On Today’s Show

December 18, 2019 9:35 am Published by Dave Palmer

A guy from Virginia who grew up poor drove around his hometown in a Ryder truck on Saturday, and handed out $12,000 worth of Christmas presents to kids in low-income areas. He started by going to the low-income housing complex he used to live in and asking the manager if it was okay.

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Hackers attacked the payment systems of some North American gas station pumps and gained access to customers’ credit card data, according to Visa.

They’ve issued multiple warnings to gas station owners over the past month, alerting them that it learned of one successful attack in August and another in September.

Visa describes the summer attacks as “significantly more advanced” than skimming, in which unauthorized devices are attached to debit or credit card readers.

In these new attacks, hackers are able to get into the gas station’s point-of-sale (POS) systems after first entering their computers through a phishing email or other methods. Visa says it believes gas stations are being targeted more frequently in these attacks because they have generally been slower to go to chip-reading devices. It is not clear if either attack hit a gas station in Canada, where chip readers are far more widespread than they are in the U.S.

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ENTERTAINMENT

A spin-off of “National Lampoon’s Vacation” is coming to HBO Max. It’ll be a half-hour comedy called “The Griswolds”, and it’ll follow the family as they live their lives in suburban Chicago.

It’s being produced by “Roseanne” and “Big Bang Theory” star JOHNNY GALECKI, who played Rusty Griswold in 1989’s “Christmas Vacation”.

There’s no word on casting, so it’s unknown at this point if anyone from the movies will be involved.

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The No. 24 briefcase Meghan Markle the now-Duchess of Sussex, 38, held during her stint on NBCs Deal or No Deal is hitting the market in Hollywood:

The auction will take place through December 19^th

The briefcase is expected to sell for $4,000 to $6,000. Markle appeared on Deal or No Deal from 2006 to 2007 before becoming a regular on USA Networks Suits in 2011.

She married Prince Harry in May 2018.

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TODAY IS……………….

“Answer the Telephone Like Buddy the Elf Day”. The idea is to answer: “Buddy the Elf, what’s your favorite color?”, a quote from the 2003 Will Ferrell movie “Elf”.

“Bake Cookies Day”.

1966 [53] Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” airs on TV for the first time

2009 [10] “Avatar”, directed by James Cameron, opens in movie theaters (with a reported budget of $300 million-plus, it’s said to be the most expensive movie ever made; fortunately, it’s also the most successful ($2.8 billion in worldwide box office) until this year’s “Avengers: Endgame”. “Avatar 2” is slated for release in 2021

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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE

Tim McGraw‘s “Back When” went to Number One in Billboard in 2004.

Tim McGraw‘s Greatest Hits album was certified gold and platinum on the same day in 2000.

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RANDOM REPORT

After “Harry Potter”, Daniel Radcliffestarred in a movie called “The Woman in Black” in 2012. It was a remake of a 1989 movie where the star was Adrian Rawlins . . . who played Harry Potter’s father in the “Harry Potter” movies.

Paul Simonand Art Garfunkel met each other when they were 11, and they were both in the school play, “Alice in Wonderland”.

Ketchup was originally made in England and the United States with mushrooms as the main ingredient, not tomatoes. That lasted until the early 1800s, when tomato ketchup started getting more popular.

In World War Two, Japanese soldiers would taunt American soldiers during battles by yelling insults about Babe Ruth.

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GOOD NEWS

An Ontario man said he was skating on Lake of the Woods, near Kenora when he came across three deer stranded on a frozen lake and decided to take action.

Ryan Peterson knew he had to act fast “I went back to work and grabbed some rope. The ice was still too thin for any kind of vehicle, so skating was the only option,”

While on his skates, he said he managed to tie the ropes around each of the deer and dragged them all to the edge of the ice. There, some of the animals regained their balance and stood up.

“The two younger ones took off running right away, but the doe stuck around with what seemed like an injured hip or leg,” Peterson said.

He said the Ontario Natural Resources Ministry told him employees wouldn’t immediately be able to safely help, since the lake was not entirely frozen. It’s unclear if and when staff did end up showing up.

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BIRTHDAYS

[73] Steven Spielberg, movie director-producer

[65] Ray Liotta, actor

[56] Brad Pitt, actor

[44] Randy Houser, country singer

[41] Katie Holmes, actress

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JUMBO VIDEO

One of the few remaining video rental stores, Jumbo Video, which features a video game boutique, celebrated 30 years of business in London.

The store first opened its doors back in December 1989 is now located in the north part of the city. “We still rent movies (although not in VHS anymore) and make our freshly popped popcorn,” the post read, mentioning the store had moved to its current location in 2012. It added that to keep up with the changing culture, they’ve expanded their business to include other products.

One person felt nostalgic thinking about the store and wrote, “thanks for keeping the home fires burning. I love popping in the every once and awhile to just wander the aisles as I used to. It brings back a lot of great memories.

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CANADA POST

Canada Post’s processing plants are running at full capacity across the country, but if you want something to arrive before Christmas Day, there are some deadlines.

The deadline to mail a Christmas card to an international destination has already passed, but you still have time if the card is for someone in Canada.

If it is a parcel you are sending, there are other deadlines to keep in mind. If you plan to send it by Xpress Post, December 20 is the deadline. It is December 23 if you are sending it Priority Mail.

