WEDNESDAY, Oct 5 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR WEDNESDAY, October 5, 2022
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: A & M AUTOLAND – Subliminal Ad; THE ONLY MORNING SHOW IN TOWN

TODAY IS …
(All days repeat annually on today’s date unless otherwise noted; days may or may not be called “National”/”International”/”World” depending on source; sources listed often have additional info. We generally do not list special days which were created by commercial companies for the purpose of marketing, or the hundreds of disease awareness listings which occur each year.)

DO SOMETHING NICE DAY
The Holiday Insights website says this:
“Today is Do Something Nice Day. Go ahead, do something nice, anything nice. And, do it to, or for, another individual. It won’t hurt … we promise. Doing something nice for someone almost always evokes a very pleasant response. At the very least, it results in a smile. More likely, that person will do something nice to, or for you. And, best of all, doing something nice just might be contagious. In keeping with the spirit of this day, set a goal to do something nice for someone. Perhaps, you can do this for several people. Then, sit back and watch the results!”

NATIONAL APPLE BETTY DAY

NATIONAL PET OBESITY AWARENESS DAY

WORLD TEACHER DAY
The Holiday Insights website says this:
“Teachers deserve a little recognition, and some thanks and appreciation. Aside from parents and direct family, who else has as much influence on the hearts and minds of a child … your child? Teachers not only educate, but they help to shape and frame your child’s beliefs, values, and behaviors. Parents and students are encouraged to offer thanks and recognition today. On October 5, 1966, a UNESCO and International Labor Organization conference adopted a special recommendation on teachers. The date of this event was selected by the Director-General of UNESCO, Federico Mayor, at the International Conference on Education in Geneva in 1993 as the date to annually honor and recognize teachers around the world.”

October is:

Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
American Cheese Month
Car Care Month
Child Health Month
Consumer Information Month
Cookbook Month
Country Music Month
Fire Prevention Month
National Pizza Month
National Popcorn Month
National Service Dog Month
Vegetarian Awareness Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

HOUSE OF THE DRAGON: TOO DAMN DARK

The new hit HBO show “House of the Dragon” has developed the same problem that people complained about with its predecessor, “Game of Thrones”: it’s too damn dark to see what’s going on! Nobody can differentiate the characters, nobody can tell what’s happening on the screen. Some comments:
– Said one: “I watched on a flagship-level LG OLED tv in a darkened room and the scenes were so dark it was more like doing homework than enjoying a film. Which person in a cloak is THIS one?!?!”
– Another: “At one point, a yellowy brown smear may have got imperceptibly closer to another yellowy brown smear, and then there was the bit where a grey thing wobbled about on a background that was almost exactly the same color.”
– And another: “It felt like they were trying to avoid nudity for the sex scene, but just made it even more awkward by having to squint at the darkness,” said a pervert.
The problem, of course, is the director puts the show together in a screening room with absolute darkness, perfect projection and a million dollar sound system. The rest of us watch it on TV in the real world.
* All these networks have to do is turn up the brightness knob in the control room a couple of ticks. But, of course, that would probably cost them an extra 48 dollars a year, so screw it.
* The darker it is, the less work they have to do on the CGI dragons, CGI castle interiors, CGI landscapes …
* You know it’s bad when the actors keep bumping into each other.
* On the upside, optometrists have been making a killing lately from the number of people wanting to get their eyes checked.
* That would make an excellent show: “The Yellowy Brown Smear Hour.”
* PHONE TOPIC: Have you ever quit a show because it was too dark to see anything? Critics have complained about the darkness of The Mandalorian, American Horror Story, Jessica Jones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

THE BUZZ

TOP TEN HALLOWEEN COSTUMES THIS YEAR

According to Costumes.com, an online retailer of costumes, here are the Top Ten Kids Halloween Costumes for 2022, also known as “We’ve got a lot of these left over in the warehouse from last year”:
1. Paw Patrol
2. Justice League (Wonder Woman, The Flash, Batman)
3. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz
4. Darth Vader
5. Harley Quinn (* And kudos to the parents for allowing this to make the top 10. Good parenting!)
6. Kid Jailbird
7. Inflatable T-Rex
8. Black Panther
9. Five Nights at Freddy’s (a video game): Foxy
10. Sonic the Hedgehog
* What the heck? Where’s Baby Yoda???
* But in the end your lazy kid will just put dirt on his face and go as a hobo.

