THURSDAY, Oct 3 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR THURSDAY, October 3, 2024
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: PROMOS-TO-GO

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.)

MEAN GIRLS DAY
The Wincalendar website says this:
“Mean Girls Day pays tribute to the 2004 hit teen-comedy. Widely successful, ‘Mean Girls’ explores the cruel and complex social workings of high school. Its portrayal of cliques and the pursuit of popularity may explain its cult-like following. Mean Girls Day is observed annually on October 3rd due to a scene in the film where the protagonist responds that the current date is ‘October 3rd.'”

NATIONAL BOYFRIEND DAY

TECHIES DAY

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

WHAT TO WATCH – New and Returning Shows and Movies
Premiering Thursday through Sunday
Listings sourced from the TV Guide and EW websites

THURSDAY, October 3

“Witches: The Truth Behind the Trials”
Disney+ – New Docuseries
Synopsis: “The events surrounding six of the world’s worst and most fascinating witch trials are brought to life with contemporary interpretation and analysis shedding a fresh light on the reasons for these terrifying deaths and miscarriages of justice.”

“The Platform 2”
Netflix – New Movie
Synopsis: After a mysterious leader imposes his law in a brutal system of vertical cells, a new arrival battles against a dubious food distribution method.

Season Premiers:
NBC – “Found,” “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU”

Netflix – “Heartstopper”

“Hold Your Breath”
Hulu – New Movie
Synopsis: Living in the Dust Bowl in 1930s Oklahoma was bad, but imagine if all that dust came with some strange spectral figure that was trying to kill your family. A mother believes something known as “The Drifter” is floating around and causing people to behave murderously.

FRIDAY, October 4

“It’s What’s Inside”
Netflix – New Movie
Synopsis: Follows a group of college friends who reunite at a pre-wedding party, only for an old classmate to throw the night into chaos when he suggests they play a game with a body-swapping machine.

SUNDAY, October 6

“The Franchise”
HBO – New Series
Synopsis: Follows the cast and crew of a blockbuster film as it faces challenges getting made.

PINK FLOYD SELLS CATALOGUE TO SONY FOR $400 MILLION

Pink Floyd has agreed to sell their recorded music and name-and-likeness rights to Sony Music for approximately $400 million. The deal, one of the largest of many in recent years, apparently has finally concluded despite decades of ongoing infighting between the bandmembers, notably chief songwriters Roger Waters and David Gilmour, who are sick of each other; also involved are drummer Nick Mason and the estates of keyboardist Richard Wright and founding singer-songwriter Syd Barrett.
* 60 years on and Pink Floyd finally sells out. And I thought you guys were cool!
* What did you expect from guys who would write: “Money / It’s a gas / Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash”?
* I can’t wait for 15-minute Tony Roma’s Ribs commercial with “Pigs on the Wing” as the soundtrack.
* Or the first Mattress Firm commercial with “Comfortably Numb.”
* “That was ‘Shine On, You Crazy Diamond.’ And speaking of diamonds, it’s the big Valentine’s Day sale at Zales!”

THE BUZZ

DUMB HEADLINES

Time for another episode of Three Dumb Headlines. These are actual, word-for-word headlines of stories found on the internet. There’s no story, no context, just the actual headline. Discuss them amongst yourselves. Then, encourage listeners to vote for the Dumbest Headline on your station’s social media page. Maybe ask them to leave a comment. Reveal the results in the next break.
Today’s Dumb Headlines:
1. “So You Accidentally Ate Mold. Here’s What Happens Next”
2. “I’m A Doctor — Stop Making These 3 Dangerous Laundry Mistakes”
3. “The Worst Thing About My Kids Growing Up Is They Don’t Want To Go See Giant Colorful Pigeons With Me”
And here’s a spare, in case you don’t like one of those three: “It’s Time To Start Drinking This Wine With Doritos”

