WEDNESDAY, Jan 18 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR WEDNESDAY, January 18, 2023
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: A&M AUTOLAND – You Won’t Find a Better Deal; 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.)

NATIONAL PEKING DUCK DAY
The Punchbowl website says this:
“Peking Duck is a delectable dish that originated in Beijing, China during the Imperial Era. It became one of the main dishes on the court menus of the Ming Dynasty in the 1500s and is now considered one of China’s national foods.”

NATIONAL WINNIE THE POOH DAY
The National Day Calendar website says this:
“National Winnie the Pooh Day is celebrated annually on January 18th. Winnie the Pooh was created by author A. A. Milne. This day is celebrated to commemorated Milne’s birthday, which was January 18th, 1882.”

THESAURUS DAY
The Time And Date website says this:
“January 18 is Thesaurus Day. Impress your family and friends with big, complicated, and fancy sounding words to celebrate this lexicographic holiday. The unofficial holiday commemorates the birth anniversary of British lexicographer and physician, Peter Mark Roget, the author of the Roget’s Thesaurus. A thesaurus is a book that compiles words grouped by similarity of meaning. The term thesaurus comes from the Greek word, thesauros, meaning treasure or storehouse. Roget’s Thesaurus is one of the most widely used reference books in the English language around the world. It was first published in 1852 with 15,000 words. Since then, the book has never gone out of publication.”

January is:

Adopt a Rescued Bird Month
Be Kind to Food Servers Month
Family Fit Lifestyle Month
Financial Wellness Month
Get Organized Month
National Candy Month
National Clean Up Your Computer Month
National Hobby Month
National Skating Month
National Train Your Dog Month
Walk Your Pet Month

THE BUZZCOMPANY SECRETS!

Reddit asked, “What’s a company secret you can share now that you don’t work there?” Some of the responses:
– “I worked at L’Oréal. The cosmetics from L’Oréal and Lancôme are practically the same. But Lancôme costs like $20 more.”
– “I worked at a hair salon. The Men’s shampoo was the exact same shampoo in the ladies’ shampoo bottle, but half the price.”
– “If you pick up a wall phone at Home Depot and push ‘7’ it activates the store wide intercom. This works in every store in my province.”
– “At Home Depot. buy the Clearance items that end in $.03. After that, the next step of the markdown process is the dumpster.”
– “Ford parts from Mexico are way more reliable than Ford parts from Detroit. I worked in Detroit and we had some customers who were fussy about us always doing repairs with Michigan parts, but when we had a problem that wouldn’t stay fixed we would always secretly switch to the Mexican parts, which did solve things.”
– “In a broadband company I worked for I was tasked with editing thousands of complaints to avoid huge fines.”
– “I worked for a major hotel chain in housekeeping for over 10 years. The number of suicides and people who die naturally in their rooms is a lot higher than you’d think.”
– “When I worked at a Godiva store we would turn expired chocolate bars into sample pieces.” (* Expired chocolate? I’ve never heard of such a thing.)
– “Maple sap can be trucked in from other states. Where it’s turned from sap to syrup decides on the state it comes from, not the location of the trees.” (* Looking at you, Vermont!)
– “Dad worked for a laundry detergent company. All the formulas they use are made stronger than needed, so you only ever need half a cap for the majority of loads.”
– “A restaurant I once worked at was failing and unpopular. There was however one menu item that was universally popular – the House soup. No one knew it was Campbell’s, straight from the can.”
– “Inbound call center – the ‘We are currently experiencing an unusually high call volume’ message is permanent. They just didn’t staff adequately.” (* Now there’s a shocker.)
– “I worked baggage at an airport. Nothing is handled with care.”
* Another secret: At Reddit, if they don’t get enough funny answers to a question, they just make some up.
* Capitalism – the greatest system on earth! Except for the lying and the cheating and the screwing you over.
* Is there not one single, honest company left in this world that actually delivers what they promise? Anyway, here’s more of Today’s Best Music, on (station call).
* PHONE TOPIC: Have you got a company secret you’re willing to share?

U.S. NEWS

TUNA PULLS FISHERMAN OVERBOARD

Rescuers searched for a third day Tuesday for a Hawaii fisherman who went overboard from a boat after hooking a tuna over the weekend. Mark Knittle, 63, was fishing with a friend off Honaunau on the Big Island on Sunday when he hooked an ahi, or tuna. The friend heard Knittle say, “This fish is huge.” Then he saw Knittle go overboard into the water. The friend tried to grab the line, but Knittle disappeared within seconds. The friend jumped in but couldn’t see Knittle. Said Darwin Okinaka of the Hawaii County Fire Department, “If there’s a fish that’s actually pulling him around, you don’t know where he could go.”
* But he’s probably about a tenth of the way to Los Angeles.
* What did Quint say in Jaws: “He can’t stay down with three Knittles on him. Not with three he can’t.”
* This is like that Herman Melville book, “Moby Tuna.”
* Geeze, if you’re going to lose your life over a fish, at least make it one you can’t get at any grocery store anywhere.
* The friend didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye to his chum.
* ‘Course, the friend COULD be running a highly successful “Fake Your Own Death” operation.

