WEDNESDAY, July 16 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP EMAIL AND TEXT VERSION FOR WEDNESDAY, July 16, 2025
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: A & M AUTOLAND – Sir Savalot

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.)

FRESH SPINACH DAY

GUINEA PIG APPRECIATION DAY

NATIONAL CHERRY DAY

NATIONAL CORN FRITTERS DAY

NATIONAL HOT DOG DAY

WORLD SNAKE DAY

July is:

Adopt a Rescued Rabbit Month
Air Conditioning Appreciation Month
Baked Bean Month
Cell Phone Courtesy Month
Family Reunion Month
International Blondie and Deborah Harry Month
National Blueberries Month
National Grilling Month
National Hot Dog Month
National Ice Cream Month
Melon Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

TICKETS SELLING NOW FOR “THE ODYSSEY” WHICH WON’T BE OUT UNTIL NEXT YEAR

Director Christopher Nolan’s next movie, “The Odyssey,” doesn’t hit movie theaters until next year – July 17, 2026 – but 70mm IMAX tickets are already going on sale this Thursday, July 17, 2025. That’s a full year before its release date. It’s the first feature film shot entirely on 70mm IMAX film cameras. It stars Matt Damon in a tunic. Tunic ls Latin for ‘skirt.’ The movie is still shooting in Europe. It hasn’t been edited yet. They haven’t even got the novelty popcorn bucket designed for it yet. (* Bet it looks like a Trojan horse full of popcorn.) Nolan hasn’t even mixed the dialogue so low you can’t understand it yet. But you can buy tickets for it starting Thursday.
* And then forget that you bought the ticket by Sunday.
* How do we know they don’t need the ticket money to pay for finishing filming the movie?
* Once again, I’ll wait for the Lego version, it’ll be funnier.

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATOR SHOWING OFF “ANNABELLE” DOLL DIES UNEXPECTEDLY

Paranormal investigator Dan Rivera died suddenly on Sunday night while touring with the infamous and supposedly haunted “Annabelle” doll. The 54-year-old Rivera was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on his sold-out “Devils on the Run Tour” when he was found dead in his hotel. Mr. Rivera was the lead investigator for the New England Society for Psychic Research. He was featured as a paranormal investigator on the Travel Channel’s “Most Haunted Places.” He was traveling around the country with other members of the psychic research society to show off Annabelle, the creepy and allegedly demonic Raggedy Ann doll tied to a series of supposed hauntings in 1970. A psychic medium claimed the doll was inhabited by the spirit of a dead 6-year-old girl called Annabelle. The doll ended up with psychic investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren who claimed the doll physically lifted its own arms, followed people around their apartment, and also stabbed a police officer and caused a car crash involving a priest. Annabelle’s “adventures” were chronicled in the horror movie “The Conjuring.” As for the late Mr. Rivera, his exact cause of death remains unclear.
* But there are little cloth fingerprints around his neck.
* Now THAT’S how you drum up business for a paranormal tour!
* Dead in a hotel room, away from the family, alone and on tour. Yep, definitely haunted-Raggedy Ann-related.

THE BUZZ

SURVEY: HAVE A GOOD DAY BY 8:30 AM, OR ELSE

A new national survey, from a yogurt company called Icelandic Provisions, reveals that the average American experiences 252 good days each year. The survey of 5,000 Americans, evenly split across all 50 states, examined the habits, mindsets, and routines that shape Americans’ daily optimism. They looked at sleep quality, screen time, meals and morning rituals – the things the yogurt company believes fuels a good day. (* Especially is there’s yogurt involved, right?)
– According to the survey, people can tell whether or not they’ll have a good day by 8:30 a.m.
– Residents in Florida, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, and Oregon all reported above-average numbers of good days.
– People in Connecticut, Kentucky, and Vermont reported the fewest good days per year.
* 252 good days a year means 113 bad days. And I bet 52 of those are Mondays. Coincidence?

U.S. NEWS

MAN IN BIKINI ROBS DONUT SHOP

An armed man dressed in a bikini tried to rob a Los Angeles donut shop back on May 30. The man walked up to the counter at a Winchell’s in Harvard Heights, brandishing an airsoft handgun and a knife. He was dressed in a green sundress with a pink bikini bottom, a bright pink neon jacket tied around his waist, and a wide-brimmed sunhat to complete the ensemble. Two staff members at the Winchell’s threw a handful of bills at him, tussled with him, and then he hurled a tray of cinnamon rolls in their direction and ran. Police were called, a foot chase ensued, a shot was fired by the police, but the suspect, 41-year-old Christopher Hall, was not struck by the bullet; he was tasered and detained.
* I’d do that for a donut, too, but probably not a Winchell’s donut. I have my standards.
* “Did you get a good look at the suspect?” “Unfortunately, yes.”
* The charges were attempted robbery and crimes of fashion.
* Man in a bikini robbed a donut shop. That’s actually a recurring dream I have.

FOXES STEALING SHOES AT GRAND TETON NATIONAL PARK

A few weeks ago, Grand Teton National Park rangers started getting reports of foxes stealing shoes from campers. So, they put up some signs asking people to not keep their shoes outside their tents. It backfired, because people started baiting the foxes with their shoes, hoping to see them. At last count, 32 shoes had been stolen. The rangers at Grand Teton don’t know what the foxes are doing with them.
* Wolfing them down?
* Hey – free chew toys.
* Nothing worse than a fox with a foot fetish.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

WOMAN SEXUALLY BLACKMAILED TIBETAN MONKS

Police in Thailand arrested a woman Tuesday who allegedly enticed a number of Buddhist monks into sexual relationships and then blackmailed them into making large payments to cover it up. Buddhist monks, as you may have guessed, have a strict celibacy rule. So far, at least nine abbots and senior monks have been cast out of the monkhood. The woman, Wilawan Emsawat, was arrested on charges including extortion, money laundering, and receiving stolen goods. Police found several senior monks had transferred large amounts of money to Wilawan. Her bank accounts had received around $11.9 million over the past three years. She spent most of the money on online gambling.
* And the monks had purity rings and everything. Sheesh.
* Go for the senior monks because, when it comes to vows of poverty, that’s where the money is.
* They were monks; now they’re just part of the regular lay people.
* I would bet it takes all of about 20 seconds to seduce a celibate monk.
* This is true: she was arrested at her luxury apartment in Nonthaburi, Thailand, which is, of course, near the appropriately named Bangkok.