NAMES TEACHERS WOULD NOT NAME THEIR OWN CHILDREN

School teachers are on the front lines of naming trends for children. Huffington Post asked teachers what names they would NOT name their own baby. Some of the responses:
– “One year I had a Larissa, Clarissa, Marissa, and Carissa all in the same class. They were all quite offended if I mixed up their names.”
– “Aiden. I had two every year in my class for over five years. They were always rowdy and had a hard time sitting still.”
– “Aiden, Jaiden, Kaiden … any variant of those are, more often than not, handfuls!”
– “Aiden (with an e), Aidan (with an a), Brayden (with a y), Braeden (with an a-e), Caeden (with a c), Kayden (with a k), Jayden, Hayden, Zaiden … all in one preschool class.”
– “Any boy’s name with an x in it that isn’t traditionally spelled with one, i.e. Jaxon, Braxton, Paxton, etc.”
– “I started teaching in the ’80s. I only met one Jason that I could stand.”
– “Any boy J name. My first year teaching, I had 10 male students in a resource class and eight of them had names that started with J.”
– “Storm. Self-explanatory.”
– “Kids named Angel rarely are.”
– “Angel, Sunshine, Rainbow.”
– “Any name that is also a virtue — Charity, Chastity, Harmony. They are always hell on wheels.”
– “Every other girl was Katie, Kayly, Keely, Kelly, Kylie, Kelsy or Kelty. They were all blonde and looked alike.”
– “Tyler — every single Tyler I had was a handful.”
– “I vetoed all names that could be initials, like AJ or JR.”
– “Darius: He swore all the time.”
* PHONE TOPIC: Teachers out there, do you have any comments on children”s names?

U.S. NEWS

GUY PUTS PLAID SHIRT ON PASSENGER SEAT IN THE HOV LANE

A Washington State Patrol trooper stopped a driver in the HOV lane for having his passenger seat dressed in a plaid shirt. The driver was stopped during the morning commute earlier this week on northbound Interstate 405 in Renton. Instead of the required passenger for the carpool lane, the driver had dressed the passenger seat in a large plaid shirt in an apparent attempt to make it seem like they had a person sitting in it. The fine was $186, plus and addition $200 if you try to pass off a dummy as a passenger.
* In this case, the driver was the dummy.
* They should throw in another $100 for lack of effort.
* $186! Dress your seat in a shirt, they take the shirt off your back.
* “But officer, this is my good friend Calvin Klein.”

TOILET PAPER: HERE WE GO AGAIN

Since the dockworkers union went on strike Monday, there have been toilet paper shortages reported across America. This is not a direct result of a major port strike Tuesday. It’s because of panic buying. Social media users have noted empty shelves at a Walmart in Virginia, at a Costco & Target in Monmouth County, New Jersey, and other locations. Americans should know that the dockworkers strike will have absolutely zero impact on the supply of toilet paper. More than 90% of U.S. toilet paper comes from American factories. (* USA! USA!) Most of the rest comes from Canada and Mexico, which arrives by rail or truck, not ship.
* So go ahead, kids… TP that house on Halloween. Clean those eyeglasses. Make those paper flowers to decorate the gym for the homecoming dance. Buy that supersized burrito. We’ve got plenty.
* Wipe those worries from your mind.
* The one question they didn’t ask at the Vice-Presidential debate: What would you do in case of a toilet paper shortage?
* For a minute there, those adorable Charmin toilet paper bears were about to get really vicious.
* We don’t need another toilet paper shortage. The stores need to crack down.

