MONDAY, Aug 4 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR MONDAY, Aug 4, 2025

COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: GRASSY KNOLLS RETIREMENT VILLAGE

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 CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DAY

NATIONAL WHITE WINE DAY

SINGLE WORKING WOMEN’S DAY

U.S. COAST GUARD BIRTHDAY
Established by the first Congress who authorized Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, to combat smuggling and tariff evaders with his fleet of ten ships. Originally called the Revenue Marine Service, or Revenue Cutter Service, the service was combined in 1915 with the US Lifesaving Service to become the Coast Guard. During times of peace, the US Coast Guard acts as part of the Department of Homeland Security and then becomes part of the Department of Defense in times of war.

August is:

Black Business Month
Family Fun Month
International Peace Month
National Back to School Month
National Catfish Month
National Crayon Collection Month
National Goat Cheese Month
National Golf Month
National Panini Month
National Peach Month
National Sandwich Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

WHAT TO WATCH – New and Returning Shows and Movies
Premiering Monday through Wednesday
Listings compiled from multiple sources

MONDAY, Aug 4

Season Premieres:
Discovery – “Contraband: Seized at the Border”
Hulu – “King of the Hill”

TUESDAY, Aug 5

“Capturing Their Killer: The Girls on the High Bridge”
Hulu – New Docuseries
Synopsis: Reexamines the 2017 murders of two young women in the bucolic town of Delphi, Ind.

“Murder 360”
Paramount+ – New Docuseries
Synopsis: Examines unbelievable cases and digs into the experiences of the victims’ families, lawyers, and investigators as they seek to bring justice to the deceased.

“SEC Football: Any Given Saturday”
Netflix – New Docuseries
Synopsis: Follows college football’s most elite players and coaches behind the scenes of the 2024 SEC season.

Season Premiere:
HBO – “Hard Knocks”

WEDNESDAY, Aug 6

“The Pickup”
Prime Video – New Movie
Synopsis: A routine cash pickup takes a wild turn when mismatched armored truck drivers are ambushed by ruthless criminals. As chaos erupts, the unlikely duo must navigate danger, clashing personalities, and one very bad day that keeps spiraling out of control. With Eddie Murphy, Pete Davidson, and Keke Palmer.

Season Premieres:
Apple TV+ – “Platonic”
Netflix – “Wednesday”

THE BUZZ

THE JOBS MOST/LEAST AFFECTED BY AI

According to Microsoft, here are the Top 10 Least Affected Occupations By AI (If you do any of these jobs, you won’t be replaced anytime soon):
– Dredge Operators
– Bridge and Lock Tenders
– Water Treatment Plant and System Operators
– Foundry Mold Makers
– Rail-Track Laying
– Pile Driver Operators
– Floor Sanders and Finishers
– Orderlies
– Logging Equipment Operators
– Motorboat Operators
* I like motorboating.

The Most Affected Occupations By AI (you’re screwed):
– Interpreters and Translators
– Sales Representatives
– Writers
– Customer Service Representatives
– Telephone Operators
– Ticket Agents and Travel Clerks
– Broadcast Announcers and Radio DJs (* Wait… what?)
– Brokerage Clerks
– Telemarketers
– Concierges
– Political Scientists
– News Analysts, Reporters, Journalists
– Mathematicians
– Proofreaders
– Hosts and Hostesses
– Public Relations
– Product Demonstrators
– Advertising Salespeople
– Rental Clerks
– Data Scientists
– Geographers
– Models
– Market Research Analysts
– Switchboard Operators
– Librarians
– Historians
* Uhhh… going back to that Radio DJ thing…
* See, I always thought if this DJ thing didn’t work out, I could become a Librarian or a Historian. Now I see the error of my thinking.
* Switchboard operators? Is AI going to time travel back to 1910?
* Notice how Microsoft doesn’t mention “Jobs at Microsoft”?
* By the way, AI wrote this list, so can we really trust it?

U.S. NEWS

HIGHWAY HOT DOG SPILL

A truckload of hot dogs spilled across a Pennsylvania interstate Friday morning. The crash clogged the heavily traveled highway in both directions near the town of Shrewsbury. State police said the tractor trailer had a mechanical problem on Interstate 83 a few miles north of the Maryland state line, causing it to push into a passenger vehicle. The truck scraped along a concrete divider, its trailer was ripped open, and the hot dogs spilled all over. Four people required medical attention.
* Two dozen other people required mustard and relish.
* Not the first time hot dogs have clogged a major artery.
* It was a real mess, frankly speaking.
* Not the worst accident, even though it was literally a wurst accident.
* They flew in Joey Chestnut, and the site was cleaned up in about 20 minutes.

