MONDAY, Mar 17 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR MONDAY, March 17, 2025
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: O DANNY BEER (FOR ST PAT’S DAY)

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.)

ST. PATRICK’S DAY
The Days of the Year website says this:
“Many people don’t realize that Saint Patrick wasn’t even actually Irish. In fact, he was born to Roman parents in either Scotland or Wales. Though his life’s work took place in Ireland, Patrick didn’t go there willingly in the beginning. Instead, at the age of 16, he was kidnapped from his family’s British estate and taken to Ireland as a prisoner. After six years he escaped back to Britain but, many years later, he showed excessive forgiveness when he went back to Ireland as a missionary. Saint Patrick’s Day is celebrated worldwide by those of Irish descent and increasingly by people of other ethnicities as well, notably in Argentina, Australia, New Zealand and North America. The celebration takes place on this day in honor of the death of St. Patrick more than 1500 years ago on March 17 in the year 492. The first feast of St. Patrick was organized and observed by the Catholic Church in 1631, but it wasn’t until more recent history that the day has moved beyond the church to become a worldwide cultural event.

CAMP FIRE GIRLS DAY
Wikipedia says this:
“Camp Fire, formerly Camp Fire USA and originally Camp Fire Girls of America, is a co-ed inclusive youth development organization. Camp Fire was the first nonsectarian, multicultural organization for girls in America. Its programs emphasize camping and other outdoor activities for youth.”

CORNED BEEF AND CABBAGE DAY
The Days of the Year website says this:
“It is likely that the tradition of the meal behind Corned Beef and Cabbage Day probably started in the late 19th century when Irish Immigrants needed to make substitutes from the pork they were accustomed to in their homeland. It probably wasn’t until the 1950s or 1960s that corned beef began to be associated with people from Ireland. That association naturally blended in with St. Patrick’s Day and the two joined together in celebration.”

DOCTOR-PATIENT TRUST DAY
The Holidays Today website says this:
“Established in 2003, this day – an occasion dedicated to recognizing and strengthening the bond of trust and communication between healthcare providers and their patients – underscores the pivotal role that trust plays in the medical field, encouraging patients and doctors alike to appreciate and work towards a more transparent and understanding healthcare environment. By acknowledging the efforts of doctors and the importance of open dialogue, Doctor Patient Trust Day aims to enhance the overall healthcare experience, leading to better treatment outcomes and a healthier society.”

WELLDERLY DAY – Third Monday in March
The Fun Senior Holidays website says this:
“Created by Dr. Dale Anderson, Wellderly Day promotes the health benefits of happiness, humor, and laughter while encouraging seniors to embrace a fulfilling lifestyle filled with joy, connection, and vitality. It encourages older adults to embrace their health, engage in stimulating activities, and live life to the fullest. The term ‘Wellderly’ combines ‘wellness’ and ‘elderly,’ emphasizing that aging can be a period of strength, wisdom, and joy rather than decline. The holiday serves as a reminder that staying active, social, and engaged can contribute to a longer, healthier life.

March is:

Adopt a Rescued Guinea Pig Month
American Red Cross Month
Employee Spirit Month
Expanding Girls’ Horizons in Science and Engineering Month
Gender Equality Month
Irish-American Heritage Month
National Craft Month
National Women Inventors Month
National Women’s History Month
Read an E-Book Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

WHAT TO WATCH – New and Returning Shows and Movies
Premiering Monday through Wednesday
Listings sourced from the TV Guide, EW and other websites

MONDAY, March 17

“2025 iHeartRadio Music Awards”
FOX – Awards Show

TUESDAY, March 18

“Bert Kreischer: Lucky”
Netflix – Comedy Special
Synopsis: The comedian dives into everything from shedding 45 pounds, the usual family antics, getting parenting tips from Snoop Dogg and more.

“House of Knives”
Food Network – Yet Another Cooking Competition
Synopsis: Six of the world’s most prestigious and talented chefs create dishes using a signature ingredient in hopes of impressing the judges.

WEDNESDAY, March 19

“Good American Family”
Hulu – New Limited Series
Synopsis: The story of Kristine Barnett, the woman who claimed her adopted daughter, Natalia Grace, was actually an adult woman with dwarfism posing as a child.

“Hyper Knife”
Hulu – New Series from South Korea
Synopsis: A brilliant but disgraced neurosurgeon who performs illegal surgeries crosses paths with her former mentor, sparking a dangerous game of power and revenge.

