FRIDAY, Apr 11 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR FRIDAY, April 11, 2025
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: SONG – WORK ON MY TAXES ALL DAY; THE FRIDAY CLUSTERFLICKS

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.)

BARBERSHOP QUARTET DAY
The Days Of The Year website says this:
“On April 11, 1938 the Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbershop Quartet Singing in America was founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma, marking the official celebration of Barbershop Quartet Day. The image of four singers wearing straw hats singing together with complex harmonies could be considered a cultural cornerstone of the 1940s. However, Barbershop Quartet is by no means an American invention; the popularity of barbershops in England amongst men during the time of Shakespeare extended as far as in-house entertainment, often taking the form of a lutist providing a melody to which the queuing patrons could harmonize with. This idea and practice became popular in America in the West during the late 1800s, though a banjo was often used instead of a lute.”

NATIONAL EIGHT-TRACK TAPE DAY
The Days of the Year website says this:
“Eight-track tapes, popular from the mid-1960s to early 1980s, were once the pinnacle of portable music. They offered continuous play without the need to flip the tape, making road trips more enjoyable. Their unique design featured magnetic tape inside a plastic cartridge, divided into eight channels, or tracks, which contained four programs. National Eight-Track Tape Day celebrates this iconic music format.” An informative video with one of those icky AI narrator voices is here: youtube(dot)com/watch?v=iXUiA1NOEGk

NATIONAL CHEESE FONDUE DAY

NATIONAL PET DAY
The National Today website says this:
“Colleen Paige, animal welfare advocate and pet and family lifestyle expert, founded National Pet Day in 2006 to celebrate the joy pets can bring to us. But she also wanted to bring attention to the ongoing needs of many pets of all kinds waiting in shelters to be adopted. She encouraged people who want purebred dogs and cats to contact rescue organizations instead of going to a breeder. ‘Don’t shop! Adopt!’ has become the holiday motto.”

April is:

Adopt a Greyhound Month
Car Care Month
Celebrate Diversity Month
D.E.A.R Drop Everything and Read Month
International Guitar Month
Jazz Appreciation Month
Keep America Beautiful Month
National Card and Letter Writing Month
National Garden Month
National Humor Month
National Poetry Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

UK TO GET ITS OWN VERSION OF SNL

England is going to get its own version of Saturday Night Live with an all-British cast. There have been attempts to bring this kind of show to the UK, but this time the show’s creator, Lorne Michaels, will be an executive producer. Executives are promising a “star-studded lineup of hosts,” adding that it will be filmed (* already missing the point here) in London. It is also promising to stay true to the US show’s “live, fast-paced style” of comedy sketches, musical guests and a cast list of “the funniest British comedians around.”
* So not the sucky British comedians they ship off to America all the time.
* Because Britain is 5 hours ahead of New York, they’re going to call it Saturday Afternoon Live.
* There are going to be some obvious differences in the sketches, of course:
– Toonces, The Double-Decker Driving Cat
– Unfrozen Caveman Barrister
– The Sconeheads
– Two Wild and Crazy Guys will now be Two Mild and Sardonic Blokes
– The British Blues Brothers: Eric Clapton and John Mayall
– Instead of “The Californians,” they’ve got “The Cornwallians”
– Instead of King Tut, Steve Martin will perform the song “King Chuck”
– Tom Hanks will appear as David S. St. Swithin’s Day.
– They’ve got Christopher Walken lined up for a sketch called “More Bagpipes.”
(* And here’s another one just for you, when the microphone is off: The Schweddy Balls sketch will be re-rewritten as Schweddy Spotted Dick.)

THE BUZZ

I CAN’T BELIEVE I HAD TO EXPLAIN THIS TO AN ADULT

Reddit asked, “What was your ‘I can’t believe I have to explain this to an adult’ moment?” Some of the responses:
– “My mom set up her phone to unlock using her fingerprint, except she scanned her index fingerprint and then tried to unlock it with her thumb. When it didn’t work and she couldn’t understand why. She didn’t know fingerprints were different on each finger.”
– “I had to explain to a friend that wind is not created by tree leaves rustling together vigorously.”
– “When I worked at a video store, a customer came in to return the copy of Wizard of Oz that they had rented, stating ‘I wanted the color version — this one is in black and white.’ I asked how much of it they had watched. ‘Just a few minutes.'”
– “The amount of times I have had to tell people that no, those are not ticks on your cat/dog’s stomach. They are nipples.”
– “My sister and I were watching the live action Lion King, and she wondered how many trainers it took to get all the different animals to stay in their places and perform on cue. Had to explain that the animals are all CGI. My sister is 47.”
– “That getting a raise will not make you lose money by going into a higher tax bracket.”
– “Explaining to an upper manager how a greeting card worked. Like, how a piece of paper could be folded in half to create an ‘outside’ and ‘inside.'”
– “I had to explain to a person who was responsible for manually calculating the timesheets of dozens of people, in front of her manager, that hours did not have 100 minutes and she’d been undercalculating everyone’s hours for years.”
– “That limes are not unripe lemons.”
* PHONE TOPIC: What basic thing have you had to explain to an adult?