The Top 10 Adult Costumes for 2022: Just add “Sexy” to the name of all the costumes on the kid’s list! Just kidding. Here are the Top Adult Costumes:
1. Inflatable T-Rex
2. Wonder Woman
3. Buddy the Elf
4. Batman
5. Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz
6. Captain Marvel
7. Rey from The Force Awakens
8. Harley Quinn
9. Ride a Beer Buddy (where it looks like you’re sitting on the shoulders of a small Oktoberfest man.)
10. Elvis
* I have a feeling most of the Elvis’s out there on Halloween will be the Fat Elvis.
* I hesitate to use the word “adult” with any of the costumes on this list.

MOST COMMON RESTAURANT CUISINES IN THE U.S.

Using data from Clio Andris and Xiaofan Liang, a Reddit user named RestSnorlax (* I bet that’s not his real name!) visualized the most common cuisine for restaurants in each US state.
Most Common Cuisines In The US:
Pizza: 13 states (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire)
Fast Food: 11 states (Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida)
Pub Food: 10 states (Oregon, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Vermont)
Mexican: 9 states (California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas)
Italian: 2 states (Can you guess? New York and New Jersey)
Asian: 2 states (Washington, Alaska)
Seafood: 2 states (Can you guess? Maine, Louisiana)
Hawaiian: 1 state ( Uhhh… Hawaii?)
* This is why we can’t have nice things in America.
* It’s hard to call pizza, fast food and pub food a “cuisine.” I believe the proper French word for it is “grub.”
* Ten thousand cooking shows on TV and what does America get? Pizza and bar food.
* Of course pizza is #1. We’re all broke.

U.S. NEWS

MAN CLAIMS DOG ORDERED X-RATED CHANNEL

In Raleigh, North Carolina, a man was stuck with a $70 bill after his dog, a bichon frisé, ordered an X-rated channel on the satellite TV. Thomas Barnes had to dispute the charge with DirecTV after his literal horndog, Marino, managed to order the Hustler channel back in 2019. Barnes believes that Marino had hopped up onto his bed, stepped on the remote and inadvertently hit the button with one of his paws. Minutes later, the channel popped up, and Barnes called to dispute the charge. Despite being assured on the phone that the charge would be reversed, the channel remained active. He called again, again and again to no avail. When it came time to pay the TV bill, Barnes paid everything but the disputed $70. His service was shut off. He ended up complaining to the Federal Communications Commission which was able to intervene, and Direct TV finally agreed to credit Barnes his money.
* Because it only takes ONE WRONG BUTTON CLICK to search for, agree to terms, type in credit card information and hit “sign me up” for a dirty TV channel. Everybody knows that.
* This takes “blaming it on the dog” to a whole new level.
* It’s so annoying to be charged for an adult channel when you’re actually getting all your porn for free off the internet. Is what I imagine he’s thinking.
* The dog claims he only did it for the articles.
* They missed the real point of this story. The headline should be, “FCC Actually Does Something.”
* FCC, if you’re listening – just kidding!!!
* PHONE TOPIC: The bad, bad thing my dog did.

BANK ROBBERIES DOWN

The number of bank robberies nationwide is the lowest it’s been in half a century. According to the FBI, the number of U.S. bank robberies peaked in 1991 when 9,388 where committed. The number has declined pretty much ever since. By 2021, it was just 1,724 after hitting a 51-year low of 1,500 in 2020. The reason for the decline seems to point to the fact that it’s just not worth it. In the late 1960’s, the typical robber made away with about $5,200, which is equal to over $38,000 in today’s dollars. But in 2019, the average take was just $4,200.
* Which is about 8 bucks in today’s dollars.
* This is easy. Most robbers have switched to stealing catalytic converters.
* The real money today is in being a TikTok influencer. And that’s just a crime.
* I blame our education system. No one knows how to write a legible stick-up note.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

HELP WANTED: GRAPE FEEDER

A fancy restaurant in London is looking to hire someone to hand-feed grapes to the customers. The custom supposedly recalls the glory days of ancient Rome and Greece. In a full page advertisement in the UK’s Sunday Times, the restaurant Bacchanalia says the fortunate worker needs to have “gorgeous hands” and a “basic grasp of Greek and Latin. Perks include regular manicures & the finest food & wine.”
* And how do you look in a toga?
* A further requirement: You must know the Heimlich maneuver.
* And how are you at orgies?
* It’s a pretty easy job. Not like back during social distancing, when you had to have really good aim.
* Are they seedless grapes, or do you have to stand there while the customer spits out the grape seeds into your gorgeous hands?
* “Welcome to the Bacchanalia, where a complete stranger will touch your food with their bare hands.”
* “Eeeeuuu! These grapes taste like hand sanitizer!”

