FRIDAY, July 25 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR FRIDAY, July 25, 2025

COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: 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.)

CULINARIANS DAY
Established to acknowledge chefs, cooks, bakers, and anyone involved in food preparation and service, b

NATIONAL CAROUSEL (MERRY-GO-ROUND) DAY
Created by the National Carousel Association (N.C.A.) as a way to mark the registration of the first patent for a carousel design in 1871 by William Schneider.

NATIONAL HOT FUDGE SUNDAE DAY

NATIONAL WINE AND CHEESE 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

NFL REVENUE SHARING: $432.6 MILLION PER TEAM

The Green Bay Packers are the only publicly-owned NFL team. That means they are required to reveal their financial statement on an annual basis. So… with the release of this year’s profit-and-loss statement, this has come to light: the Packers received $432.6 million in revenue sharing from the NFL. That means that each team received a distribution of $432 million, which – doing the math, $432 million x 32 – means the league shared more than $13 billion in revenue from the previous fiscal year.
* Waahh, we can’t afford a new stadium, waaahhhh, make the taxpayers pay for it or we’re gonna move, waahhhh!!
* Yeah, it sounds like a lot, but in the NFL’s defense you can’t believe the wholesale price of the raw nacho chips that go into those $10 Cheeze Whiz nachos at the stadium.
* $13 billion. So … two months of revenue from TV commercial?
* Remember this next time you have to buy a streaming service to watch a playoff game.

THE BUZZ

WEIRD THINGS YOUR BODY DOES

Reddit asked, “What weird thing does your body do you that you don’t understand?” Some of the responses:
– “Whenever I take the first sip of a cold carbonated drink I get a hiccup. Only one hick, that’s it.”
– “Spicy foot makes my ear wax melt a little.”
– “Whenever I sneeze, I sneeze three times in a row. Always.”
– “i sneeze when i pluck my eyebrows.”
– “I get itchy when I exercise. It’s unbearable.”
– “My wrists hurt when I’m sad.”
– “I’m developing Musical Ear Syndrome, or musical tinnitus, a form of tinnitus that instead of hearing a ringing or buzzing, your brain generates musical sounds. When its quiet and I’m trying to sleep I’ll hear what sounds like a radio playing quietly in another room. It freaks me out sometimes.”
– “Sometimes if I’m extremely hungry, the back of my neck will fizz like I’ve got soda in my spine.”
– “I can hold my nose internally, it feels like there’s a flap of skin I can control inside my nose that stops airflow and water.”
– “I have one hair follicle in each armpit. One single hair.”
– “There is an area on my right cheek that if touched lightly I completely lose my hearing in both ears from what feels like extreme chills running over my face.”
– “Sometimes when I yawn I spit saliva like a lizard spitting acid and it’s so embarrassing.”
– “I don’t remember the first 10 – 15 minutes after I wake up sometimes.”
– “I can rattle my uvula and sound like the Predator.”
* PHONE TOPIC: Can you relate to any of these? Have you got a weird body thing?

U.S. NEWS

COPS ARREST CHUCK E. CHEESE FOR CREDIT CARD THEFT

On July 3, in Tallahassee, Florida, police officers arrested a man wearing a Chuck E. Cheese costume at a Chuck E. Cheese restaurant after a caller reported a stolen credit card and $100 of fraudulent charges on the card. She was able to trace the activity to an employee at the restaurant, who was, when police arrived, dressed in the Chuck E. Cheese costume. They put Chuck E. in handcuffs – still wearing the costume head – and paraded him out of the restaurant as kids and families watched. The man, Jermell Jones, was charged with three felonies related to theft of the credit card.
* What a rat.
* And yet the guy who makes those godawful Chuck E. Cheese pizzas walks free.
* Just curious – as they walked him out, did the customers applaud?
* How did they know it was really him under the costume head? Did somebody rat out Chuck E. Cheese?
* He used the card to purchase about 10,000 tokens for the Skeeball machine.