NORTHEAST TREASURE HUNT IS OVER

A treasure hunt in the northeast U.S. is over. The hunt was called Project Skydrop. A $26,000 gold trophy was hidden somewhere within a 500-mile radius in the Northeast. Participants who paid $20 into an additional prize pot for the winner received daily clues about the treasure’s location. Every day a map on their website was updated with a narrower circle indicating the possible area where the treasure may be hidden. By Tuesday, the location had been narrowed down to a 27-mile radius in Massachusetts but including a portion of southern Vermont. The exact location has not yet been revealed, but a trail-camera caught a person wearing Adidas sneakers reaching down to pick up the trophy amid a wooded area blanketed with leaves. The men behind Project Skydrop, video game designer Jason Rohrer and Tom Bailey, said they had not yet heard from the individual who found it.
* No location of the treasure, no interview with the winner, no interesting stories from any of the hunters… do these guy know how to sell an event or what!
* If you found a gold trophy worth $26,000, would YOU want the IRS to learn your name?
* A video game designer motivating people to go outdoors on a real-life adventure? Weird.
* Project Skydrop will next ask the public to hunt for a streaming TV series that actually holds your attention for more than three episodes.

AUDIO: FRAUDULENT SKYDIVING INSTRUCTOR SENTENCED TO PRISON

A California skydiving instructor was sentenced to two years in prison on Monday. He was found guilty of running unauthorized tandem skydiving courses at the Lodi Parachute Center. Robert Pooley, 49, had his instructor certification suspended in 2015, yet he continued to train more than 100 new instructors using the digital signature of another certified instructor to sign off on training courses. Pooley charged around $1,100 for each training course. In August of 2016, one of the instructors who Pooley illegally trained fell to his death along with a skydiving customer. After an investigation found Pooley’s certification had been suspended, numerous former students asked for their money back, but he did not repay them. Meanwhile, the Lodi Parachute Center has long had a reputation for accidents and deaths, with 28 deaths since 1985. There have been several wrongful death suits against the center; one such judgement – for $40 million – has never been paid.
* He’s heading for the slammer. And speaking of slammers… 28 skydiving deaths, huh?
* Their customers are dropping like flies. Well, more like bags of sand.
* The Lodi Parachute Center, pronounced Lo-DIE.
* A fraudulent skydiving instructor? People are falling for that again? Literally?
* In fairness, how much is there to teach in skydiving? Jump, pull the cord. If you can’t remember that, maybe you’re just a lousy student.
CLIP: Our classic skydiving bit, the “Geronimo Nursing Harness.”
CLIP URL: morningsidekick(dot)com/prep/wp-content/uploads/10-14-GeronimoNursingHarness(dot)mp3

TRENDING

KEANU REEVES TO RACE A CAR THIS WEEKEND

Keanu Reeves will be driving a race car this weekend. The actor is entered as a one-off in the GR Cup field racing at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this weekend, his first appearance in a race since 2014. He will be driving a Toyota GR 86, capable of reaching speeds up to 150 miles per hour. There will be more than 30 such identical cars, doing laps around the road course format of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

JELLY ROLL BROKE HIS CMA AWARD

Jelly Roll broke his CMA award right after he got it. The country music star, 39, told Jimmy Fallon Monday night about how, after winning new artist of the year last year, he immediately “fumbled” the glass award. He explained, “I was just so excited and so nervous that I had the sweatiest, shakiest palms. And that thing is — I’m already not a physically fit man — and that thing’s heavy. That thing was really heavy.” He said he was transferring it from one hand to the other to shake somebody’s hand, and it just dropped. Jelly Roll added that he asked the awards show to let him keep the broken one instead of getting a new one. “I was like, ‘I think it fits me great. I’ll just duct tape it together.’” The broken award reportedly was just a generic one though. The CMA makes up official trophies engraved with the stars’ names later.