FOUR WOMEN WILL RUN ANTARCTIC POST OFFICE

Four British women have been selected to run the world’s most remote post office in Antarctica. Clare Ballantyne, Mairi Hilton, Natalie Corbett and Lucy Bruzzone beat a record 6,000 applicants to become the team responsible for managing historic site Port Lockroy, on Goudier Island. The post office is a tourist stop for many boats visiting the Antarctic. The team will spend five months without running water or a flushing toilet. The women will share the island with a colony of gentoo penguins, which Ms. Hilton will be in charge of counting and monitoring. Ms. Ballantyne will deal with the approximately 80,000 postcards which are mailed each year from the site.
* She knows there’s Instagram, right? Picture, caption, click, gone.
* It doesn’t matter that it is a post office in Antarctica, you just know that if you go, there’s going to be a line out the door and no one at the window.
* On the bright side, there’s plenty of time to just chill.
* Counting a colony of identical penguins. How hard can it be?
* Six months. That’s a lot of games of Pinochle.
* Anyway… more frigid British women.

TRENDING

“FRASIER” REBOOT GETS THE GO-AHEAD

Paramount+ has given a series order to the long-developing revival of “Frasier,” with Kelsey Grammer once again playing the title role. The new series will find psychiatrist/radio host Frasier Crane beginning the next phase of his life in a new city. The surviving members of the original cast — David Hyde Pierce, Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin — aren’t expected to be regulars, though they could make guest appearances. The cast will feature new characters who populate Frasier’s life in his new home.

CAR COLORS

iSeeCars analysts scanned over six million cars to see which colors Americans prefer. Here’s what they found:.
– A quarter of all the cars in the US are white, followed by black (22.3 percent) and gray (18.4 percent).
– The least popular colors are yellow, gold and purple.
– West Virginia has the highest number of non-white, gray, silver or black vehicles (28 percent), followed by Vermont, Wyoming, Alaska and South Dakota.

NY POST REPORTS BRADY/BUNDCHEN HIRING DIVORCE LAWYERS

The New York Post is reporting that Tom Brady and Gisele Bündchen have retained divorce lawyers. The couple have allegedly been living separately for the past couple months following an epic fight. A source told the paper, “They both have lawyers and are looking at what a split will entail, who gets what and what the finances will be.”

LORETTA LYNN DIES AT 90

Country music star Loretta Lynn has died. Known for such hits as “Coal Miner’s Daughter” and “One’s on the Way,” died Tuesday at her home in Hurricane Mills, Tennessee. She was 90. Lynn was born to a working-class family in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, in April 1932. She came to fame in the 1960s with such singles as “I’m a Honky Tonk Girl,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man)” and “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind).” Lynn’s songs celebrated independent women and addressed such topics as cheating, divorce, and birth control. Her work resonated with many women and helped pave the way for future female singer-songwriters. Lynn recounted her early life in the autobiographical single “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” released in 1970. She released an autobiography of the same name in 1976, which was adapted as a 1980 film starring Sissy Spacek.

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

Oct. 10, Monday – Columbus Day
Oct. 16, Sunday – National Boss Day
Oct. 31, Monday – Halloween
Nov. 6, Sunday – Daylight Saving Time Ends, turn clocks back 1 hour
Nov. 11, Friday – Veterans Day
Nov. 24, Thursday – Thanksgiving
Dec. 21, Wednesday – Winter begins, winter solstice occurs at 4:48 p.m. EST
Dec. 25, Sunday – Christmas
Dec. 31, Saturday – New Year’s Eve
Jan. 1, Sunday – New Year’s Day

BIRTHDAYS

James Valentine (musician with “Maroon 5”) … 44
Kate Winslet (actress, “Mare of Easttown,” “Divergent” movies, “Steve Jobs,” “Titanic”) … 47
Daniel Baldwin (actor) … 62
Neil deGrasse Tyson (astrophysicist, “Cosmos” reboot host) … 64
David Bryson (guitarist with Counting Crows) … 68
Brian Johnson (singer with AC/DC) … 75
Steve Miller (guitarist, singer, songwriter – The Steve Miller Band) … 79

BIRTHDAY QUOTE QUIZ – Ask your listeners “Who said it?” HINT: Today’s their birthday!

“There’s more to life than cheek bones.”