SCHOOL DISTRICT BANS DOCTOR’S NOTES FOR ABSENCES

The Lawrence County School district in Nashville, Tennessee now says doctor’s notes will no longer excuse a child’s absence. The policy is aimed at improving the district’s attendance rate, but many parents are against it. Under the new attendance policy, students will now just be marked absent or present – the doctor’s note will not be accepted. The policy further states that after just three absences, schools will start intervention. If the student misses school for eight or more days, they will be referred to juvenile court. Says Director of Schools Michael Adkins, “You can fail the grade. You can fail the course. You are going to be petitioned to court. You are not going to participate in graduation, get your driver’s license or permit. We are going to take control of the attendance of our students. You can bring all the doctor’s notes you want, but it is still unexcused.” Adkins says students need to learn reliability and a work ethic. “If you have the sniffles, that is fine. You are going to have them when you go to work one day. We have all gone to work sick and hurt and beat up.”
* Sounds like this guy gets beat up A LOT.
* For all you kids with the flu, strep, measles and malaria, make sure, when you get to school, you stop by Mr. Adkins’s office and let him know you’re in school that day. He’ll appreciate it.
* How about a doctor’s note AND a Zoom meeting with the kid in the hospital after just breaking a leg?
* Speaking of sick, this policy is sick. And I don’t mean in the good way, like when kids say it.
* I’m sure the doctors are all behind this new policy – more patients for them! Funeral homes, too!

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NEW ZEALAND CAT BURGLAR STEALS NEIGHBORS’ UNDERWEAR

A New Zealand cat named Leo has become famous for stealing the neighbors’ underwear. (* Yes, it’s a real cat burglar, we know. Har har.) Owner Helen North said her cat, Leo, a 14-month-old Tonkinese, has brought home about 150 pilfered items in the past nine months, mostly underwear and socks. She says, “He doesn’t do much with them once they are inside, he just dumps them on the floor and just goes about his business.” Ms. North said she uses local Whatsapp and Facebook groups to help her return the goods to her neighbors.
* Although there’s one weirdo who keeps claiming all the underwear is his.
* Living in New Zealand, he takes what’s down under.
* “Hey, look what the cat dragged in!”
* How does the cat know which dresser drawers to open?
* She really needs to train him to bring home wallets and jewelry.
* New Zealand – where people leave their doors and windows open. And deserve what happens.

JAPAN RECALLS PLASTIC TOY GUNS THAT CAN FIRE LIVE AMMO

Japanese authorities are recalling 16,000 plastic toy guns used as prizes in claw machines across the country because they are capable of firing live ammunition. Japan’s National Police Agency says the ‘Real Gimmick Mini Revolver’ was imported into Japan from China to be used as prizes in crane games. It seems harmless – the toy comes with eight plastic bullets that can be used to ping various objects or even prank people (* ha-ha, shooting people…PRANK!). But the toy features a wide enough barrel to accommodate small caliber bullets, and the trigger hammer is made of hard plastic and placed in just the right position that it can ignite a real bullet.
* In other words, this will be the hot new Christmas toy in America.
* They’re pulling the toy guns out of the claw machines, but they’re leaving in the Baby’s First Samurai Sword toy.
* The worst part was kids snagging the gun from claw machines and then robbing the stores the machine were in.
* Speaking of which, in Japan, do kids play Cowboys and Ninjas?
* At least the claw machines don’t also have little boxes of ammunition … do they?

TRENDING

HULK HOGAN DIES AT 71

Wrestling legend Hulk Hogan has died, aged 71. The WWE icon passed away early Thursday morning after medics were dispatched to his Clearwater, Florida home. Operators stated the call was in relation to a “cardiac arrest.” In the 1980s, Hogan was the driving force behind WWE’s rise from a regional promotion around New York to an international brand. He was undoubtedly one of the most popular pro-wrestlers of all time and the catalyst to what made WrestleMania so successful. Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, is survived by his third wife Sky, who he wed in 2023, children Brooke, 37, and Nick, 34, who he shared with first wife Linda Claridge, and two grandchildren.

