THURSDAY, May 29 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR THURSDAY, May 29, 2025
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COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: BROUGHT TO YOU BY

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.)

LEARN ABOUT COMPOSTING DAY

NATIONAL BISCUIT DAY

NATIONAL COQ AU VIN DAY

NATIONAL PAPERCLIP DAY
The National Day Calendar website says this:
“While there are much earlier claims to the invention of the paperclip, according to the Early Office Museum, the first patent for a “bent wire paper clip” was presented to Samuel B. Fay in the United States in 1867. The original intention of Fay’s clip was to attach tickets to fabric. However, U.S. patent 64,088 recognized that it could also be used to attach papers together.”

May is:

Chip Your Pet Month / Pet Month
Date Your Mate Month
International Civility Awareness Month
National Barbecue Month
National Bike Month
National Egg Month
National Hamburger Month
National Military Appreciation Month
National Salad Month
National Salsa Month
Older Americans Month

ENTERTAINMENT & CELEBRITIES

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

THURSDAY, May 29

“Dept. Q”
Netflix – New Series from England
Synopsis: A former top-rated detective in Edinburgh – wracked with guilt following an attack that left his partner paralyzed and another policeman dead – is assigned to a new cold case.

“The Better Sister”
Prime Video – New Series
Synopsis: When a successful media executive’s high-power lawyer husband is brutally killed, she reconnects with her financially struggling sister and they uncover family secrets that might give them answers about the murder.

Season Premieres:
Max – “And Just Like That…”

FRIDAY, May 30

“A Widow’s Game”
Netflix – New Movie from Spain
Synopsis: The body of a man is discovered in a Valencia parking garage – stabbed seven times. The investigation points to the young and seemingly sweet widow, married to the victim for less than a year.

“Bono: Stories of Surrender”
Apple TV+ – New Documentary
Synopsis: Documents a 2023 performance by Bono at the Beacon Theatre in New York City during his one-man stage show “Stories of Surrender: An Evening of Words, Music and Some Mischief…”, which itself was undertaken to promote his 2022 memoir “Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story.”

“Rickey Smiley: Fool-ish”
Hulu – New Stand-Up Comedy Special
Synopsis: Said to be infused with his trademark humor, characters, and satire on life and pop culture.

“The Heart Knows”
Netflix – New Movie from Argentina
Synopsis: After a heart transplant, Manuel feels a personality shift and explores his donor’s life, leading him to meet the widowed Vale and her community.

SATURDAY, May 31

“Good Boy”
Prime Video – New Series from South Korea
Synopsis: Follows a ragtag team of former athletes who, after falling off the podium and hitting rock bottom, swap gold medals for police badges.

“Mountainhead”
HBO – New Movie
Synopsis: A group of tech billionaires get together on a remote mountaintop during an international crisis. With nations teetering politically and economically, they try to play the crisis for their gain, with each potential move impacting their net worths, their friendship, and the world.

“Netflix Tudum 2025: The Live Event”
Netflix – Live Special
Synopsis: A self-promotional event spotlighting Netflix movies, shows, stars and creators that fans around the world love.

THE BUZZ

DUMB HEADLINES

Time for another episode of Three Dumb Headlines. These are actual, word-for-word headlines of stories found on the internet. There’s no story, no context, just the actual headline. Discuss them amongst yourselves. Then, encourage listeners to vote for the Dumbest Headline on your station’s social media page. Maybe ask them to leave a comment. Reveal the results in the next break.
Today’s Dumb Headlines:
1. “What 17th-Century Nuns Can Teach Us About Coping With Loneliness”
2. “Millie Bobby Brown Talks New Luggage Collaboration”
3. “The Surprising Link Between Penguin Poop and Cloud Formation”
And here’s a spare, in case you don’t like one of those three: “Could Bird Saliva Be The Missing Ingredient In Health Drinks?”

HURRICANE NAMES FOR 2025

The 2025 Atlantic hurricane season will use the following list of names: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dexter, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Imelda, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van, and Wendy. There are no names for the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z.
* There would be if we gave them Chinese names.
* Oh, wait – I’m sorry, these are the names of Nick Cannon’s children. The first batch, anyway.
* Isn’t it nice of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to take our minds off the death and destruction of hurricanes with their fun annual list of names?
* Let’s wait and see how many weatherpeople end up pronouncing the “H” in Humberto.