(A) Benedict Cumberbatch
(B) Angelina Jolie
(C) Kate Winslet

ANSWER: (C) Kate Winslet

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

COVID-19 in History:
2020 – India’s COVID-19 death toll passed 100,000, with 6.6 million known cases, the 3rd highest death toll in the world behind the U.S. and Brazil.
2020 – The World Health Organization estimated 10% of the world’s population may have been infected with COVID-19, more than 20 times the number of confirmed cases.

2015 – Governor Jerry Brown of California signed a bill giving terminally ill patients the “right to die.”
* The Grim Reaper was a big campaign contributor.

2005 – Vampire novel “Twilight” by Stephenie Meyer was first published by Little Brown.
* And Little Brown made big money.

1997 – In London, the Express Newspapers printed an article claiming that Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were homosexual and that their marriage was a sham to cover the truth. The paper paid damages in a settlement in 1998.
* Now, how about that Richard Gere gerbil story?

1994 – 48 people were found dead in two Swiss villages. The people were members of a secret religious doomsday cult.
* Their first flaw in logic was thinking “doomsday” would be a secret.

1990 – A jury in Cincinnati, OH, acquitted an art gallery and its director of obscenity charges stemming from an exhibit of sexually graphic photographs by Robert Mapplethorpe.
* However, they did violate several animal cruelty laws.

1989 – Jim Bakker was convicted of using his “Praise the Lord” evangelical television show to defraud his viewers.
* He didn’t have a prayer.

1974 – American David Kunst completed the first journey around the world on foot. It took four years and 21 pairs of shoes. He crossed four continents and walked 14,450 miles.
* Take that, Forrest Gump.

1969 – “Monty Python’s Flying Circus” debuted on BBC television.
* Finally, something completely different!

1947 – President Harry S. Truman held the first televised presidential address from the White House.
* And can you believe it – it had nothing to do with putting “spin” on anything! Ah, the good ol’ days.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2020 – Taylor Swift was at No.1 on the US chart with her eighth studio album “Folklore.” It was a surprise album, released in July following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 when Swift cancelled a concert tour and quarantined herself, during which time she conceived “Folklore.”

2015 – Stevie Wonder’s divorce from fashion designer Kai Millard was finalized after several years in court. The pair were married in 2001, but split in 2009 and Stevie filed for divorce in 2012.

2011 – David Cassidy filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Sony, claiming he had not been paid royalties for sales of Partridge Family merchandise bearing his image, including lunchboxes, magazines and board games. Cassidy told CNN “It’s just a matter of being fair and doing the right thing. Just be fair, be real, be genuine, don’t be greedy.” He won the lawsuit, but an arbitrator awarded the relatively modest amount of $157,964.84.

2003 – Beyonce started a nine-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Baby Boy.”

1999 – Roger Daltrey announced that The Who was reforming, making their first performance in Las Vegas on Oct 29th. The show was also to be broadcast live on the Internet.

1998 – The U.S. Supreme Court refused to throw out a suit that charged Andrew Lloyd Webber had copied the “Phantom Song” from “Phantom of the Opera” from the song “Till You” by Ray Repp. Repp lost the court battle in December.

1991 – Guns N’ Roses started a two-week run at No.1 on the U.S. album chart with “Use Your Illusion II.”

1991 – Marky Mark (now actor Mark Wahlberg) and the Funky Bunch went to No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Good Vibrations.”

1974 – Olivia Newton-John started a two-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with “I Honestly Love You,” the singer’s first of five U.S. chart toppers.

1974 – The Beach Boys went to No.1 on the U.S. album chart with “Endless Summer,” the group’s second U.S. No.1.

1966 – Jimi Hendrix, Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding played together for the first time – The Jimi Hendrix Experience was formed.

1965 – Johnny Cash was arrested crossing the Mexican border into El Paso, Texas after customs officials found hundreds of pills in his guitar case. He received a suspended jail sentence and a $1,000 fine.

X-TREME TRIVIA CHALLENGE

Every installment of X-Treme Trivia Challenge includes three mystery factoids. Create your own “Impossible Question” contest – great for listener giveaways and phone interaction starters! Also a perfect sponsorship opportunity!

1. On average, a guy will do THIS an average of 6 times in his life. What is it?
Fall in love

2. According to Men’s Health, 66% of men do THIS on weekends. What is it?
Call their mom

3. According to the book “When It Comes to Guys, What’s Normal,” 44% of men reuse THIS. What it is?
Aluminum foil

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