PENNSYLVANIA TOWN STINKS

The town of Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, is asking residents how bad the town smells. Mechanicsburgians (* Mechanicsburgers?) often submit complaints about air quality issues and smells in the community. It might be because there is a Purina pet food plant just outside the city limits (* Ya think?). Residents are being asked to fill out an Environmental Aromas Data Collection Form on the town website. The survey asks for the smell’s date, time and location, what the aroma was: pet food, waste, manure, sewage or something else. The survey was launched about two weeks ago and they’ve already received more than 100 responses.
* After pet food, waste, manure and sewage, what could “something else” be? Stinky feet?
* If only there were somebody in Mechanicsburg who could get into the pet food factory and work on the machines. But who? Who in Mechanicsburg would be trained to do something like that?
* Too bad it’s a pet food plant and not, say, a huge bakery.
* This is why they should build a wind farm. Not only do they get electricity, but it blows the stink over to Carlisle.

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT OVER FROOT LOOPS

A man has filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Kellogg’s and Walmart falsely advertised the serving size of Froot Loops cereal. Mr. Thomas Harvey filed the class action complaint about the serving size of Kellogg’s Froot Loops with Marshmallows cereal. According to the lawsuit, the cereal’s label states that 1 1/3 cups of the product is equivalent to 39 grams and that the box contains about 12 servings. However, independent lab testing showed that 1 1/3 cups of the cereal actually weighs 45.26 grams, meaning that the box contains only 10.16 servings, the lawsuit alleges. Mr. Harvey claims that Kellogg’s and Walmart are understating the metric mass of the serving size, which led to an overstatement of the number of servings per box.
* Normally, class action lawsuits are ridiculous, but… come on. Froot Loops. This matters.
* Boy, the guy at Walmart who’s supposed to double-check the serving weight of every single packaged food on the shelves really dropped the ball on this one.
* So, 10 servings instead of 12. So, what, two apostles went hungry at the Last Breakfast? Jesus could have made more.
* In my house, a big box of Froot Loops is three servings, so I don’t know what the hell this is all about.
* Kellogg’s could argue that this is their way of making kids healthier, by having them eat less Froot Loops.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

PARENTS LEFT 10-YEAR-OLD SON BEHIND AT AIRPORT SO THEY WOULDN’T MISS THEIR FLIGHT

After learning their 10-year-old son’s passport had expired, a couple in Spain abandoned him at Barcelona Airport so they wouldn’t miss their flight. The couple jetted off last Wednesday without their child after arranging for a relative to come pick him up. Airport staff found the young boy on his own and alerted police. The plane’s pilot was told what had happened. He asked passengers if someone had left a child in the terminal. No one answered, at least at first. Finally, the parents were identified. They even had another younger child with them. The plane turned around, and the parents were taken to the police station where their son was.
* And they would have gotten away with it, too, if it hadn’t been for that meddling airport staff.
* So an entire planeload of people had their plans ruined. That trip back to the airport must have been awkward.
* They could have continued to their destination and stuck the family on the very next flight back to Barcelona, but that wouldn’t have been nearly as humiliating.
* The kid was probably thrilled to not be going on a boring vacation. Unless they were going to EuroDisney.
* Meanwhile, is the relative running around the airport looking for the kid?

CRIES FOR HELP WAS JUST SOME GUY SINGING NICKELBACK SONGS IN THE WOODS

Last Thursday evening in Vancouver, Canada, two hikers near the Okanagan Boulderfields wildlife area called 911 after hearing what sounded like “repeated cries.” A search and rescue crew happened to be out training nearby. They went on a search and soon found the source of the yelling: A man camping alone who had been belting out Nickelback songs. The man was unaware that the acoustics of the Boulderfields carried his singing to far distances. Said search manager Duane Tresnich, “Remember, our services are always free. And the money you save could be spent on singing lessons.”
* If you’re singing Nickelback songs, that’s certainly a cry for help, in its own way.
* If you’re camping, singing Nickelback is cheaper than bear spray. And far more effective.
* Now someone’s gotta chase all the wildlife back into the Okanagan Park.
* The hikers heard the cries and thought “Gotta Be Somebody!,” but it was just a guy singing like a Rockstar whose voice carried Far Away.

NUCLEAR RHINOS

Scientists in South Africa have launched an anti-poaching campaign in which rhinoceros horns will be injected with radioactive material. The process is said to be harmless to rhinos but will allow customs officers to detect smuggled rhino horns as they’re transported across the world. The horns of African rhinos are often exported to Asian markets were they are used in traditional medicine. South Africa has the largest rhino population in the world, and hundreds of the animals are poached there every year. A pilot study, which involved 20 rhinos, confirmed that the radioactive material was “completely safe” for the animals. And, they found that horns could be detected even inside full 40-foot shipping containers.
* It says so in their glowing report.
* Nuclear? Solar’s the way to go these days, man. Solar and wind. And rhinos can sure make wind.
* So the poachers will just pull their Geiger counters out of their little mtumba satchels and check the rhino before they kill it? Is that how this’ll work?
* Radiation is how they made Godzilla. And they want to do that with a rhino?
* I once saw Nuclear Rhino open for Modest Mouse.