THE SEXIEST MASCOTS IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL

Gambling site BetUS came up with a ranking of the 15 Sexiest Mascots in Major League Baseball. The ranking was based off the mascots’ personalities, job titles, “golden ratio” of features proportions, search interest and social media following:
1. D. Baxter, Arizona Diamondbacks
2. Phillie Phanatic, Philadelphia Phillies
3. Clark the Cub, Chicago Cubs
4. Rosie Red, Cincinnati Reds
5. Mrs. Met, New York Mets
6. Billy the Marlin, Miami Marlins
7. Mr. Met, New York Mets
8. Raymond, Tampa Bay Rays
9. Orbit, Houston Astros
10. Oriole Bird, Baltimore Orioles
11. Blooper, Atlanta Braves
12. Fredbird, St. Louis Cardinals
13. PAWS, Detroit Tigers
14. Slider, Cleveland Guardians
15. Rangers Captain, Texas Rangers
* How did Brian Wilson of the Dodgers not make the list?
* Mr. Met is damn lucky Mrs. Met scored higher than him, or that would have been one tense household.
* You know how there are the Disney character costumes, and then there’s a secondary level of all the other character costumes that are just a little off? Major League Baseball mascots costumes look like they’re designed by the people below THAT.
* Frankly, I wouldn’t let any of them get to first base.
* At least Major League Baseball offers a solid career path in this world for furries.
* Whoever at BetUS thinks baseball mascots are sexy really needs to get laid.

U.S. NEWS

PIGEONS IN THE AIRPLANE CABIN

A Delta flight out of Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport was invaded by pigeons last Saturday. A passenger spotted a pigeon in the cabin as they taxied for takeoff. He reported it, and the pilot returned the plane to the gate to have the bird removed. As the plane again taxied out to take off a half hour later, a second pigeon emerged and flew down the main aisle of the cabin. Again, the plane returned to the gate.
* Those poor birds. Now they’re stuck in Minneapolis.
* Pigeons always struck me as being fat and lazy, but hitching a ride in a plane?
* “Ladies and gentlemen, our in-flight meal today is squab.”
* Just wait’ll the eggs hatch, sometime next week over Duluth.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

CHEATING HUSBAND CAUGHT BY ELECTRIC TOOTHBRUSH

A British woman caught her husband cheating thanks to their electric toothbrush. The married mother-of-two was trying to improve her children’s brushing habits by monitoring their electronic toothbrush use via a smartphone app. She noticed that the brush was being used at strange times of the day when her kids were supposed to be at school and her husband at work. After making sure her kids were indeed at school, she confronted her husband, who claimed to have been away at work all day. Over time, the woman started to see a pattern. The electric toothbrush was being used on Friday mornings. She did some investigation and discovered he hadn’t been to work on Friday morning in months. Instead, he had been having an affair with a colleague in the family home.
* The one British man who actually takes care of his teeth, and this happens.
* His lies were minty fresh.
* Sounds like the guy was not Ultra Brite.
* She gave him the gate: the COLGATE!
* Wait – the kids were using Dad’s toothbrush? Yuckk!!!

JAPAN SPREADS CONTAMINATED FUKUSHIMA SOIL ON PRIME MINISTER’S GARDEN

Remember the 2011 Japanese earthquake that triggered a massive tsunami that flooded the Fukushima nuclear power plant, causing the reactor cooling systems to fail and meltdown, releasing radiation into the environment? No? Well, it happened. Now, 14 years later, Japan is still dealing with its consequences — including over 494 million cubic feet of radioactive soil. The Environment Ministry maintains that some of the soil is now safe enough to “repurpose” – which means spread it around. To convince the public of this, the government plans to use the soil in city-owned flower beds as well gardens at the prime minister’s office. The end goal is to used the contaminated soil in infrastructure including railways, waste treatment sites, roads, seawalls, coastal protection, agricultural land, and land reclamation. According to the internet, the primary contamination in Fukushima’s soil is Cesium-137, with a half-life of approximately 30 years. This means that Cesium-137’s radioactivity will reduce by half every 30 years.
* And 30 years is smaller than 14 years, right? Sure it is. They must be using that new math that my kid brings home from school for homework.
* It’s perfectly safe and nobody’s running for prime minister in the next election.
* If Japan doesn’t make a Wormzilla movie out of this, I’ll be highly disappointed.
* The lotus that ate Tokyo!
* Fun facts:
There are 494 million cubic feet of radioactive soil.
The surface area of Japan is 146 million square feet.
If you covered Japan with an even layer of the radioactive dirt, it would be 3 feet, 5 inches deep … across the entire country.
Good luck using it up in flower beds!
(Data and calculations by Claude AI. Thanks, Claude!)

TRENDING

SEAN COMBS TRIAL: WEDNESDAY, MAY 28

Here is what happened at Sean “Diddy” Combs’ sex-and-drug trafficking trial on Wednesday:
– Deonte Nash, a former stylist for both Ventura and Combs, testified he witnessed Combs threaten Ventura with releasing sex tapes of her to the internet. He said Combs threatened to first release the tapes to her parents’ workplaces, to get them fired.
– Nash recounted an incident that allegedly showed how demanding and controlling Combs could be with Ventura. For Vanity Fair’s 2014 Oscars party, Ventura wore her hair stylishly down, which Nash thought looked great. But Combs disagreed, picked up Nash by his jacket and demanded Cassie’s hair be put up. Nash quickly got some hair pins and put Ventura’s hair up before Combs remarked: “I was right; it does look better.”
– Nash testified that he was in Cassie Ventura’s apartment helping her prepare for a music festival when Combs assaulted her, grabbing Ventura by the hair, kicking and hitting her. Nash and another Combs victim, named Mia, each tried to jump on Combs’ back but were thrown off. Combs continued to hit Cassie until her head hit the edge of her bed frame and began bleeding.
– An arson investigator testified that the Molotov cocktail Combs allegedly ordered up that burned up Kid Cudi’s Porsche was made a with 40 oz malt liquor bottle and a designer handkerchief.
– In better news, Cassie Ventura gave birth yesterday to the baby boy she was carrying when she testified during the first week of the trial. This is her third baby with husband Alex Fine.