U.S. NEWS

MISSOURI FOSTER MOM ALLEGEDLY TRADED KID FOR A MONKEY

A Missouri woman has been arrested, accused of trading her foster child for a monkey. Brenda Deutsch, 70, was arrested on felony counts of neglect and child abuse after a missing child was located in Texas. Deutsch has fostered more than 200 children for about 15 to 20 years. It’s being alleged that she traded the missing child for a monkey. Authorities found a handful of monkeys at Deutsch’s home. Authorities say that, before Deutsch’s arrest, at least 200 hotline calls have been made to the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division about activity at Deutsch’s home.
* Is monkey business a felony in Missouri?
* She only had a “handful” of monkeys, but she was working her way up to enough to fill a barrel, ’cause that’s when they become really fun.
* And kudos to the Missouri Department of Social Services Children’s Division who took those 200 hotline calls. Excellent job you guys are doing.
* That foster kid was the lucky one. He got out.
* Trading your kid for a monkey. My parents would have jumped on that deal in a heartbeat.

9-YEAR-OLD MISSES BUS, DRIVES SELF TO SCHOOL IN DAD’S PICKUP

On Wednesday in the town of Maize, Kansas, a 9-year-old boy drove himself to school after he missed the bus. With his dad gone to work and his mom out of town, he was worried about missing state standardized testing and felt he had no other option but to drive himself to school. After a concerned citizen notified police of a kid behind the wheel, cops found the Chevy pickup and its driver in the parking lot of Pray-Woodman Elementary School, about three miles from the boy’s home. No tickets were issued over the incident. Police noted that the boy “parked better than most people park.”
* Plus, he stopped for donuts and coffee for the rest of the class.
* He noticed a little misfiring, so over the weekend he’s going to do a carburetor rebuild.
* In my day they called a kid like this resourceful. These days, they call him the tragic victim of parental neglect.
* Never heard of a bicycle?

MCDONALD’S WORKER CHOKES CUSTOMER FOR SNEAKING BACK TO GET RANCH DRESSING

In St. Petersburg, Florida, a McDonald’s worker choked a 17-year-old girl to the floor after the girl went behind the counter to get some ranch dressing, because no employee would help her. This happened last Friday, April 4. As the girl was walking away with the dressing, employee Akeena Sampson, 31, grabbed her arm. When the teen tried to break loose, Sampson grabbed her neck, choking her and taking her to the ground. Sampson continued to choke the girl while on the floor, leaving her with “visible injuries” on her neck and elbow, according to the affidavit. Sampson was arrested and charged with child abuse.
* Usually it’s the food that chokes you at McDonald’s.
* It was the opposite of giving a customer the Heimlich maneuver.
* Sounds like trying to get ranch dressing at McDonald’s is a real pain in the neck.
* Ms. Sampson was immediately offered a job at Waffle House.

TRUBBLE AT THE SPELING BEA

A pair of angry parents are demanding justice after their 12-year-old daughter lost the Tampa Bay regional spelling bee because she misspelled a word that they say was not on a predetermined list. The parents of Amara Chepuri say they are considering pursuing legal action, claiming that Amara was unfairly disqualified and should still be eligible for the national contest. Ahead of the contest, Amara asked her teacher for clarification on the rules and the list of words spellers received to study. She was told that, if they ran out of words, the school had an additional 150 words which were not on the list. Amara and her family believed that to mean that the school would use the entire published list before going to the extra words. But during the competition, the judges started skipping some words after it became clear that the two final spellers had memorized the list. When judges began reading from the additional list, Amara misspelled the word ‘pallbearer,’ while the other remaining student spelled ‘equality’ correct to win.
* The parents are going to sue the school’s A-S-S.
* Who gives a list of the answers before a contest? What is this, Jeopardy? Oh – oops – I shouldn’t have revealed that.
* Maybe Amara would feel better if it was explained that spelling bees are an irrelevant holdover from a pre-computer world without spell-check and automatic spelling correction while texting? Or maybe not.
* I thought the list of words was the dictionary.
* I know, at the Mathletes contest, they tell them all the answers contain the numbers 0 thru 9.