“Opry 100: “A Live Celebration”
NBC – Special
Synopsis: Blake Shelton hosts a look back at the establishment’s legendary history in country music, with music performances.

“The Twister: Caught in the Storm”
Netflix – New Documentary
Synopsis: Follows a group of high school graduates in Joplin who were celebrating at a party on May 22, 2011, when an EF-5 tornado destroyed the city. With wind speeds reaching 200 mph, the young survivors were stuck in the middle of the storm and had to deal with a terrifying natural force that would change their lives forever.

AUDIO: THE SONGS THAT HAVE BEEN IN THE MOST MOVIES

You know how the same songs keep popping up in different movies? Daniel Parris of the website Stat Significant has analyzed the use of songs in movies and TV and come up with a list. He limited his list to movies and shows released after 1970 and came up with a chart of the top ten songs used most regularly.
10. The Piña Colada Song by Rupert Holmes – used in 36 movies & TV shows
9. Let’s Get It On by Marvin Gaye – 38
8. Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves – 38
7. Tubthumping by Chumbawumba (“I get knocked down but I get up again…”) – 39
6. September by Earth, Wind and Fire – 39
5. Fade Into You by Mazzy Star – 41
4. Fix You by Coldplay – 42
3. At Last by Etta James – 49
2. Push It by Salt-N-Pepa
1. This Is How We Do It by Montell Jordan – 52
* Yeah, “This Is How We Do It” is great and all, but I really don’t think it belonged in that movie “Conclave” when they were picking the pope.
* What about commercials? I swear there have been about three hundred commercials using “Every Day is a Winding Road.”
* I remember that great 1970 movie “Patton” when he slaps the soldier for crying, and “I get knocked down but I get up again” starts playing. Great scene.
* Personally, when I got to the end of “The Brutalist” and the closing credits began, I started singing “At Last.”
CLIP: A bit of “This Is How We Do It” by Montell Jordan
CLIP URL: morningsidekick(dot)com/prep/wp-content/uploads/ThisIsHowWeDoIt(dot)mp3

BASEBALL: THE VEDDER CUP

As it turns out, Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder is a big baseball fan. Also, he has spent a lot of time in both Seattle (obviously) and San Diego. For years, fans of both cities have unofficially termed the annual interleague series between the San Diego Padres and Seattle Mariners the “Vedder Cup.” Now, that’s an official thing. The Seattle Mariners announced on Friday that every year, when they play the Padres, it will be called The Vedder Cup series. And Eddie Vedder himself designed the Vedder Cup trophy. The teams will meet this year in May in San Diego and August in Seattle, and both series will feature programming surrounding Vedder and his wife Jill’s epidermolysis bullosa charitable foundation.
* Like the song says, ♪♪ “Can’t find a batter man.” ♫
* Will the teams wear Black?
* To honor Eddie Vedder and Pearl Jam, the games will be grunged up:
– Fans are asked to come dressed in clothing from thrift stores.
– All the players will be standing out there, just staring at the ground, getting in touch with their social isolation.
– Umpires will be calling balls, strikes, and “whatever.”
– If you don’t buy a beer and a hot dog, the vendors understand you’re really rebelling against the capitalist sense of identity through commodity ownership.
– During the 7th-inning stretch, Mudhoney will reunite to play “You Never Took Me Out To The Ball Game, DAD!!!”

DONNY OSMOND STOLE WIFE FROM HIS BROTHER

Donny Osmond (who your grandparents can tell you about) says he stole his wife of 47 years, Debbie, from his brother Jay Osmond. Donnie told Fox News Digital, “She dated my brother, and I stole her from my brother. That’s a true story. I was dating a girl named Tammy. And Jay took Debbie out. We went on a double date to an Elton John concert. And I vividly remember when Elton sat down at the piano to sing ‘Your Song.’ I looked over at my brother’s date and thought to myself, ‘I think I’m going to marry that girl someday.’ And I did.” Donny said he later told Elton John the story. “I said, ‘You’re responsible for my marriage.’ He thought that was kind of funny.”
* NO, Donny, Elton John thought it was A LITTLE BIT FUNNY! Get the joke right!
* Marrying your brother’s girl. So that’s how it is in their family.
* I guess, with the Osmond brothers, you just kind of enter the compound and see which one settles on you.
* Keep an eye out for Donny’s autobiography, “My Wild, Dangerous, Out-of-Control Life.” It’s two pages long.