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

Oct. 14, Monday – Columbus Day
Oct. 16, Wednesday – National Boss’s Day
Oct. 31, Thursday – Halloween
Nov. 3, Sunday – Daylight Saving Time Ends, turn clocks back 1 hour
Nov. 11, Monday – Veterans Day
Nov. 28, Thursday – Thanksgiving
Dec. 21, Saturday – Winter begins, winter solstice occurs at 4:21 a.m. (EST)
Dec. 25, Wednesday – Christmas
Dec. 31, Tuesday – New Year’s Eve
Jan. 1, Wednesday – New Year’s Day

BIRTHDAYS

Noah Schanpp (actor, Will Byers on “Stranger Things”) … 20
Ashlee Simpson (singer, actress) … 40
Drake White (country singer) … 41
Neve Campbell (actress, “The Lincoln Lawyer,” “Scream” movies … 51
Kevin Richardson (singer with Backstreet Boys) … 53
Gwen Stefani (singer) … 55
Clive Owen (actor) … 60
Tommy Lee (drummer with Motley Crue) … 62
Lindsey Buckingham (guitarist, singer, songwriter, Fleetwood Mac) … 75
Chubby Checker (singer, “The Twist”) … 83

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

“When I was a little kid, I took tap and ballet. I’ve always loved to dance. I’m a rhythm machine.”

(A) Hillary Clinton
(B) Lester Holt
(C) Tommy Lee

ANSWER: (C) Tommy Lee

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2018 – A study in the Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care reported that 259 people had died taking selfies since 2011.
* 259 deaths out of – what? – 300 billion selfies? That’s not too bad.

2003 – A tiger attacked magician Roy Horn of the duo “Siegfried & Roy” during a performance in Las Vegas (on his birthday!), leaving him partially paralyzed.
* He gambled one time too many.

1997 – Attorney General Janet Reno said she had found no evidence that President Clinton had broken the law with White House coffees and overnight stays for big contributors.
* However, she did have a small problem with the big neon “Rooms to Rent” sign he put up on the north side.

1995 – O.J. Simpson was acquitted of the 1994 murder of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald L. Goldman.
* See? There’s no double standard for the races. Lots of guilty people of ALL colors go free!

1990 – The Berlin Wall was dismantled.
* Then they asked Bob Vila for help replacing it with a gazebo.

1952 – The first video recording was made on magnetic tape.
* It must have been a really nice feeling, knowing you’re not going to tape over anything someone else has recorded.

1913 – The federal income tax became law.
* Nice to see it got our national budget out of the red.

1899 – The motor driven vacuum cleaner was patented.
* Up ’til then, the motor was called a “wife.”

1863 – President Abraham Lincoln declared that the last Thursday of November would be recognized as Thanksgiving Day.
* So remember to thank Abe for the extra day off!

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2014 – A mint-condition copy of The Beatles’ “Please Please Me” album, signed by George Harrison, Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr sold for $36,655 at an auction held in the U.S.

2013 – The family of Michael Jackson lost a negligence case against concert promoters AEG Live over the death of the 50-year-old pop star. A jury concluded the doctor looking after Jackson ahead of his concert tour was not unfit for his job – and so AEG had not been negligent in hiring him.

2000 – John Lennon’s assassin Mark Chapman was denied parole after serving 20 years in prison. Chapman was interviewed for 50 minutes by parole board members who concluded that releasing Chapman would “deprecate the seriousness of the crime.”

1996 – Van Halen gave David Lee Roth the boot for the second time after they had recorded a couple of songs for the bands greatest hits package.

1992 – Sinead O’Connor tore up a picture of the pope during her appearance on “Saturday Night Live.”

1990 – A store owner in Florida was found guilty of distributing obscene material. The material in question was 2 Live Crew’s “As Nasty As They Wanna Be” album. The man was later fined $1,000.

1980 – Bruce Springsteen forgot some of the words to “Born to Run” during a concert in Ann Arbor, MI.

1945 – Elvis Presley appeared in a talent show at the age of 10. It was his first public appearance. He won 2nd place and $5.

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. Four out of five women surveyed said they have asked a total stranger THIS question. What is it?
“Where did you get your shoes?”

2. Almost half of women surveyed said they would not get involved with someone if they didn’t like THIS about them. What is it?
Their taste in music

3. 22% of women surveyed said they would not feel the need to consult their husband/significant other if they wanted to do THIS. What is it?
Get a tattoo

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