TUESDAY, Aug 27 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR TUESDAY, August 27, 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.)

CRAB SOUP DAY

INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY DAY

JUST BECAUSE DAY
The Holiday Insights website says this:
“Today is Just Because Day. Finally, you have a chance to do something without a rhyme or reason. Most often in life, we do things because we have to, or we want to, or it’s expected of us. None of those reasons apply today. Is there something you’d like to do, but there isn’t a reason or logic for doing it? Well, today is the day to go out and do something “just because.”

NATIONAL BANANA LOVERS DAY

WORLD ROCK PAPER SCISSORS DAY

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

THE BUZZA DAILY INCONVENIENCE

Reddit asks, “What’s a daily inconvenience that you still can’t believe exists?” Some of the responses:
– “An easy way to truly clean the inside of your windshield.”
– “Socks come in ziplock bags, but not cereal.”
– “There has to be a better way to package flour.”
– “Noses. They get blocked really easily. Their job is for breathing, yet they spend so much time not working properly. Then there’s deviated septums, polyps etc. Come on evolution, sort this out.”
– “When I was a kid, there were a bunch of vacuums that had retractable cords. What happened? I want retractable cords on everything. I want one on my blender, my stand mixer, and my food processor please.”
– “Coffee shops should have a line for people ordering just an actual coffee.”
– “Bacon packaging.”
– “Why are chip bags so freakin’ loud?”
– “Why can’t washers and dryers have a clock in them so they can tell me exactly what time a load will be done? I don’t wanna do the math when it’s 12:37 and my load will be done in 54 minutes – let me program the time and then tell me when to come back!”
– “Being able to deselect a floor button in an elevator by pressing it a second time.”
* PHONE TOPIC: What daily inconvenience do you want to see fixed?

CAR TECHNOLOGY THAT PEOPLE HATE

JD Power’s 2024 U.S. Tech Experience Index Study evaluated over 81,000 drivers’ experience with “advanced vehicle technologies” in 2024 model year vehicles after 90 days of ownership. There are some tech features that customers like using, but there is a whole lot more that drivers hate, according to the survey.
– Facial recognition, fingerprint reader and interior gesture controls. It is felt they are creating solutions for non-existent problems.
– A second infotainment control screen for passengers. It’s already difficult to learn how to use the primary infotainment screen, let alone a second one.
– Most owners appreciate a camera that shows blind spots while backing up. However, drivers dislike Active Driver Assistance, like nudging the steering when you get close to a lane line or vibrating the wheel when there’s another car near you.
– Drivers don’t generally like hands-free driving systems. People are more than OK with just driving down the highway themselves.
* PHONE TOPIC: Does your car have a new technology that you particularly like or dislike?

THE MOST FUN STATES

WalletHub compared the 50 U.S. states across two categories, entertainment/recreation (casinos, amusement parks, movie theaters, golf courses, etc) and nightlife (bars!) per capita, while also considering costs and accessibility. They came up with The Most Fun States of 2024:
Top 10: Florida, California, Nevada, New York, Colorado, Illinois, Texas, Washington, Minnesota, Louisiana
Numbers 11-20: Arizona, Oregon, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Ohio, Wisconsin, Missouri, South Carolina, Maryland, Alaska
Numbers 21-30: Georgia, Michigan, Hawaii, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Virginia, Utah, Alabama, South Dakota, Oklahoma
Numbers 31-40; Wyoming, Idaho, New Mexico, Nebraska, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, Maine, Kansas, Indiana.
Numbers 41-50 (The Bottom 10): North Dakota, Kentucky, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont, Arkansas, Rhode Island, Delaware, Mississippi, West Virginia.

