenna Lynn and Corey Self were growing increasingly frustrated with their life in their cramped apartment in Washington, D.C.
That’s when they decided to make a huge change.
Since they can work remotely, they bought a used Mercedes-Benz Freightliner Sprinter for $18,000 on Craigslist and retrofitted it for the road. Altogether, they spent about $8,000 on upgrades, including bathroom equipment, shelving, bedding, water gear.
Since October they’ve been traveling the country, keeping East Coast work hours and using a mobile hotspot for WiFi. They’ve been to Niagara Falls, Chicago, Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and Colorado and were planning to head to southern California, Arizona or New Mexico to “chase the weather,”.
“Van life,” or #vanlife as it’s known on social media, has been around for years. But the pandemic has supercharged it. Of course not everybody is able to make it work, as many are struggling during the pandemic. Facing joblessness or reduced income, some have lost homes and are living in their vehicles because they have no other options.
Mercedes, whose Sprinter van is the vehicle of choice for many #vanlife followers, appears to be the biggest winner. Mercedes-Benz U.S. van sales soared 22.5% in 2020, even as the brand’s overall sales fell 8.9%.
Many who choose #vanlife can’t afford a new van, which can cost more than $50,000. But they can often afford a used one.
More people are traveling around or even living in vans because of the pandemic.
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MONDAY MARCH 22ND
- NJD 2 – PIT 1 OT TBL 5 – FLA 3 LAK 3 – VGK 1 NSH 4 – DAL 3 SO
- Some idiot climbedinto an elephant enclosure at the San Diego Zoo with his toddler to take a picture, and the elephant charged them. He actually dropped her but was able to pick her up again with the elephant only inches away. Luckily they weren’t hurt, but he’s facing charges for child endangerment.
- I hope this wasn’t a bad omen, but a bridal party’s limo caught on fire in Las Vegas on the way to the wedding. (Here’sthe bride’s parents, Elsa and Felix Hernandez.)
- It’s spring! To celebrate, here’s comedian Jim Gaffigan on how spring cheats us.
HASTA LA VISTA, BABIES:
The joke at the start of lockdown was that all those people spending all that time at home would lead to a baby boom. The funny thing is, though, the exact opposite has come true (at least in the western world), according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.
France, Japan, Germany, the U.K., and the U.S. reported fewer births in 2020, with the most significant decrease in Italy — the European country that suffered the most serious early COVID-19 losses. (The official stats for Canada aren’t yet available, but several provinces, including BC and Alberta have already reported birthrates nearing decade lows.)
Laura Wright, an associate sociology professor at the University of Saskatchewan, says this is probably just the tip of the iceberg, and she expects birth rates to drop ever further in 2021, considering the impact of COVID-19 on the economy and employment.
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Lauren Alaina Has Tested Positive for Covid-19
LAUREN ALAINA tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, and had to miss her show the next night in Lexington, Kentucky.
Quote, “I’m so sad to say I will not be at the acoustic show in Lexington. I tested positive for COVID. I’m quarantining and trying to get better. Please know I can’t wait to be back when it is safe for all of us.”
She also revealed her symptoms on her Instagram Story.
“Some people have it way worse than me . . . I just have a little bit of shortness of breath, a really bad headache, no taste or smell, pretty bad congestion and I feel pretty tired. But I overall feel like it’s going to be okay.”
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KENNY CHESNEY WENT TO NEW ENGLAND, ST. CROIX FOR NEW VIDEO SHOOT
Kenny Chesney has released the video for his new single, “Knowing You,” which was filmed in multiple locations, including Gloucester, Mass. and the Virgin Islands.
“Knowing You” is the third single from Kenny’s Here And Now album. When he read the song’s title the first time, he assumed it was going to be a sad one about loss. While that’s partially true, Kenny tells us it’s actually full of positivity. [“It’s about a chapter in someone’s life, where they were with someone. It was a chapter where they both felt truly really alive in their life, and for whatever reason, life moved each person in a different direction, but still with that happening there’s still this feeling of love and gratitude that, that person was in your life in the first place.”]
Kenny has 31 Number Ones to his credit, the most in current Billboard Country Airplay chart history.
MAREN MORRIS, RYAN HURD CELEBRATE SON’S FIRST BIRTHDAY
Maren Morris and Ryan Hurd celebrated their son Hayes‘ first birthday this weekend with a small party at home. The couple opted to keep things lowkey due to the ongoing pandemic. They tell us: [“The thing with us is we can’t really take many chances because if we get covid that means that we can’t go to something really important that we have on the calendar so . . . (Maren) We’re being very safe. (Ryan) So we’re trying our best to make sure that that doesn’t happen. So yeah everything we do is real small. (Maren) We’ll have a small birthday party for him. (Ryan) It’s weird. It’s odd. You count months right, until now and now you can start saying years.”]
FAST FACTS
Maren is up for several ACM awards, including Female, Single and Song for “The Bones,” Video of the Year for “Better Than We Found It” and Group of the Year for The Highwomen. The ACM Awards will air live from Nashville on CBS on Sunday, April 18th.
