MONDAY, Sept 23 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR MONDAY, September 23, 2024
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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, or the hundreds of disease awareness listings which occur each year.)

NATIONAL FAMILY DAY (Fourth Monday in September)
The National Day Calendar website says this:
“National Family Day encourages everyone to gather around the table and enjoy a meal together. According to the National Center on Addiction, families who eat three or more meals a week together reduce a teen’s risk of using tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. When parents engage with their children over a meal, their relationships are better. They learn responsibility while helping to prepare the meal and cleaning up. Children feel like they are a part of a unit, a team. They connect with the people who mean the most to them and who know them the best. Parents become and remain the people they turn to when the significant problems crop up. These conversations start at a dinner table. They shouldn’t begin when our children’s world turns upside down.”

NATIONAL GREAT AMERICAN POT PIE DAY

September is:

Baby Safety Month
Better Breakfast Month
Chicken Month
Classical Music Month
Hispanic Heritage Month
Honey Month
Little League Month
National Piano Month
Self Improvement Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

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

MONDAY, September 23

“Brilliant Minds”
NBC – New Series
Synopsis: A revolutionary, larger-than-life neurologist and his team of interns explore the last great frontier — the human mind — while grappling with their own relationships and mental health.

Season Premieres:
Fox – “9-1-1: Lonestar”
NBC – “The Voice”

TUESDAY, September 24

“Fly”
National Geographic – New Documentary
Synopsis: Follows three couples entwined in the world of base jumping, one of the world’s deadliest sports.

“Murder in a Small Town”
Fox – New Series
Synopsis: Detective Karl Alberg moves to a quiet coastal town to escape big-city police work but finds himself needing to call upon all his skills to solve the murders that continue to wash up on his shore.

“Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal”
Hulu – New Series
Synopsis: Looks inside eight true crime cases with shocking encounters with the paranormal world – through eyewitness accounts, expert interviews, and all-new investigations.

“Penelope”
Netflix – New Series
Synopsis: A 16-year-old girl who feels alienated from civilization attempts to build a new life out in the wilderness.

Season Premiere:
NBC – “America’s Got Talent”

WEDNESDAY, September 25

“Grotesquerie”
FX – New Series
Synopsis: When a series of heinous crimes hits a small community, a detective and a nun string together clues and find themselves ensnared in a sinister web that only seems to raise more questions than answers.

“Midnight Family”
Apple TV+ – New Series
Synopsis: Marigaby is a medical student by day—and by night, she saves lives with her family in Mexico City’s high-stakes business of private ambulances.

Season Premieres:
Fox – “The Floor,” “The Masked Singer”
NBC – “Chicago Med,” “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago P.D.”

THE BUZZ

MY PHOBIA

Reddit asked, “What’s your strange phobia?” Some of the responses:
– “Deep open water. You know when you’re swimming and suddenly the ocean floor doesn’t exist anymore? That.”
– “Seeing something in the water – old pop can, trees, lillipads. Logs at the bottom of a lake, pictures of shipwrecks, and chains leading from docks into dark water make me gag involuntarily.”
– “Shipwrecks kinda freak me out. Something about (a thing) that large being underneath the surface makes my stomach flip flop.”
– “I’m strangely triggered by the face of the Statue of Liberty. Something about its enormous face with those strange closed eyes that are supposed to be open.”
– “Lots of dots together. I’m not afraid of it but it just makes me feel rough.”
– “I get a feeling of intense disgust whenever I see very small clutter (and possibly dirt) in one place.”
– “Moths and butterflies.”
– “I can’t stand escalators!!”
– “Styrofoam. The sound, the feel, the texture… I had to take a glass bottle out of a milk box lined in Styrofoam, and audibly gagged.”
– “Mustard, and knuckle cracking.”
– “I have the fear of sand.”
* PHONE TOPIC: Do you have a strange phobia? Something other than the usual spider and snakes.