TRENDING

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (August 1-3)

1. Fantastic Four – $40 million
2. The Bad Guys 2 – $22.2 million
3. The Naked Gun – $17 million
4. Superman – $13.9 million
5. Jurassic World: Rebirth – $8.7 million

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

Sept. 1, Monday – Labor Day
Sept. 11, Thursday – Patriot Day
Sept. 19, Friday – National POW/MIA Recognition Day (The third Friday of September)
Sept. 22, Monday – Fall begins (Autumn Equinox is 2:19 p.m. EDT)
Oct. 13, Monday – Columbus Day
Oct. 16, Thursday – National Boss’s Day
Oct. 31, Friday – Halloween

BIRTHDAYS

Meghan Markle (former actress, now Duchess of Sussex, Mrs. Prince Harry) … 44
Daniel Dae Kim (actor, “Hawaii Five-O”) … 57
Barack Obama (former U.S. President) … 64
Billy Bob Thornton (actor) … 70

Today’s Birthdays grade: Two actors and – a former president and a sort-of British royal who’s been annoyingly over-exposed. Still, we’ll be polite and give today a respectful Grade: B.

[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!

“French fries and vino are my vices.”

(A) King Charles
(B) Jeff Bezos
(C) Meghan Markle

ANSWER: (C) Meghan Markle

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1987 – The Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind the Fairness Doctrine, which required radio and television stations to present balanced coverage of controversial issues.
* Yeah. Government agencies have no business getting involved with fairness.

1977 – President Carter signed a measure establishing the Department of Energy.
* That’s why today we have such abundant, low-cost energy.

1916 – The U.S. bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million.
* When it comes to buying nice vacation spots from other countries, I have to say I think this was a lot better deal than Alaska.

1892 – “Lizzie Borden took an ax, and gave her mother forty whacks; when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one!” Lizzie Borden, a Sunday school teacher, was arrested and charged with the ax murder of her parents. She was later acquitted but the legend that “she really did it” persists to this day, and the case is still officially unsolved.
* I don’t know – she sounds wacky to me.

1883 – The steam shovel was introduced.
* Can you dig it?

1790 – The U.S. Coast Guard was founded, originally called the “Revenue Cutter Service.”
* These days, cutting your revenue is the IRS’s job.

1693 – A 17th century Benedictine monk, Dom Pierre Pérignon, is said to have invented sparkling wine during his tenure as cellarmaster at the Abbey of Hautvillers, near the town of Épernay in France. Today, the prestige brand of Champagne “Dom Pérignon” bears his name.
* By the way, “Pérignon” in English means “If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.”

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2021 – Forbes magazine named Rihanna the world’s wealthiest female musician with a net worth of $1.7 billion.

2017 – “Despacito” by Puerto Rican singer Luis Fonsi featuring Justin Bieber became the most-watched YouTube video ever, passing the Wiz Khalifa/Charlie Puth collaboration “See You Again” with nearly 3 billion views in just seven months.

2010 – Don Henley reached an out-of-court settlement with Republican Senatorial candidate Chuck DeVore who used parodies of two Eagles’ hits for an election campaign without permission. “All She Wants To Do Is Dance” and “The Boys of Summer” were used in campaign videos on YouTube as “All She Wants To Do Is Tax” and “Hope Of November.”

1999 – Remember the Rio portable digital music player? Stymied at every level in court, the nation’s leading record labels, through the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), dropped all litigation against Diamond Multimedia, makers of the Rio, which they feared would increase music piracy of copyrighted songs.

1984 – Prince started a 24-week run at the top of the U.S. album charts with “Purple Rain” – it went on to sell over 20 million copies worldwide.

1967 – Pink Floyd released their debut album, “The Piper At the Gates of Dawn.” The record launched Pink Floyd’s illustrious career and has been recognized as one of the most influential psychedelic rock albums of the 1960s. It was the band’s only album to be penned primarily by founding member Syd Barrett.

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. THIS one factor puts a $158 billion a year drag on the economy. What is it?
Workers calling in sick because of a hangover

2. 29% of people have used THIS excuse to get out of work. What it is?
They have a child who is sick

3. According to a recent survey, 1 out of 10 women have called in sick because of THIS reason. What is it?
A bad hair day

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