NHL GOALIE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY, OWES $50 MILLION

NHL player Robin Lehner, goaltender for the Vegas Golden Knights, has filed for bankruptcy in Nevada, citing up to $50 million in debts to dozens of creditors. Lehner, 31, signed a five-year, $25 million contract with the Knights in 2020, but the Swedish hockey player has spent the current season recovering from hip surgery. The bankruptcy filing shows he owes around 50 people and companies, including:
– A $4 million business loan for Solarcode, a limited liability corporation doing business in multiple states, including Nevada and Arizona.
– Missed payments for a collection of rare snakes he purchased for $1.2 million in 2017, which he keeps at his reptile farm in Plato, Missouri.
* Rare snakes? Has he been taking lessons in wasting money from Nicolas Cage?
* Well, that’s 5.2 million. Where’s the other 45 million? I mean, he’s in Las Vegas, where could it have possibly gone?
* I bet a lot of the money went to buying arena-priced beers for his teammates.
* Isn’t the first job of a goalie to save?
* Good to see a Swedish hockey player picking up on the American way of life of throwing your life into irrecoverable debt.
* Another five-year $25 million deal and he’ll almost have it paid off by 2030.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

THAI CHILDREN’S DAY CANDY DROP GOES HORRIBLY WRONG

Every year, Thailand holds a National Children’s Day. At one celebration in the town of Chang, eight people, including five children, were injured after a Thai navy helicopter dropped flowers and candy on the gathered crowd. Video shows the crowd scattering as the candy falls, with many screaming and covering their heads. In addition, the downwash from the helicopter was so powerful it caused a park structure’s roof to collapse, as well as several tents set up for the event. The final tally: one woman was taken to a hospital with a broken neck and a cut on her head, two adults and five children were also taken to the hospital but were discharged shortly after.
* “They’re bombing us with bon-bons!”
* I don’t know how big the candy bars were, but they absolutely weren’t Fun Size.
* The flowers were nice, but seriously, in glass vases?
* You should see what happens on National Bottled Beer Drinkers Day. There are very few survivors.
* Don’t think officials in the Ukraine army aren’t taking notes of what happened here.
* Oh, well. Back to using catapults.

CURSES FOR SALE

Looking for a curse, but don’t know where to start? Try online Japanese flea market app and website Mercari. An online seller who goes by the name of Jujutsushi Mukuro (“Dark Arts Master Corpse”) offers a wide range of magical effects, from seeking revenge on your enemies, to wooing a crush, or even recovering from financial troubles. Once you purchase a curse, you give Jujutsushi Mukuro a name and what you want done and they’ll do the rest. Be aware, the curses can run you hundreds of dollars. For verification, you will receive a “sacred paper talisman” in the mail in one to two business days after the ritual is complete.
* Good. Always get a receipt.
* Is curse delivery extra?
* If it doesn’t work – or maybe I should say WHEN it doesn’t work – be prepared to curse even more.
* I don’t know if I want to spend hundreds of dollars on a curse. I was saving that money to invest in an NFT.
* With the translation issues, just be sure to run your curse through Spell Check.
* “Recovering from financial troubles”? Somebody tell Robin Lehner! (See today’s story “NHL GOALIE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY, OWES $50 MILLION”)

THE ARCTIC CIRCLE ICE CAR SHOWROOM

Polestar, a Swedish carmaker division of Volvo, has built a car showroom completely out of ice in the Arctic Circle. The structure, actually located in Finland, is essentially a cube that rises to 40 feet (12 meters) in height. The walls are six (2 meters) thick. Interested car buyers can take a vehicle out of the iced car showroom for a test drive on a snow track around an Arctic Circle course.
* And not much else.
* Boy, I hope their cars have seat warmers.
* And headlights. The sun won’t be up for another six weeks.
* And you’re gonna want to bring jumper cables.
* And when you’re done, you can spend the next seven days waiting for your flight home exploring all that Finland has to offer. If it were open, but it’s not because it’s winter.
* An Arctic Circle car showroom made of ice. The whole idea leaves me cold.

TRENDING

JEREMY RENNER BACK HOME

Actor Jeremy Renner confirmed Tuesday in a new social media post that he’s back home again after a couple weeks in intensive care after being run over by his own snowplow. On January 1, Renner was hospitalized following an accident involving a snowcat near his home in Nevada. He underwent surgery for blunt chest trauma and other serious injuries. Renner said in the post that he watched the premiere of his TV show, “Mayor of Kingstown,” at home with his family.