U.S. NEWS

SAN FRANCISCO TRAFFIC COPS DRESS AS CHICKENS

The San Francisco police department is trying a new technique to get drivers to slow down in pedestrian zones – they’re dressing in chicken costumes and crossing the street at crosswalks. In addition to chickens, they also dress in unicorn and Big Bird costumes. The point is to wear something bright and colorful so drivers will see them in the crosswalk. Said one officer in the chicken outfit, “If you don’t see someone in a giant chicken costume, then we really have a problem.” The many drivers who fail to yield to the pedestrian policeman get a $400 fine. The department says they’ve lost count of how many drivers failed the test. In eight previous exercises they issued no fewer than 150 tickets.
* That’s a lot of dumb klucks.
* Why did the San Francisco chicken cross the road? To give you a $400 ticket.
* It’s good, honest police work for a San Francisco cop. Dressing up in a flamboyant costume is just an added bonus.
* It’s San Francisco. Is a guy in a big chicken costume really that much different than the regular citizens on the street?
* They should dress as large $400 checks made out to the County of San Francisco.

BRAIN SURGEON SAW HEAVEN: ORBS OF GOLDEN LIGHT, AND FRIED CHICKEN

A brain surgeon who slipped into a week-long coma says he visited heaven. Dr. Eben Alexander woke up one morning six years ago with a “searing” headache before falling into a coma hours later. He had contracted meningitis — a rare bacterial strain of E coli in his spinal fluid that he said “ate into my brain like acid.” Scans showed he was brain dead. But Dr. Alexander finally awoke from his coma and made a full recovery within eight weeks. He wrote a book about it, called “A Map of Heaven,” because, he claims, he saw heaven. Here’s his story: Dr. Alexander says he was guided through heaven by an “extraordinarily beautiful woman” who he had never seen before. He describes seeing “valleys of lush and fertile greenery, where waterfalls flowed into crystal pools.” He said: “I witnessed stunning blue-black velvety skies filled with swooping orbs of golden light, angelic choirs leaving sparkling trails against the billowing clouds. Those choirs produced hymns and anthems far beyond anything I had ever encountered on earth. The sound was colossal. Everything was connected to everything else, like the infinitely complex swirls on a Persian carpet or a butterfly’s wing. And I was flying on that carpet, riding on that wing.” And – here’s the best part: Heaven was full of “marshmallow clouds” and was “as vivid as the aroma of fried chicken.”
* Regular recipe fried chicken or the extra crispy?
* This can’t be right. For it to really be heaven, it would have to be the aroma of cooking bacon.
* Do vegans have to smell chicken for all eternity?
* I guess it beats dreaming you’re addressing a medical conference and you suddenly realize you’re naked.
* So, Dr, Alexander, about this acid that was in your brain… I think there might have been a mix-up.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

MOUSE POPS OUT OF AIRLINE MEAL

A Scandinavian Airlines flight was forced to make an unexpected landing in Denmark when a mouse leaped from a passenger’s meal and began running around the cabin. The plane was flying from Oslo, Norway to Málaga, Spain on Wednesday when the mouse popped out of a food tray, spooking passengers. The pilot was forced to land in Copenhagen due to a policy that prohibits rodents on flights because they can chew through electrical wiring. A representative from the airline said, “This is something that happens extremely rarely.”
* At least it wasn’t a peanut – those things can set off an allergic reaction.
* Luckily, the mouse was too full of the chicken teriyaki to want to eat wiring.
* When a mouse tries to chew through electrical wiring, don’t you just get a cooked mouse?
* You just know the airline is thinking, “How can we pin this on Boeing?”
* At least they weren’t flying to a Disney park.