U.S. NEWS

THE AFFLICTION OF THE AGES: PHONE PINKY

Do you suffer from phone pinky? The syndrome refers to a bend, bump or dent caused by the weight of your cell phone when it’s resting on your pinky finger for extended periods of time. As you pull your hand away from the phone, your pinky remains in a bent, crooked position. The condition blew up on TikTok in recent weeks when influencers began sharing and comparing their little fingers, sparking the viral trend, with over 163 million posts about it so far. Dr. Peter Evans, an orthopedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic, says that propping up a phone on the pinky could compress a nerve and cause numbness or tingling, and excessive cellphone use can cause a range of joint problems, including in the elbows and thumbs.
* It’s like when you’re hand cramps halfway through a meal when you’re using chopsticks.
* I guess a crooked pinky from cellphones is better than the brain tumors we were all supposed to get.
* Somebody should start a class action suit. We could all probably get about 40 cents each.
* I’ve got Streaming Scramble – it’s where your brain goes haywire trying to find something to watch on a streaming service.

BUBBLE MAN TICKETED

Sandy Snakenburg – a homeless veteran known as The Bubble Man for the giant bubbles he makes in La Jolla Cove, a beachfront in the San Diego neighborhood of La Jolla – was issued a citation by a San Diego park ranger on Saturday. Snakenburg lives in, and drives around in, a truck painted with a “Bubbleworld” logo and puts on bubble shows for kids. He has doing this for more than a decade and lives off tips from the public for his shows. On Saturday, park officials gave him a ticket for “liquid littering,” when the bubbles pop and the soapy water ends up on the grass. Snakenburg tried to assure the rangers that he is fully compliant with the city – he has permits and insurance. The citation requires him to go to court next month.
* Slow day at the park, Mr. Ranger?
* He was in clear violation of the 1965 ruling in the case of San Diego vs. Lawrence Welk.
* The cops had to go and burst his bubble.
* To fight the charge of littering with bubbles, he needs a good slick lawyer.
* This makes me want to say the F word: Effervescent.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

THE WORLD GRAVY WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS

Hundreds of revelers descended on the Rose ‘N’ Bowl pub in Rossendale, England, Monday to watch the 16th Annual World Gravy Wrestling Championships. Sixteen men and eight women battled in a pool of 528 gallons of brown gravy. Competitors, who wear costumes, aim to win the championship title by beating their opponent during a two-minute long wrestling match in a pool of gravy. Bouts lasted for two minutes and the wrestlers were judged on their fancy dress, wrestling ability, comedic timing and how entertaining they were. The winner of each bout was decided by three judges. The overall winner was 18-year-old George Young. On his winning strategy, he said: “I was not wearing myself out quickly really, and doing bigger moves, so it gave me time in between, instead of doing a lot smaller moves.” George was awarded a trophy and £100, about $132.
* Working out a winning strategy was hard, but after that, the rest was gravy.
* He sounds, as they say in England, saucy.
* One guy was disqualified for illegal use of lumps.
* Their slogan should be: “You want fun? Try Gravy Wrestling – we’ve got you covered.”
* Everyone had a good time, until it was closing time and the pub owner said those magic words: “Release the dogs.”

TRENDING

“INSIDE OUT 2” SURPASSES ONE BILLION DOLLARS

Variety reports Inside Out 2 has now “surpassed $1 billion at the international box office,” becoming the first animated film in history to do so. The sequel made $1.649 billion globally, “including $1.002 billion overseas and $646.3 million domestically. Just a couple of weeks ago, Inside Out 2 surpassed Frozen II as the highest-grossing animated film in history.

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

Sept. 2, Monday – Labor Day
Sept. 11, Wednesday – Patriot Day
Sept. 20, Friday – National POW/MIA Recognition Day (The third Friday of September)
Sept. 23, Sunday – Fall begins (Autumn Equinox is 8:44 a.m. EDT)
Oct. 14, Monday – Columbus Day
Oct. 16, Wednesday – National Boss’s Day
Oct. 31, Thursday – Halloween

BIRTHDAYS

Aaron Paul (actor, “Westworld,” “The Path,” “Breaking Bad”) … 45
Sarah Chalke (actress, “Roseanne,” “How I Met Your Mother,” “Scrubs”) … 48
Chandra Wilson (actress, “Grey’s Anatomy”) … 55
Alex Lifeson (heavy metal singer/guitarist, songwriter with Rush) … 71

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

“I’m trying to have some longevity in this business. If that means not working for a while and just picking the right job, so be it.”