Are you sending a gift to someone in the U.S.? The deadline for Priority Mail is December 19^th.

All Europe-bound or packages that need to go to Central or South American have to be sent by Priority Mail by December 18.

Canada Post delivered a record 3.2 million parcels last weekend and Monday, including 2.2 million on Monday alone. It expects to deliver an average of 1.7 million packages a day between now and Christmas.

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HOUSEHOLD DUST HOSTS TOXIC CHEMICALS FROM LCD SCREENS

LCD screens are all around us– on your smartphone, on televisions, and on computer displays, to name a few.

Unfortunately, a new study finds the materials used to make these screens contain a variety of toxic chemicals that can leak into our homes. They tested dust samples from a variety of buildings in China and found liquid crystal polymers (the harmful chemicals) were in about half of them.

Tests on animals have shown that exposure to these chemicals can cause issues with digestion, and interfere with the gallbladder and thyroid glands.

Study leader John Giesy says, “We don’t know yet whether this a problem, but we do know that people are being exposed, and these chemicals have the potential to cause adverse effects.”

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WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 18^TH

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

[73] Steven Spielberg, movie director-producer

[65] Ray Liotta, actor

[56] Brad Pitt, actor

[44] Randy Houser, country singer

[41] Katie Holmes, actress

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NHL

LAK 4 – BOS 3 OT TOR 5 – BUF 3 TBL 4 – OTT 3 OT NSH 8 – NYI 3 PHI 4 – ANA 1

CBJ 5 – DET 3 CAR 6 – WPG 3 PIT 4 – CGY 1 MTL 3 – VAN 1 VGK 3 – MIN 2

ARI 3 – SJS 2

Listen to all this joy and merriment, when people in Santa hats and outfits entertain New York City subway commuters. But what you can’t see on the radio, is a guy leaning against the doors who clearly is NOT into it at all. He just wants to get to work . . . without all the jolly.

A company in Japan is now selling do-it-yourself funeral kits for $240. Each one comes with a cheap wooden casket, an instructional booklet, and an urn in case the person is being cremated. It reminded us of the scene from “The Big Lebowski” when they go to pick up Donny’s ashes and can’t believe the cheapest urn is almost 200 bucks.

Mariah’s Christmas song #1, “Star Wars” fans already in line, and the new cast of “The Bachelor”. (From Seth Meyers, David Spade, and Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, December 17, 2019)

Canada Post’s processing plants are running at full capacity across the country, but if you want something to arrive before Christmas Day, there are some deadlines.

The deadline to mail a Christmas card to an international destination has already passed, but you still have time if the card is for someone in Canada.

Are you sending a gift to someone in the U.S.? The deadline for Priority Mail is December 19^th.

All Europe-bound or packages that need to go to Central or South American have to be sent by Priority Mail by December 18.

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TRISHA YEARWOOD’S CHRISTMAS TRADITION KEEPS FAMILY COMING TOGETHER

Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks are empty nesters and even grandparents at this stage of the game, but a certain Christmas tradition keeps Garth’s three daughters coming back home to share some quality family time during the holidays.

Trisha tells us: [“The biggest tradition that we’ve done since the girls were little is to decorate the tree together, and even though we are all in different places and the girls are grown that is still a tradition, so our tree might get decorated day before Christmas but that is the one thing that we hold true to, and the girls . . . You know when you’re little — I know we’re all this way — things that your parents thought were cool when you were a kid that you thought, ‘Why are we doing this?’ As you get older it becomes important to you so we probably would’ve let the tradition go but they were like, ‘No, we have to decorate the tree together,’ so it’s something that we continue to do.”]

GARTH BROOKS SAYS HIS CAREER IS ‘WAKING UP’

As far as Garth Brooks is concerned, 2020 is shaping up to be one of the best years of his career. On Friday (Dec. 13th), 65,000 tickets were sold in less than an hour for his planned May 16th concert at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati, home of the NFL’s Bengals, and the entire show was sold out shortly thereafter, making it the third sold-out show of a new year. Previously sold-out 2020 Stadium Tour shows include Detroit, Michigan (Feb. 22nd) and Charlotte, North Carolina (May 2nd).

Despite being a veteran of the business, Garth tells us this excitement feels like a new start. [“Being in this business as long as I’ve been in this business, for me it feels like the whole career is just kinda ‘waking up’ right now. I mean, they’re just startin’ to pop like the arenas did for us for some reason on the comeback tour, so I cannot wait! It’s going to be a good year! 2020 – I am looking forward to it. More stadiums, more dive bars, and just more havin’ fun.”]

MIDLAND SIGNS ON FOR NEW YEAR’S DAY PERFORMANCE

Midland will kick off 2020 with a New Year’s Day (January 1st) pre-game performance at the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic at Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas, Texas. The game pits the Nashville Predators against the Dallas Stars.

The group issued a statement saying, “We’re a Texas band. It’s where we started and it’s where we grew. Whether we’re playing a honky tonk or at the Cotton Bowl, just know you’re about to get 100% boot-stomping country music.”

The Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic airs on NBC beginning at 1 p.m. ET.

Categorised in: Mornings

This post was written by Dave Palmer