RUSSIA ENCOURAGES SEX AT WORK

Meanwhile in Russia, President Vladimir Putin has reportedly encouraged citizens to use their lunch breaks to bolster the nation’s declining population. The government has launched a so-called “sex-at-work” initiative to make babies. Currently, the birth rate stands at around 1.5 children per woman — well below the 2.1 rate needed to sustain population levels. Putin has stressed that boosting the birthrate is of “the highest national priority,” claiming that the survival and future of Russia are at stake. Health Minister Dr. Yevgeny Shestopalov said work is no excuse for not pumping out children. He says, “You can engage in procreation during breaks because life flies by too quickly.”
* Quicker if you’re in the Russian army.
* Putin just ordered the military to add 180,000 more troops, so they’ve got about a week to get cookin’ on this before the draft orders come.
* On the bright side, there are so many choices at work of where to have a romantic encounter – broom closets, behind boxes in the warehouse, the break room …
* Wait – in Russia, do all the husbands and wives work at the same companies, or is this supposed to be a free-for-all?
* America focuses on productivity at work, with Russia it’s re-productivity.
* If the U.S. attacks during lunch hour, we can totally catch Russia off guard.

TRENDING

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (9/20-9/22)

1. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – $26 million
2. Transformers One – $25 million
3. Speak No Evil – $5.9 million
4. Never Let Go – $4.5 million
5. Deadpool & Wolverine – $3.9 million

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

Oct. 14, Monday – Columbus Day
Oct. 16, Wednesday – National Boss’s Day
Oct. 31, Thursday – Halloween
Nov. 3, Sunday – Daylight Saving Time Ends, turn clocks back 1 hour
Nov. 11, Monday – Veterans Day
Nov. 28, Thursday – Thanksgiving

BIRTHDAYS

David Lim (actor, “S.W.A.T.”) … 41
Anthony Mackie (actor, Marvel’s new Captain America) … 46
Jason Alexander (actor, “Seinfeld”) … 65
Bruce Springsteen (singer/songwriter) … 75
Julio Iglesias (singer, father of Enrique) … 81

BIRTHDAY QUOTE QUIZ – Ask your listeners “Who said it?” HINT: Today’s their birthday!

“Adult life is dealing with an enormous amount of questions that don’t have answers.”

(A) Pope Francis
(B) The Dalai Lama
(C) Bruce Springsteen

ANSWER: (C) Bruce Springsteen

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2002 – The first public version of the web browser Mozilla Firefox, called Phoenix, was released.
* Good news for us, bad news for Netscape and Internet Explorer.

1999 – The Mars Climate Observer apparently burned up as it was about to go into orbit around the Red Planet.
* Never buy a spacecraft that was built on a Monday or a Friday.

1930 – Photo flashbulbs were patented.
* And the next day, someone patented the term “red eye.”

1846 – German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle discovered the planet Neptune.
* “Eureka! Wundebar! Zis means we can finally … eh, zat is, Neptune will give us … oh, never mind.”

1806 – The Lewis and Clark expedition returned to St. Louis from the Pacific Northwest.
* Actually, St. Louis could smell them coming as early as September 17th.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2022 – Elton John was awarded the U.S. National Humanities Medal by President Joe Biden.

2006 – Neil Young was named artist of the year at the Americana Honors and Awards at the fifth annual event in Nashville, Tennessee. The 60-year-old singer-songwriter had released the protest album “Living With War” that year.

2004 – Slipknot’s Corey Taylor issued a statement denying he was dead. Rumors started after a shock jock in Des Moines broadcast the announcement that the singer had died of a drug overdose, which then became a fatal car crash.

1970 – Mick Jagger met Bianca Macias for the first time after a Stones concert at the Paris Olympia. The couple later married, the marriage lasting from May 1971 to November 1978.

1969 – The Northern Star newspaper of Northern Illinois University ran a story claiming that Paul McCartney had been killed in a car crash in 1966 and had been replaced by a look-a-like. Russell Gibb of WKNR-FM in Detroit picked up on the claim and the story went worldwide. By late October 1969 the hoax was so well entrenched that McCartney came out of seclusion at his Scottish farm to deny the story.

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. A survey about job stress says that 50% of men and 40% of women do THIS because of work. What is it?
They lose sleep – lie awake in bed stressing over work

2. According to a recent survey, in exchange for a 10% raise, 40% of people would give up THIS. What is it?
Dental care

3. In a recent survey, 26% of hiring managers said it’s never okay to do THIS at work. What is it?
Cry

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