TUESDAY, May 20 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR TUESDAY, May 20, 2025
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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 – including “holidays” created by the National Day Calendar and Wellcat websites to drive traffic to their websites – or the hundreds of disease awareness listings which occur each year. We present only those specially designated days we feel your listeners would find most interesting or significant.)

NATIONAL PICK STRAWBERRIES DAY

NATIONAL QUICHE LORRAINE DAY

NATIONAL RESCUE DOG DAY
The Days of the Year website says this:
“According to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, approximately two million dogs are adopted from shelters into homes every year in the U.S. These are dogs that typically find themselves without a home by no fault of their own. National Rescue Dog Day was founded by Lisa Wiehebrink, director of the non-profit organization, Tails that Teach, in 2018. The purpose is to bring awareness and attention to the amazing job that pet shelters are doing to help find forever homes for dogs that deserve a second chance.

WORLD BEE DAY
The National Today website says this:
“In 2017, the United Nations’ Economic and Financial Committee adopted a resolution proclaiming World Bee Day. The resolution was unanimously supported by the General Assembly of the U.N., and May 20 was declared World Bee Day. On this day, beekeeping events are held to educate the general public about the importance of bees and beekeeping. There is a special emphasis on the role of bees as one of the most important pollinators, contribute to food and food security, sustainable agriculture, and biodiversity. It is important to protect bees and the beekeeping industry to combat poverty and hunger, not to mention the significant impact on environmental health and biodiversity.”

May is:

Chip Your Pet Month / Pet Month
Date Your Mate Month
International Civility Awareness Month
National Barbecue Month
National Bike Month
National Egg Month
National Hamburger Month
National Military Appreciation Month
National Salad Month
National Salsa Month
Older Americans Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

NETFLIX PICKS UP SESAME STREET

Now that HBO has dropped “Sesame Street” from its TV lineup, Netflix has picked up the show in a new streaming deal. Starting later this year, new episodes will run on Netflix, PBS and the PBS Kids app on the same day. Select past episodes will be available on Netflix worldwide. Sal Perez, the show’s executive producer, says that segments on the new season will be longer and “really focused on character.” Episodes will revolve around one 11-minute story. The new season will also feature more exploration of the “Sesame Street” neighborhood and a look inside the famous two-story brownstone at 123 Sesame Street that houses Elmo, Bert and Ernie and more.
* Finally we get to see Gordon’s love dungeon.
* Now that it’s on Netflix, I would like to see Elmo compete in the Squid Game.
* Like everything on Netflix, it’ll actually be a 2 minute story stretched into 11 minutes. We’ll get the backstories of the letter M and the number 4, and there’ll be a serial killer subplot.
* And there’ll probably be two-and-a-half years between seasons.

THE WHO FIRES ZAK STARKEY AGAIN

The Who has fired drummer Zak Starkey for the second time ahead of their upcoming farewell tour. Starkey, 59, was previously let go from the band and then re-hired just days later in April. Pete Townshend said in a statement: “After many years of great work on drums from Zak the time has come for a change. A poignant time. Zak has lots of new projects in hand and I wish him the best.” Starkey shared his own statement about his firing: “I was fired two weeks after reinstatement and asked to make a statement saying I had quit The Who to pursue my other musical endeavors. Not true. I love The Who and would never have quit and let down so many amazing people who stood up for me through this madness.” Townshend said that drummer Scott Devours, who plays for Roger Daltrey when Daltrey plays solo, will replace Starkey on The Who tour that starts in August.
* The guy’s been fired more times than a clay pot.
* The problem is, at their age, The Who needs someone who plays much slower.
* Pete’s pretty old. Maybe he just forgot he fired him two weeks ago.
* Or he got mad when he kept yelling at Zak but Zak still wouldn’t get off his lawn.
* Why didn’t they hire that guy the Foo Fighters just fired? And why doesn’t Zak Starkey go play for the Foo Fighters now?

THE BUZZ

WHAT NORMAL THING FREAKS YOU OUT?

Reddit asked, “What’s a ‘normal’ thing that secretly freaks you out?” Some of the responses:
– “Sitting down in a chair after someone else, before the chair returns to the ambient temperature. Hate feeling someone else’s body heat through a chair.”
– “Someone blowing out the candles on a birthday cake. Would you eat anything else that someone blew all over?”
– “We entrust our entire lives to a little painted line on the road.”
– “The sound of liquids being poured on tv shows makes me want to scratch off my skin.”
– “Eating shellfish by cracking its bug body into pieces.”
– “We exist on a cosmic speck of dust, hurdling through the cold and empty void of space, circling a giant ball of fire.”
– “How our entire world is ruled by a currency we created.”
– “Being in a place outside of your normal routine and just all of a sudden thinking about how random choices led you there in that moment.”
– “Currently pregnant and freaking the hell out. It lives, moves, and exists inside me and will come tearing its way out. My god I’m terrified.”
– “Knowing if you have a daughter, you carried the egg that will be your grandchild at the same time.”
– “Brushing your teeth is the only time you clean your skeleton.”
* PHONE TOPIC: What normal thing secretly freaks you out?