THE BUZZ

HEY – FREE THERAPY!

Reddit asked, “What’s one thing a therapist has said to you that you will never forget?” Here’s some free therapy for us:
– “Everything you want is on the other side of the fear.”
– “Don’t try to reason with unreasonable people.”
– “You have to accept that your parents will never love you like you want them to love you.”
– “Nothing will change if nothing changes.”
– “You were only a child when you made that choice.”
– “It’s the parent’s job to set limits and the child’s job to test them.”
– “You will never be who you were before it happened and that’s OK. You’ll be better than who you were.”
– “Don’t go to the hardware store looking for milk.”
– “You’re not the one that needs to be in therapy.”
– “People are looking at you. People are judging you. People are talking about you. It’s what people do. You do it, too. Don’t worry about it too much.”
– “‘Less depressy, more progressy’ (note: may not have been an actual therapist)”
– “If I were your mother I would tell you not to marry that man.”
– “Have you ever considered that your sister is just…… a bitch?”
* PHONE TOPIC: Did you have a therapist that told you something that stuck with you?

U.S. NEWS

MLB PULLS OVERLAP CAPS

Last week, Major League Baseball began selling what they called “Overlap Caps.” These are baseball caps which have a large capital letter for the team or city superimposed over the middle of the team or city name. For example, The Philadelphia Phillies cap has the word “Phillies, with a big P in the middle, so the word looks like “PHIPIES.” The Washington Nationals hat has a big W in the middle of the word Nationals, so it looks like “NAWALS.” It’s just something fun and different for the fans… unless you’re from Los Angeles, Houston or Arlington, Texas.
– The Los Angeles Angels hat has an “A” in the middle of Angels, so it spells out “ANAELS”.
– The Houston Astros hat has an “H” in the middle of Astros, so it spells “ASHOS”.
– The Texas Rangers cap, with a “T” in the middle of Texas, spells out “TETAS”. Yes, it means what you think in Spanish.
Those three hats have now become collector’s items after MLB pulled them off the market. Some of them are selling for as much as $950 on eBay. A spokesman for MLB said the naughty hats were “unintentional” and missed in the standard product review.
* The heck they were. The product review guy probably has a garage full of them now and is selling them on eBay.
* Wow, this makes the designers look like a bunch of ashos.
* This is almost as bad of a clothing problem as last year’s see-through uniform pants.
* Good thing Frankfurt, Kentucky, doesn’t have a baseball team. “KENFU–” uh, never mind.

COLORADO 7TH GRADER WINS SPELLING BEE AND SCIENCE FAIR IN THE SAME WEEK

In Aurora, Colorado, a seventh grader achieved a scholastic twofer last week, winning Denver’s regional science fair and the state spelling bee in a six-day span. Vedanth Raju, a 12-year-old who attends Aurora Quest K-8 school, won the Colorado state spelling bee on March 8. His championship word was “fretum” — a narrow channel connecting two larger bodies of water. But before that win, on March 2 he took home first prize for his science project. Was it a baking soda volcano? No. Was it making a tornado in a plastic bottle? No. Vedanth won for his project developing a plant-based ointment to treat diabetic foot ulcers. As a 7th grader does. The whiz kid is moving on to national competitions for both his science project and the upcoming Scripps National Spelling Bee.
* To top it off, he’s in discussions with the NY Jets for starting quarterback.
* No one like a showoff, kid. And I say that as the parent of a kid who made a baking soda volcano.
* Somebody check his browser history and see if he used AI.
* I thought this was going to be a fun story, only to find out I spelled “fretum” wrong in a memo last week.
* I wish this kid well, and much success real soon. Because the hormones are gonna kick in any day now, and there goes any interest in science and spelling out the window.

TRENDINGTHE ODDS OF FILLING OUT PERFECT NCAA BRACKET

The absurd odds of randomly picking a perfect March Madness bracket are 1 in 9.2 quintillion. A quintillion is 100 billions. Put it to you this way … they estimate there are 7.2 quintillion grains of sand on the planet. We are talking 1 in 9.2 quintillion which is 23% more. Even if the odds were a 50/50 chance of seeing a perfect bracket in your life, you’d have to go through 1 billion NCAA tournaments.