CHUCK MANGIONE DIES AT 84

Chuck Mangione, the Grammy-winning flugelhornist (* flugelhorner?) and jazz bandleader has died at age 84. In his early career, Mangione performed and recorded as the Mangione Brothers with his sibling, keyboardist Gaspare “Gap” Mangione. After graduating from the prestigious Eastman School of Music in his hometown, he played trumpet with famed bandleader Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Later on, his instrumental “Chase the Clouds Away” was used in coverage of the 1976 Summer Olympics. It was Mangione’s 1977 album “Feels So Good” and its hit title track that made him a household name. Another of his songs, “Give It All You Got,” was used in ABC’s coverage of the 1980 Winter Olympics. He earned 13 lifetime Grammy nominations, and had two wins.

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

Mason Cook (actor, “Speechless”) … 25
Jay R. Ferguson (actor, “Living Biblically,” “The Real O’Neals”) … 51
Matt LeBlanc (actor, “Man With a Plan,” “Episodes,” “Joey,” “Friends”) … 58

Today’s Birthdays grade: Hmm. We do have an original castmember from “Cheers” … but other than that … not too exciting. Oh, well. Grade: C-plus.

[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!

“The more cynical you become, the better off you’ll be.”

(A) Kermit the Frog
(B) Barney the Dinosaur
(C) Matt LeBlanc

ANSWER: (C) Matt LeBlanc

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2008 – California became the first state to ban trans fats from restaurant food.
* Fats that want to change their gender?

1978 – The first baby conceived outside a woman’s body was born. Louise Brown became known as the first “test tube baby.”
* Until then, test tube babies were inconceivable!

1971 – The first combined lung and heart transplant was carried out.
* The patient got a new lung, a new heart, and had to take out a new mortgage.

1962 -The House passed a bill requiring equal pay for equal work regardless of sex.
* I agree. You shouldn’t have to have sex to get equal pay.

1909 – French aviator Louis Bleriot became the first person to fly across the English Channel. Before leaving France on his flight he asked “Which way is England?”
* In those days, as long as you were wearing a cool aviator’s jacket and goggles, you could say any damn fool thing you wanted and you’d still be considered dashing.

1871 – The carousel was patented by Wilhelm Schneider.
* He should have simultaneously patented Dramamine.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2024 – Billy Joel performed the 150th and final show of his 10-year, once-a-month residency at Madison Square Garden in New York City.

2014 – Weird Al Yankovic became the first comedy act to have an album at the top of the U.S. charts in more than 50 years. It was “Mandatory Fun,” Yankovic’s 14th album, and his best-selling since 1991’s “Straight Outta Lynwood.” The last comedy album to reach No. 1 in the U.S. was Allan Sherman’s “My Son, the Nut” in 1963.

2002 – Two former members of Destiny’s Child settled out of court over the lyrics to “Survivor,” which they claimed were libelous. LeToya Luckett and LaTavia Roberson, who left the group in 2000, said that the song broke an agreement which prohibited both sides making “any public comment of a disparaging nature concerning one another.” The line, which they were suing over, said “You thought that I’d be stressed without you, but I’m chillin’. You thought I wouldn’t sell without you, sold nine million.”

1999 – This year’s Woodstock Festival ended with riots resulting in 120 people being arrested. Three people died during the 3-day festival in separate incidents and many were hospitalized after drinking polluted water.

1992 – Bruce Springsteen became a father when Patti Sciafa gave birth to a baby boy, Evan James.

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. In a typical year, the average American will eat over 11 pounds of THESE. What are they?
Carrots

2. The average person eats around 13 pounds of THIS a year. What is it?
Ice cream

3. The average American eats 24 pounds of THIS each year. What is it?
Artificial sweetener

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