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

June 14, Saturday – Flag Day
June 15, Sunday – Father’s Day
June 20, Friday – Summer begins (The June solstice occurs at 10:42 P.M. EDT)

BIRTHDAYS

Melanie “Mel B” Brown – (singer, Scary Spice of the Spice Girls) … 50
Laverne Cox (actress, “Clean Slate,” “Orange Is the New Black”) … 53
Melissa Etheridge (singer/songwriter) … 64
Annette Benning (actress, wife of Warren Beatty) … 67
LaToya Jackson … 69
Danny Elfman (member of Oingo Boingo, now film score composer) … 72

Today’s Birthdays grade: A Spice Girl! A Jackson sister! Actresses, another singer, and the guy who does Tim Burton’s movie scores! Excited? Me neither. Grade: D.

[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!

“Acting is not about being famous, it’s about exploring the human soul.”

(A) Steven Segal
(B) David Spade
(C) Annette Benning

ANSWER: (C) Annette Benning

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2001 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that disabled golfer Casey Martin could use a cart to ride in tournaments.
* Duh! Everybody knows there’s no handicap in professional golf.

1989 – Student protesters in China constructed a replica of the Statue of Liberty.
* Which if you go to any New York City gift shop doesn’t seem like that big a deal.

1977 – Janet Guthrie became the first woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500.
* “Gentlemen, start your – I mean, racers, start your engines.”

1849 – Abraham Lincoln said the famous line: “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of people some of time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
* But the politicians still keep trying to!

1790 – The U.S. Constitution was ratified.
* And a damn fine document is was … until they tacked on that amendment for an income tax.

1765 – During his historic speech against the British Stamp Act, patriot Patrick Henry answered a cry of “Treason!” with the words: “If this be treason, make the most of it!”
* And went on to suggest Treason T-shirts, Treason Baseball Caps, Treason Water Bottles, Treason Memo Pads …

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2024 – A guitar used by John Lennon became the most expensive Beatles instrument ever sold at auction. The Framus 12-string Hootenanny acoustic guitar was found in an attic after being presumed lost for more than 50 years. It sold for $2.9m via a telephone bid at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York. Lennon played the song “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” on the guitar in the 1965 film “Help!” and it was also used on recordings on the album of the same name.

2009 – Music producer Phil Spector was sentenced to 19 years to life for murdering an actress in 2003. Spector, famed for his “Wall of Sound” recording technique, was found guilty of shooting Lana Clarkson at his California home. Spector had pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder during the five-month retrial in Los Angeles. He died in jail.

2007 – A piano used by John Lennon on the night he died was put up for sale for $375,000 on The Moments in Time memorabilia website. The upright grand piano was part of the Record Plant Recording Studios in New York where the former Beatle recorded his 1971 “Imagine” album. Lennon was said to be so fond of the instrument that he had it moved to whichever studio he was working in and had used the piano hours before being shot on December 8, 1980.

1999 – Skeletal remains were found by photographers looking for old car wrecks to shoot at the bottom of Decker Canyon near Malibu, California. Based on forensic evidence the remains were identified as former Iron Butterfly bassist Philip Kramer, who had disappeared on his way home from work on February 12, 1995. His death was ruled as a probable suicide.

1992 – The FBI recovered 44 nude photographs of Madonna, which had been stolen in America from fashion photographer Steven Meisel.

1991 – After just completing the recording of the “Nevermind” album, Nirvana played a last-minute show at the Jabberjaw in Los Angeles. In the audience was Iggy Pop, Dave Grohl’s girlfriend, and L7 bassist Jennifer Finch – who brought along her best friend Courtney Love.

1977 – Fleetwood Mac, Bob Seger, Chick Corea, Stanley Clarke and Kenny Logins all appeared at the Tangerine Bowl, Orlando, Florida. Tickets cost $10 – $12.50.

1967 – The Move, Cream, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Zoot Money and Pink Floyd all appeared at the Tulip Bulb Auction Hall in Spalding, England. Tickets cost $1.70.

1942 – Bing Crosby recorded the Irving Berlin song “White Christmas.” It went on to become the biggest-selling single of all time with sales of over 30 million. It was overtaken by the 1997 Elton John version of “Candle In The Wind.”

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. 97% of American kitchens have THIS in them. What is it?
Ketchup

2. 98% of households purchase THIS. What is it?
Ice cream

3. In a typical year, 99% of US households will buy THIS. What is it?
Soup

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