AUDIO: PUBLISHERS CLEARING HOUSE FILES FOR BANKRUPTCY

The famous Publishers Clearing House, known for handing out over-sized checks on the doorsteps of its surprised contest winners, has filed for bankruptcy. The 72-year-old company owes $100 million to more than 100,000 creditors, it said in a Chapter 11 filing. The company listed between $1 million and $10 million in assets on its bankruptcy petition. Publishers Clearing House rose to prominence in the 60’s and 70’s selling magazines and merchandise through direct mail. By using their product, you were eligible to win cash prizes. The company said that it had awarded more than $500 million in prizes over the decades. But, as you might have guessed, not many people have been subscribing to magazines over the past, oh, 20 years. The company plans to revive its fortunes by delivering advertising to customers who visit its website. Let me say that again: they intend to make millions from internet ads that run on its website.
* Did they make a big oversized bankruptcy filing?
* They offered to pay their creditors with millions of free magazine subscriptions, but they just got laughed at.
* They can run advertising for Blockbuster and Fotomat and Sears.
* This story brought to you by Adblock Plus internet ad-blocking software.
CLIP: Our classic “Big Oversized Check Bank” parody spot.
CLIP URL: morningsidekick(dot)com/prep/wp-content/uploads/02-06-BigOversizedCheckBank(dot)mp3

TRENDINGED SHEERAN WANTS TO GO COUNTRY

Pop star Ed Sheeran has dabbled in country music and now, on a new episode of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Sheeran admitted, “My end goal would be like, I’m gonna move to Nashville and transition to country.” He’s already shared a stage with Luke Combs, and duetted with Chris Stapleton but, he says, when he does it, he wants to do it right, adding, “I feel like once you transition to country, you can’t transition back. Once you’re there, you’re there. It’s a genre you have to really respect. It’s not just, dip in and out.”

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

April 15, Tuesday – U.S. Tax Day
May 11, Sunday – Mother’s Day
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

Joss Stone (singer, songwriter, actress) … 38
Tricia Helfer (actress, “Lucifer,” “Battlestar Galactica”) … 51
Louise Lasser (actress, “Girls,” “Mart Hartman, Mary Hartman,” ex-wife of Woody Allen) … 86
Joel Grey (actor, “The Old Man,” played the MC in “Cabaret”) … 93

Today’s Birthdays grade: Just minor names today … We seriously need more people born on April 11 to hit it big. Move along, folks – nothing to see here. Grade: D.

[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!

“I always felt … like girls were supposed to be stupid or something … like it was somehow unfeminine or something to be smart. So I tried to play dumb until I believed it myself.”

(A) Kim Kardashian
(B) Lindsay Lohan
(C) Louise Lasser

ANSWER: Louise Lasser

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1986 – Kellogg’s stopped giving tours of its breakfast-food plant. The reason for the end of the 80-year tradition was said to be that company secrets were at risk due to spies from other cereal companies.
* Although more secrets were actually let out when Snap, Crackle and Pop got drunk at parties.

1985 – Scientists in Hawaii measured the distance between the earth and moon within one inch.
* Hey, close enough for government work.

1970 – The ill-fated Apollo 13 mission was launched to the Moon. An accident forced its return to Earth.
* The heroic tale inspired a book, a movie and an annoying catch phrase about “having a problem.”

1906 – Professor Albert Einstein introduced his Theory of Relativity.
* It goes like this: “Relatives are like fish. Don’t keep them in your house more than three days.”

1814 – French Emperor Napoleon abdicated and was exiled to the Island of Elba.
* Some days that actually doesn’t sound so bad.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2014 – Nirvana was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, alongside the likes of KISS and Beatles manager Brian Epstein. REM’s Michael Stipe inducted the group, saying: “Nirvana tapped into a voice that was yearning to be heard. Nirvana were kicking against the mainstream. They spoke truth and a lot of people listened.”

2006 – A member of Eminem’s rap collective D12 was killed in a nightclub shooting in Detroit after an argument broke out at the CCC nightclub. Proof, (real name Deshaun Holton), was shot at a club on Eight Mile Road, made famous in Eminem’s autobiographical film “8 Mile.” Holton was a longtime friend of Eminem.

1981 – Valerie Bertinelli married Eddie Van Halen. They would separate in 2001 and divorce in 2007.

1981 – Hall and Oates started a three week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Kiss On My List,” the duo’s second U.S. No.1.

1977 – Alice Cooper played to an audience of 40,000 in Sydney, Australia, the largest crowd to attend a rock concert in the country’s history.

1972 – Paul McCartney was fined for taking drugs into Sweden.

1970 – Peter Green quit Fleetwood Mac while on tour in Germany. To avoid breach of contract he agreed to finish the current tour.

1970 – The Beatles started a two-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Let It Be.”

1964 – The Beatles made history by simultaneously charting 14 songs on the Billboard Hot 100. The songs ranged from “Can’t Buy Me Love” at No. 1 to “Love Me Do,” their debut single, at No. 81.

1961 – Folk singer Bob Dylan performed live in New York City for the first time, opening for John Lee Hooker.

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. Recently, $300 billion was spent on THIS in the U.S. in one year. What is it?
Prescription medicine

2. In a typical year, Americans will spend around $3.2 billion on THIS. What is it?
Garage sales

3. Americans spend over 9 billion dollars a year trying to improve THIS. What is it?
Their breath

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