ACCENTS STUDY

According to a new study on accents from Podcastle, a company that creates AI voices:
– Americans are 256% more likely to trust a Southern accent over a New York accent.
– Nearly 3 in 5 Americans feel annoyed when they hear a New York accent.
– Nearly half of New Yorkers find their own accent annoying.
– When listening to podcasts, Americans prefer British (40%) and Southern American accents (39%).
– American accents are most associated with excitement.
– British accents are associated with feelings of calmness.
– Latin American accents are associated with authority.

U.S. NEWS

MAN HELPS A GUY MOVE, FINDS A BODY

In Houston, Texas, 36-year-old Steven Eberly offered money to a stranger to help him move some furniture out of his house last Friday. During the move, the stranger stumbled across a human body wrapped in a blanket inside one of the boxes he was asked to move. The stranger ran to his truck and took off. Eberly jumped into the truck bed and began breaking windows to try to stop the man from leaving. The man crashed his truck, and Eberly then fled on foot but was soon spotted walking and bleeding from the head. He was arrested on a charge of murder. The victim was identified as a contractor who had been working at the home. The cause of death is currently under investigation.
* The cause of death could be unnecessary delays, bad permit applications, expensive code violations, going over budget, or all of the above.
* Hope that guy got paid up front.
* Rookie mistake. That box should have been clearly marked “Basement – Do Not Move”
* Anyway, House For Sale: Needs Work, Buyer Finish.

ANIMAL SHELTER OVERWHELMED WITH CHICKENS

A Delaware animal shelter is trying to rehome thousands of baby chickens that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. A business called Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for distribution to clients across the country, but 12,000 chicks were abandoned inside the truck at a mail distribution center. The Postal Service is trying to determine why they were abandoned. While a few thousand died, many of them lived. The hatchery says they cannot take the chicks back due to biosecurity concerns (* the chicks could have joined a bio-terrorism cell). . Meanwhile, for more than two weeks, the surviving chicks have been nursed and cared for at First State Animal Center, who is offering the birds for adoption, but only a few hundred out of thousands have been adopted out. It’s believed there are still more than two thousand available. Some have inquired about buying the birds for meat, but the shelter is a no-kill shelter and will not adopt them out for that purpose.
* Wink wink.
* Boy, what a bad time for those Post Office DOGE cuts to kick in, huh?
* Sit tight – by October, First State Animal Center could be in the egg business.
* And yet, no penalty for the company that sends live chickens through the mail.

MAN SUES WHATABURGER OVER ONIONS

A Texas man who ordered his Whataburger without onions, only to receive a burger with onions, is now suing the fast food chain after he says he experienced an allergic reaction. Demery Wilson says the July 2024 incident resulted in “serious personal injuries,” and he is suing for an amount between $250,000 and $1 million. And this isn’t the first time Mr. Wilson has pulled the onion lawsuit trick: he also has a pending lawsuit against Sonic Drive-In for an identical experience he says he had there in 2023.
* If only there was a way to check and see if your burger has onions.
* Am I sympathetic? No. My eyes are not watering.
* I thought this story would be more interesting when we peeled back the layers, but no.
* In fact, it’s so dumb, it should be in The Onion.

TRENDINGP. DIDDY TRIAL: MONDAY, MAY 19

Here are some lowlights from Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-and-drug trafficking trial on Monday:
– Former Danity Kane member Dawn Richard returned to the stand today. She testified last week that she witnessed Sean “Diddy” Combs attack his ex-girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, with a skillet filled with eggs. “Frequently, he would punch her, choke her, slap her in the mouth, kick her, punch her in the stomach,” Richard told the Manhattan courtroom. “It could be because Cassie was speaking up for herself. It could be random. It could be if she had an opinion for herself. She would be quiet and when she had these moments of trying to stick up for herself, he would hurt her for it.”
– Richard also claimed that Combs once warned her and others that they could go “missing” if they spoke out about the things they witnessed.
– Cassie’s friend Kerry Morgan took the stand, describing multiple instances where she says she saw Combs physically abuse Ventura and a time when she herself was allegedly attacked by Combs. Morgan described a time when she was with the couple in Jamaica on a vacation. Combs assaulted Ventura after she took too long using the bathroom; Morgan described the noises she then heard coming from her friend at the time. “It was guttural, terrifying. I heard her screaming so I went to the long hallway, they were coming out of the master bedroom and he was dragging her by her hair,” she told the courtroom.
– David James, a former personal assistant of Combs, testified, “This is Mr. Combs’ kingdom, and we are all here to serve in it.” He said Cassie Ventura told him she couldn’t leave Combs because he controlled her career and her money.