TRENDING

EMMY AWARD NOMINATIONS

The nominations for the 2025 Emmy Awards were announced on Tuesday. Here are the major categories;
– Best Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie:
Colin Farrell, The Penguin; Stephen Graham, Adolescence; Jake Gyllenhaal, Presumed Innocent; Brian Tyree Henry, Dope Thief; Cooper Koch, Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story

– Best Actress in a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie:
Cate Blanchett, Disclaimer; Meghann Fahy, Sirens; Rashida Jones, Black Mirror; Cristin Milioti, The Penguin;
Michelle Williams, Dying for Sex

– Best Limited or Anthology Series:
Adolescence; Black Mirror; Dying for Sex; Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story; The Penguin

– Best Actress in a Comedy Series:
Uzo Aduba, The Residence; Kristen Bell, Nobody Wants This; Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary; Ayo Edebiri, The Bear; Jean Smart, Hacks

– Best Actor in a Comedy Series:
Adam Brody, Nobody Wants This; Seth Rogen, The Studio; Jason Segel, Shrinking; Martin Short, Only Murders in the Building; Jeremy Allen White, The Bear

– Best Comedy Series:
Abbott Elementary; The Bear; Hacks; Nobody Wants This; Only Murders in the Building; Shrinking; The Studio; What We Do in the Shadows

– Best Actor in a Drama Series:
Sterling K. Brown, Paradise; Gary Oldman, Slow Horses; Pedro Pascal, The Last of Us; Adam Scott, Severance; Noah Wyle, The Pitt

– Best Actress in a Drama Series:
Kathy Bates, Matlock; Sharon Horgan, Bad Sisters; Britt Lower, Severance; Bella Ramsey, The Last of Us; Keri Russell, The Diplomat

– Best Drama Series:
Andor; The Diplomat; The Last of Us; Paradise; The Pitt; Severance; Slow Horses; The White Lotus

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

Sept. 1, Monday – Labor Day
Sept. 11, Thursday – Patriot Day
Sept. 22, Monday – Fall begins (Autumn Equinox is 2:19 p.m. EDT)

BIRTHDAYS

Corey Feldman (actor, “The Lost Boys”, “Stand By Me”) … 54
Will Ferrell (comic actor) … 58
Phoebe Cates (actress, “Gremlins,” “Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) … 62
Stewart Copeland (drummer with the Police) … 73

Today’s Birthdays grade: Today’s lineup includes a founding member of The Police, and an SNL alum who made a ton of money in movies, although a significant number of them were not well received. But that’s never stopped anyone, has it? Grade: B-minus.

[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 think I have this everyman quality, where I could be the guy next door, or the guy you work with.”

(A) Tom Cruise
(B) Ozzy Osbourne
(C) Will Ferrell

ANSWER: (C) Will Ferrell

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2004 – Martha Stewart was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement by a federal judge for lying about a stock sale.
* What about when she lied about it being easy to host a 20-person dinner party?

1999 – John F. Kennedy Jr., his wife, Carolyn, and her sister, Lauren Bessette, died when the single-engine plane Kennedy was piloting plunged into the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.
* I can’t believe there haven’t been any conspiracy theories.

1985 – The first network TV program was broadcast in stereo – the All-Star Game on NBC.
* It sounded so realistic, viewers at home ducked after every foul ball.

1969 – The first Apollo mission to land on the moon was launched.
* Even by 60s standards it was the ultimate trip.

1935 – The first automatic parking meter in the U.S. was installed, in Oklahoma City, OK.
* It sure beat the manual ones that you had to stand there and crank.

1790 – Congress established the District of Columbia.
* Which makes it America’s oldest amusement park.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2023 – Taylor Swift’s re-recorded “Speak Now” album debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200, her 12th No. 1 album, surpassing Barbra Streisand’s record for #1 albums by a female artist.

2019 – Metallica brought their WorldWired tour to Finland and performed a record-breaking concert attended by over 55,000 people. That was about one per cent of Finland’s entire population of more than 5.5 million people.

2009 – A stage being built in France for a concert by Madonna collapsed, killing two workers and injuring six others. Technicians had been setting up the stage at the Velodrome stadium in Marseille when the partially-built roof fell in, bringing down a crane. Madonna was performing on her Sticky and Sweet tour in Udine, Italy, when she received news of the incident and was said to be “devastated” by the news.

1995 – Rap singer and actress Queen Latifah was the victim of a car-jacking attempt that went wrong, leaving her bodyguard shot and wounded.

1986 – Dolly Parton’s amusement park, Dollywood, opened.

1981 – Harry Chapin died in an auto accident in Jericho, N.Y., while on his way to play a benefit performance.

1976 – The Allman Brothers Band split up.

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. 45% of wives say their husbands do THIS. What is it?
Snore

2. Over 50% of married women admit to using THIS. What is it?
Their husband’s pillow

3. 27% of married couples say they fight about THIS the most. What is it?
Laundry

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