WEDNESDAY, June 19 – DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION

MORNING SIDEKICK DAILY PREP TEXT VERSION FOR WEDNESDAY, June 19, 2024
(Print button is at bottom of post. To print with larger type, cut and paste content into a document, and print that document.)

COMEDY MP3s POSTED ON OUR PREP SITE FOR TODAY: A & M AUTOLAND – Lemons

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.)

GARFIELD THE CAT DAY
The National Day Calendar website says this:
“June 19, 1978 was the first publication of Garfield, which chronicles the life of lead character, the cat Garfield (named after Jim Davis’s grandfather); Garfield’s owner, Jon Arbuckle: and Jon’s dog, Odie. By 2013, Garfield was syndicated in roughly 2,580 newspapers and journals and holds the Guinness World Record for being the world’s most widely syndicated comic strip.”

JUNETEENTH
The Holiday Insights website says this:
“Juneteenth day, a June 19 holiday, celebrates and symbolizes the end of slavery in the United States. President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on September 22, 1862. It was not until June 19, 1865 that all slaves were finally freed. That concluding event was when General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas with his troops and issued Order Number 3 which finally freed the last of the slaves.”

NATIONAL MARTINI DAY

June is:

NATIONAL DJ MONTH – Yeah!
National Adopt a Cat / Adopt a Shelter Cat Month
African-American Music / Black Music Appreciation Month
Corn Month
Great Outdoors Month / National Camping Month
International Men’s Month
Lemon Month
LGBTQIA Pride Month
National Candy Month
National Fresh Fruit & Vegetables Month
National Iced Tea Month
National Rose Month
National Seafood Month
Women’s Golf Month

THE BUZZ

PSYCHOLOGICAL TRICKS

Reddit asked, “What’s the best psychology trick you know?” Some of the responses:
– “If you greet people as though you are excited to see them they will be equally happy to see you. This works great if you work in customer service.”
– “Mirroring someone’s body language instantly makes them feel more connected to you, it’s like a secret rapport booster.”
– “I teach kindergarten and the last couple years I started projecting timers on the board for them to see. I rarely ever have to remind them ‘1 minute, start cleaning up,’ because they do it for me.”
– “In a negotiation stop talking and let the other party speak. Like, when buying a car. Uncomfortable silences work very well in negotiations.”
– “When navigating busy sidewalks and people walking towards you keep getting in your way, keep your eyes focused on where you are going and don’t make any eye contact. People will glance at your face and instinctively avoid your path.”
– “Ask ‘Why do you need to know that?’, particularly when it’s something personal. Shuts them right down.”
– “I wait for my husband to pull into our driveway then start working on a project he said he would do but didn’t. He will always take over and finish it.”
* PHONE TOPIC: Do you have a little psychological trick you use on your spouse or kids or co-worker?

U.S. NEWS

AUDIO: PENNSYLVANIA MAN BUSTED FOR MOONSHININ’

Police have charged a Pennsylvania man for selling moonshine out of his father’s tire and repair shop. Steven Scaife II, 34, of Houtzdale, is accused of selling moonshine out of the tire shop to members of the Pennsylvania State Police multiple times last year. Troopers reported that they had purchased multiple quarts of caramel apple and other flavors of moonshine. According to the arrest affidavit, Scaife allegedly admitted that he runs 1.5 gallons of illegal moonshine at a time and has produced 50 gallons since Oct. 2022. He is being charged with unlawful sale of liquor and distilling alcohol without a license.
* Said the meth-head hillbillies in Arkansas: “Moonshine – how quaint.”
* They arrest this guy, yet we’re in season 13 of “Moonshiners” on the Discovery Channel?
* He wanted to get on “Moonshiners” but ended up on “COPS.”
* What other kind of moonshine flavors come out of a tire shop? Beef jerky and leftover Halloween candy?
CLIP: Our classic “Smokey Mountain Dew parody spot.
CLIP URL: morningsidekick(dot)com/prep/wp-content/uploads/SmokeyMountainDew-Soda(dot)mp3

MINE TOUR GROUP GETS TRAPPED UNDERGROUND

In Pennsylvania, more than 50 people were stuck several hundred feet underground after a mining car at the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour lost power during the mine tour. How did they get them out? With the emergency metal cage elevator. The elevator carriage holds three or four people, and is operated by an electric winch. It took roughly two hours to bring everyone to the surface. Mine employees said it was the first time they used the emergency elevator in 15 years. Said mine foreman Ed Neidlinger, “A lot of the kids had fun; they want to go back down and do it again.” Mine operators hope to fix the mine car in the next few days.
* Because once word gets out, people will be lining up for the tour in droves.
* Seriously, the mining car breaks down forcing people to use the elevator, and THAT makes the Coal Mine Tour fun??
* Yeah, the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour has its ups and downs.
* Everybody got a refund on their ticket price, along with black lung disease.
* Still better than being stuck upside down on that amusement park ride the other day.