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

May 26, Monday – Memorial Day
June 14, Saturday – Flag Day
June 15, Sunday – Father’s Day
June 20, Friday – Summer begins (The June solstice occurs at 10:42 P.M. EDT)

BIRTHDAYS

Jon Pardi (country singer) … 40
Matt Czuchry (actor, “The Resident,” “The Good Wife”) … 48
Mindy Cohn (actress, “The Facts of Life”) … 59
Tony Goldwyn (actor, “Scandal”) … 65
Bronson Pinchot (actor, “Perfect Strangers”) … 66
Jane Wiedlin (guitarist with The Go-Go’s) … 67
Dave Thomas (comic actor, writer, producer, “Grace Under Fire,” original SCTV cast) … 77
Cher (singer, actress, TV star) … 79

Today’s Birthdays grade: Looking down the list, it’s hard to get excited – well, unless you’re a fan of classic sketch show SCTV. And then there she is at the bottom: Cher. One of the original “one name celebrities,” successful in music, movies, and TV, and an icon’s icon up there in some pretty rarefied air. Grade: A.

[Want to try something different with the daily birthdays? Try grading them! Some days have “good” celebs, some have “great” celebs, some have “lousy” celebs. For fun, give the group an arbitrary grade: A-plus through F-minus. Sidekick will give you our take on it; you can to take the concept and run with it.]

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

“It’s a dirty job being ridiculous, but I’ll do it.”

(A) Kanye West
(B) Kim Jong Un
(C) Cher

ANSWER: (C) Cher

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2015 – The Journal “Nature” published evidence of the oldest known human-made tools. Found in Kenya’s Turkana basin, they were estimated to be 3.3 million years old.
* Let me guess – a bottle opener?

2009 – Suspended NFL star Michael Vick was released after 19 months in prison for running a dogfighting ring.
* On National Rescue Dog Day? That’s just wrong.

1993 – 93 million people tuned in for the final episode of “Cheers.”
* And Kelsey Grammer thought, “Now I can shake these losers and start making some REAL money!”

1978 – Mavis Hutchinson set a female sports record as the first woman to run across America. She ran 3,000 miles in 69 days, averaging 45 miles each day.
* And no Nike endorsemsnt deal?

1970 – 100,000 people demonstrated in New York’s Wall Street district in support of the U.S. policy in Vietnam and Cambodia.
* Wanna bet they all owned some defense contractor stock?

1944 – Nazi officers attempted to assassinate Adolf Hitler at a staff meeting.
* He did a great job of it himself a year later.

1939 – Regular commercial trans-Atlantic airline flights began between America and Europe.
* You could stand in New York and practically hear the French cursing.

1310 – Footwear was made specifically for left and right feet for the first time.
* And, yes, you had to pay extra.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2023 – A black Fender Stratocaster guitar smashed by Kurt Cobain sold at auction for nearly $600,000 at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. The guitar was destroyed as Nirvana were working on their break-out album “Nevermind” in the early 1990s. The instrument was signed by all three band members in a silver marker. Cobain, who often misspelled his own name, signed the instrument “Kurdt Kobain.”

2015 – The Rolling Stones played a surprise gig at the 1,300-capacity Fonda Theater in Los Angeles during which they performed the entire Sticky Fingers album. The audience included Jack Nicholson, Bruce Willis, Harry Styles, Leonard Cohen and Patricia Arquette.

2008 – The U.S. Congress passed a resolution designating May 13th as Frank Sinatra Day to honor his contribution to American culture.

2003 – Soul singer James Brown was pardoned for his past crimes in the state of South Carolina. Brown had served a two-and-a-half-year prison term after an arrest on drug and assault charges in 1988 and was granted a pardon by the State Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services. Brown, who appeared before the board, sang “God Bless America” after the decision.

1998 – Tommy Lee from Motley Crue was sentenced to six months in jail after being found guilty of spousal abuse.

1995 – Don Henley from The Eagles married model Sharon Summerall. Guests included Glenn Frey, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, David Crosby, Randy Newman, Jimmy Buffett, Jackson Browne, Billy Joel, Sting and Sheryl Crow.

1968 – BBC 2 TV aired a short play “The Pistol Shot,” featuring a young dancer called David Bowie.

1966 – Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey of the Who grew tired of waiting for John Entwistle and Keith Moon to arrive for their gig at the Ricky Tick Club in Windsor, England, so they took to the stage with the bass player and drummer of the local band that opened the show. When Moon and Entwistle finally arrived in the middle of the set, a fight broke out, with Townshend hitting Moon on the head with his guitar. Moon and Entwistle quit the band, and rejoined a week later.

1960 – The Silver Beetles (John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Stu Sutcliffe, and Tommy Moore) played the first night of a short tour of Scotland backing singer Johnny Gentle, at Alloa Town Hall in Clackmannanshire. Three of the Silver Beetles adopted stage names: Paul McCartney became Paul Ramon, George Harrison was Carl Harrison, and Stuart Sutcliffe became Stuart de Stael.

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. About one-fourth of Americans say they do THIS every time they eat. What is it?
Watch TV

2. About 28% of Americans admit to doing THIS, even though they know it is wrong. What is it?
Parking in a handicapped spot

3. 15% of Americans do THIS every day. What is it?
Take a nap

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