(A) Nicolas Cage
(B) Anthony Hopkins
(C) Aaron Paul

ANSWER: (C) Aaron Paul

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1955 – The “Guinness Book of World Records” was first published.
* Earning the record for the biggest list of world’s records ever published.

1939 – The first prototype jet plane was flown, in Germany.
* “Hey, these’ll come in handy if we get into a war.”

1883 – The volcano Krakatoa erupted with the largest explosion in historic times, throwing five cubic miles of earth into the sky and causing 120-foot high tidal waves.
* “Dude! Surf’s up … WAY UP!”

1867 – The railroad crossing gate was invented.
* It was supposed to stop people from trying to outrun trains at crossings. Now they try to outrun the gate.

1859 – The first successful oil well was drilled, near Titusville, PA, by Edwin Drake.
* “Come and listen to my story ’bout a man named Ed …”

1667 – The earliest recorded hurricane in the U.S. occurred at Jamestown, VA.
* “Hey! I thought we just LEFT the country with the world’s worst weather!”

1665 – The first play was performed in North America. It took place at Acoma, Virginia and was entitled “Ye Bare & Ye Cubb.”
* An early version of Yogi and Boo-Boo.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2013 – Miley Cyrus’s risque performance at the MTV VMAs drew complaints from a parenting pressure group in the US. The Parents Television Council (PTC) issued a complaint against the channel over the 20-year-old’s routine, which saw her dance suggestively in a nude bikini with singer Robin Thicke. It argued the show should not have been rated as suitable for 14 year olds, adding: “Heads should roll at MTV.”

2013 – Madonna was named the world’s top-earning celebrity over the past year. The 55-year-old made an estimated $125m thanks to her MDNA tour, clothing and fragrance lines, according to Forbes. The magazine said it was the most money Madonna had made in a single year since it began tracking earnings in 1999.

2007 – Kevin Federline’s lawyers asked Britney Spears to pay some of her former husband’s legal expenses in their divorce case. His legal team said Federline had “no net income” after various expenses, and that Ms. Spears was “clearly the monied party” in the dispute. According to legal documents filed in Los Angeles, the pop star’s average monthly income was $737,868. The couple had married in October 2004 and filed for divorce in November 2006.

2003 – Singer songwriter Janis Ian married her same-sex partner, Patricia Snyder, in Toronto. It was the second marriage for both.

1992 – John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to The Beatles song ‘A Day In The Life’ from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band sold in an auction at Sotheby’s London for $100,000. The lyrics were put up for sale again in March 2006 by Bonhams in New York. Sealed bids were opened on 7 March 2006 and offers started at about $2 million. The lyric sheet was auctioned again by Sotheby’s in June 2010 when it was purchased by an anonymous American buyer who paid $1,200,000.

1991 – Pearl Jam released their debut album “Ten.”

1990 – Stevie Ray Vaughan was killed when the helicopter he was flying in hit a man-made ski slope while trying to navigate through dense fog.

1967 – Brian Epstein, manager of the Beatles, was found dead in his London apartment from an overdose of sleeping pills.

1965 – Bob Dylan was booed off stage in NY’s Forest Hills.

1965 – The Beatles spent an evening at the home of Elvis Presley.

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. 28% of vegetarians say they’ve eaten THIS when drunk. What is it?
Bacon

2. The average American eats about 70 quarts of THIS each year. What is it?
Popped popcorn

3. 100 years ago, only affluent people ate THIS particular food. What is it?
Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches

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