SCHOOL PLAYGROUND PLAYSET STOLEN

Here’s the lowest of the low: somebody stole a brand new playground set from a school for children with autism. Last week, the Growing Together Behavioral Center in Jacksonville, Florida had just finished constructing a new 30-foot long playset, with swings and a slide and climbing ladders and a lookout tower. The wooden legs were cemented into the ground. But when the staff came to start the week on Monday, all that was left of the playset were the studs in the ground – someone had sawed through the wooden legs at ground level and taken it. A surveillance camera watching the area had a strip of pink duct tape over it.
* Well, duh, that’s why there was a lookout tower! Sheesh!
* Uhh… senior prank?
* Maybe it was those kids from the Bad Behavioral Center of Jacksonville.
* Next time, go with cast iron.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

MT FUJI GETS AN ENTRANCE GATE

Officials have set up an entrance gate for a hiking trail on Japan’s most famous mountain, Mount Fuji, ahead of the start of the climbing season. The gate will regulate the number of hikers who visit Japan’s highest mountain, because there have been problems on the trail. Some trekkers climb Mt. Fuji at night, while others have set up tents on the trail, creating a nuisance. Starting on July 1, the daily number of climbers able to use the route will be limited to 4,000. The gate will be closed between 4 p.m. and 3 a.m. Hikers and climbers will be charged 2,000 yen, or around 13 dollars.
* Jeeze, Space Mountain at Disneyland is open longer than that.
* They have to charge money, ’cause with smartphone cameras, the mountain barely sells any Fujifilm.
* The gate will be closed between 4 p.m. and 3 a.m.? So if you enter at 3:55 p.m., do you have to turn around and leave in five minutes, or stay inside until 3 a.m.?
* Once again, Japan tries to control the environment. Won’t they ever learn, that history shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man? That’s the immutable law of the Blue Öyster Cult.

TRENDING

WILLIE MAYS HAS DIED

The great Willie Mays, baseball Hall of Famer who excelled in all facets of the game and made a dramatic catch in the 1954 World Series, passed away Tuesday at the age of 93. Known as “The Say Hey Kid” for the way he enthusiastically greeted others, Mays was a power hitter while also excelling at running, throwing and fielding. In 23 major league seasons, mostly with the New York Giants and the San Francisco Giants, he finished with 660 career home runs – at the time the second most behind legend Babe Ruth. Mays led the National League in home runs and steals in four seasons and in slugging five times. He hit over .300 ten times and had a career average of .301. Mays’ death came just one day after he told the San Francisco Chronicle that he wouldn’t be able to attend Major League Baseball’s Juneteenth commemoration this week and celebrate the Negro Leagues with a game Thursday at Rickwood Field, in Birmingham, Alabama, where his old team, the Black Barons, played. MLB had long planned to honor Mays at the game, though he told the Chronicle on Monday that he couldn’t make it to Birmingham and instead would watch his San Francisco Giants play the St. Louis Cardinals on TV.

LORNE MICHAELS NOT LEAVING SNL YET

“Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels continues to shoot down retirement rumors as the NBC sketch comedy series prepares for its upcoming 50th season. He told the New York Times in a new interview: “I’m going to do it as long as I feel I can do it.” But, he note, “I rely on other people and always have.”

IAN MCKELLEN SENDS MESSAGE TO FANS AFTER STAGE FALL

Sir Ian McKellen is in “good spirits” after falling off stage during a performance of Player Kings Monday at the Noël Coward theatre in London.
The actor, 85, cried out in pain, calling for help, and a staff member rushed to assist him. Sir Ian had been performing in a fight scene when he seemed to lose his footing. He was taken to hospital and the play was cancelled. Sir Ian wrote:on Tuesday: “I want to thank everyone for their kind messages and support. Since the accident, during a performance of Player Kings last night, my injuries have been diagnosed and treated by a series of experts, specialists and nurses working for the National Health Service. To them, of course, I am hugely indebted. They have assured me that my recovery will be complete and speedy and I am looking forward to returning to work.”

JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE ARRESTED FOR DUI

Justin Timberlake was arrested for driving while intoxicated in the Hamptons. The singer was arrested on Monday night in Sag Harbor, New York, while driving a BMW when officers observed him failing to stop at a stop sign and failing to maintain his lane of travel. The singer reportedly told police he had “one martini,” although tabloids are reporting that Timberlake had drunken one of his friends’ drinks when that friend got up to use the restroom. During the traffic stop, Timberlake reportedly refused to take a breathalyzer test. The singer was held overnight, arraigned Tuesday and released without bail. His next court date is July 26.

SPACEBALLS 2 IN THE WORKS

A sequel to Mel Brooks’ 1987 comedy “Spaceballs” is in the works. Actor Josh Gad is set to star, co-write and co-produce the sci-fi parody. Mel Brooks, now 97, is attached to the project as a producer. One of the original movie’s big jokes was that there would be a sequel called “Spaceballs 2: The Search For More Money.”

ALMANAC

NOTABLE DATES, UPCOMING U.S. OBSERVANCES

TODAY – Juneteenth
TOMORROW – Summer begins (The June solstice occurs at 4:50 P.M. EST)
July 4, Thursday – U.S. Independence Day
Sept. 2, Monday – Labor Day
Sept. 11, Wednesday – Patriot Day
Sept. 23, Sunday – Fall begins (Autumn Equinox is 8:44 a.m. EDT)

BIRTHDAYS

Chuku Modu (actor, “The Good Doctor”) … 34
Zoe Saldana (actress, “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Star Trek” and “Avatar” movies) … 46
Robin Tunney (actress, “The Fix,” “The Mentalist”) … 52
Lara Spencer (TV host, “Good Morning America”) … 55
Paula Abdul (singer) … 62
Kathleen Turner (actress) … 70
Larry Dunn (keyboardist with Earth, Wind and Fire) … 71
Ann Wilson (singer with Heart) … 74

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

“All my life, I have been taught to take the high road.”

(A) Donald Trump
(B) Tucker Carlson
(C) Paula Abdul

ANSWER: (C) Paula Abdul

THIS DAY IN HISTORY

2017 – The first full genetic study of cats was published in “Nature Ecology and Evolution.” It revealed cats were domesticated 9,000 years ago, and all cats are descended from one species of African wildcat.
* The reaction of cats everywhere: “Meh.”

1999 – Stephen King was struck by a mini-van while walking along a road in Maine. He was severely injured with a collapsed right lung, multiple fractures of his right leg, scalp laceration and a broken hip.
* Did Dean Koontz have an alibi?

1934 – The Federal Communications Commission, which among other things oversees the fabulous world of radio, was created.
* So now you know who to complain to about my show. JUST KIDDING!

1912 – The U.S. government established the eight-hour work day.
* Would someone please tell my boss?

1911 – The first motion-picture censorship board was established, in Pennsylvania.
* So everyone knew where to go to see the good stuff.

1910 – Father’s Day was celebrated for the first time.
* For this first time in thousands of years of human civilization, it was officially recognized that kids didn’t come from storks.

1846 – The first baseball fine was levied, when umpire Alexander Cartwright fined a Hoboken, New Jersey player six cents for swearing.
* It doesn’t sound like much, but back then, baseball players only got 25 cents a game.

THIS DAY IN MUSIC HISTORY

2020 – Bob Dylan released his 39th studio album, “Rough and Rowdy Ways.” With this album, Bob Dylan became the only artist to date to have an album chart in the top 40 throughout seven consecutive decades.

2012 – Rickey Goodrich, the former chief financial officer for Pearl Jam, was charged with 33 counts of theft for allegedly stealing at least $380,000 from the Seattle band’s management company. He was eventually sentenced to 14 months in prison.

2011 – Amy Winehouse was booed by crowds in Serbia’s capital Belgrade after appearing to be too drunk to perform.

1987 – Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream & Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia announced a new ice cream flavor, Cherry Garcia.

1980 – Donna Summer became the first act signed by David Geffen to his new Geffen Records label.

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. 6% of men surveyed say they’ve had THIS for breakfast. What is it?
Beer

2. 40% of men surveyed don’t know THIS about their partner. What is it?
Their favorite flower

3. 10% of men can’t locate THIS on a car. What is it?
The oil dipstick

(c) 2024
MORNING SIDEKICK RADIO SHOW PREP & COMEDY
8062 West Massey Circle
Littleton, CO 80128
USA
morningsidekick(at)gmail(dot)(com)
Tel: 303-727-9111