MERYL STREEP JOINS “ONLY MURDERS IN THE BUILDING”

Seaons 3 of the Hulu hit “Only Murders in the Building” has started filming. The show announced on Tuesday that Meryl Streep has joined the cast of Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. Paul Rudd will also be appearing in Season 3 – he was the implied victim of the next murder at the end of Season 2.

MADONNA ANNOUNCES TOUR

The new spooky bleached-eyebrow Madonna announced a 35-city tour through North America and Europe starting this summer. The 35-city “Madonna: The Celebration Tour” will kick off July 15, end on Oct. 7 and then swing through 11 dates in Europe. Madonna will “be highlighting her unmatched catalog of music from the past 40-plus years,” according to the announcement. So…playin’ the hits.

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

January 22, Sunday – Chinese New Year (The Year of the Rabbit)
January 27, Friday – Int’l Holocaust Remembrance Day (UN)
February 2, Thursday – Groundhog Day
February 12, Sunday – Lincoln’s Birthday
February 14, Tuesday – Valentine’s Day
February 20, Monday – Presidents Day / Washington’s Birthday
February 21, Tuesday – Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras
March 12, Sunday – Daylight Saving Time Begins
March 17, Friday – St. Patrick’s Day
March 20, Sunday – Spring begins, Spring Equinox is 5:24 p.m. EDT
March 21, Monday – First full day of Spring

BIRTHDAYS

Zeeko Zaki (actor, “FBI”) … 33
Ashleigh Murray (actress, “Riverdale”) … 35
Jason Segel (screenwriter, actor, “Dispatches from Elsewhere,” “How I Met Your Mother”) … 43
Jesse L. Martin (actor, “The Flash,” “Law & Order”) … 54
Kevin Costner (actor, in some cowboy show) … 68

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

“Maybe you won’t like my movies, but somebody has to fight for stuff, and believe me, it’s a fight.”

(A) Adam Sandler
(B) Nicolas Cage
(C) Kevin Costner

ANSWER: (C) Kevin Costner

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2018 – The first drone rescue of swimmers was carried out by by lifeguards in New South Wales, Australia.
* It’s Australia, with the deadly blue-ringed octopuses. Would YOU go in the water?

2001 – Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson revealed an extramarital affair that resulted in the birth of a daughter.
* Let’s see him come up with a clever rhyme for THAT.

1990 – In an FBI sting, Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry was arrested for drug possession. He was later convicted of a misdemeanor.
* This reduced drug dealing in our nation’s capital by .000000000001%.

1912 – Captain Robert Scott and his polar exploration crew reached the South Pole today in 1912, only to discover that Norwegian adventurer Roald Amundsen had arrived 35 days earlier.
* He’s reported to have said something along the lines of “DOH!”

1911 – American pilot Eugene Ely completed the first landing of an aircraft on a ship.
* He celebrated with a glass of champagne and some fresh underwear.

1788 – The first English settlers arrived in Australia’s Botany Bay to establish a penal colony.
* They went to the other side of the planet to start a prison – how bad were THESE convicts?

1778 – Capt. James Cook accidentally discovered the Hawaiian Islands.
* How cool is that? Out in the middle of nowhere you find islands full of exotic naked women.

1733 – The first polar bear was exhibited in America in Boston.
* It got a chilly reception.

1644 – Pilgrims in Boston reported seeing America’s first UFO.
* Of course, this was the same day they started operating America’s first still.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2011 – The largest collection of Beatles memorabilia went on display in a new museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Rodolfo Vazquez, a 53-year-old accountant, turned his mammoth collection into a museum with more than 8,500 objects – setting the new world record for the largest collection of Beatles memorabilia.

2008 – Four photographers were arrested for reckless driving after they chased Britney Spears’ car on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

2004 – Jennifer Lopez’s divorce from her second husband Cris Judd became final. Lopez and Judd married in 2001, after meeting when filming the video to “Love Don’t Cost A Thing,” but split the next year. He was expected to get a $15 million settlement from the divorce.

2004 – Josh Groba was at No.1 on the U.S. album chart with “Closer.”

1996 – Lisa Marie Presley filed for divorce from Michael Jackson in New York.

1991 – Three fans were crushed to death during an AC-DC concert in Salt Lake City.

1986 – “That’s What Friends Are For” by Dionne Warwick began a four-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart. All profits were given to AIDS charities.

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. 1/3 of adults surveyed said THIS is what they most fought with their siblings about growing up. What is it?
Who gets the front seat when riding in the car

2. When asked to name the person they feel most guilty lying to, 2% of people surveyed said their best friend. Another 2% said THIS person. Who is it?
Their dentist

3. 1 in 3 Americans surveyed admitted they have not done THIS since high school. What is it?
Read a book

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