MTV CANCELS MOVIE & TV AWARDS CEREMONY

The MTV Movie & TV Awards ceremony has been canceled for a second consecutive year. The reason appears to be because Paramount Global, MTV’s parent company, is working on a merger with Skydance Media. Why this would cause them to cancel an awards show is anybody’s guess, but the bottom line with any business is always, always, always money. If no one watches, no one sees the ads, and if no one sees the ads the advertisers don’t want to advertise next year. The 2023 edition of the MTV Movie & TV Awards aired as a pre-taped program after host Drew Barrymore dropped out in solidarity with the Writers Guild of America strikers. The 2024 event was then canceled so the network could figure out the format for the show going forward.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (March 14-16)

1. Novocaine – $8.7 million
2. Black Bag – $7.5 million
2. (tie) Mickey 17 – $7.5 million
3. Captain America: Brave New World – $5.47 million
4. Looney Tunes – The Day The Earth Blew Up – $3.2 million
5. Paddington In Peru – $2.7 million

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

TODAY – St. Patrick’s Day
March 20, Thursday – Spring begins, Spring Equinox is 5:01 a.m. EDT
April 1, Tuesday – April Fools Day
April 15, Tuesday – U.S. Tax Day
May 11, Sunday – Mother’s Day
May 26, Monday – Memorial Day

BIRTHDAYS

John Boyega (actor, “The Woman King,” Finn in Star Wars movies) … 33
Geoff Sprung (bassist w Old Dominion) … 47
Rob Lowe (actor, game show host, “The Floor,” “9-1-1: Lone Star”) … 61
Gary Sinise (actor, “Criminal Minds: Beyond Borders,” “CSI:NY”) … 70
Paul Overstreet (country singer) … 70
Kurt Russell (actor, “Furious” movies, “Guardians of the Galaxy,” “Tombstone,” “The Thing”) … 74

Today’s Birthdays grade: Leading the field today is a trio of actors who have been around forever – Kurt Russell, turning 74, began acting in a TV Western at age 12, while Rob Lowe debuted in a TV sitcom at age 15. Gary Sinise is the biggest award-winner, with a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, and four Screen Actors Guild Awards, among others. A good list, if not earth-shaking. 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!

“I’ve made some mistakes, and I think I’ve also done some things that are pretty smart. You just hope you have a good batting average.”

(A) Joe Biden
(B) Woody Allen
(C) Rob Lowe

ANSWER: (C) Rob Lowe

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1999 – A panel of medical experts concluded that marijuana has medical benefits for people suffering from cancer and AIDS.
* They also concluded that Twinkies and Ding-Dongs were “extremely groovy.”

1910 – The Camp Fire Girls organization was formed.
* Somebody thought it would be a good idea for girls to start playing with matches.

1845 – The rubber band was invented.
* “Gee, now if somebody would invent the paper clip, we could have some real fun in school!”

1763 – The first St. Patrick’s Day Parade held in America took place in New York.
* New York was so small back then, the parade stretched for three blocks and was over in eight minutes.

461 – The St. Patrick of legend who chased snakes out of Ireland died on this day, according to legend.
* Of course, with all the snakes gone, the rat population soared, but that’s another story.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2023 – Taylor Swift kicked off the Eras Tour in Glendale, California. The tour was met with unprecedented demand, breaking ticket sales and venue records worldwide. Tickets went on sale the previous November 15, 2022, and although the sales website crashed, over 2.4 million tickets were sold that day, marking the highest single-day ticket sales for an artist.

2008 – Paul McCartney’s divorce from Heather Mills was settled for $48.6 million.

2004 – The Kinks singer Ray Davies received his CBE medal from the Queen at Buckingham Palace for services to the music industry.

1997 – The RIAA announced that the Eagles’ “Greatest Hits” album had tied Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” as the all-time best-selling album in the U.S.

1990 – Rick Grech, bass player with Family, Blind Faith and Traffic died of kidney and liver failure.

1973 – Eric Weissberg started a three-week run at No.1 on the U.S. charts with “Dueling Banjos,” taken from the film “Deliverance.”

1971 – Peter Gabriel married his girlfriend Jill Moore. They were together on and off for 17 years. They divorced in 1987.

1968 – The Bee Gees made their U.S. television debut when they appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show.

1958 – The Champs started a five-week run at No.1 on the U.S. singles chart with “Tequila.”

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. The average person goes through 7 of THESE in their lifetime. What are they?
Office chairs

2. On a typical day, 9% of people will do THIS before work. What is it?
Spill coffee, or something else, on themselves

3. 58% of people have done THIS before work in the morning. What is it?
Shopped for groceries

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