On Today’s Show
July 29, 2020 9:35 am➢ A doctor in northern England ran 22 miles with a mask on, just to show people it doesn’t affect your oxygen levels. He used a sensor on his finger to show that his blood oxygen never dropped.
➢ A Greek student whose flights home from Scotland were repeatedly cancelled due to the pandemic decided to make his own way home. Kleon Papadimitriou, age 20, says he did some research, and then decided to make the 2,175-mile trip via bicycle. He set up an Instagram account to allow his friends and family to track his progress, riding 35 to 75 miles per day while passing through England, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, and Italy.
He then took a boat from the east coast of Italy to the Greek port of Patras, where he got back on his bike and rode the rest of the way home to his Athens neighborhood.
➢ Two college hockey players at the University of Massachusetts got bored in lockdown and bought rollerblades. Earlier this month, they skated 900 miles from Massachusetts to Michigan, and raised over $25,000 for the American Cancer Society
➢ Last week, the Colorado Parks and Wildlife Department got a package in the mail with a rock inside. And there was a note with it that said, quote, “Someone brought this home to me three years ago. Bad things have been happening ever since.”
The Parks and Wildlife Department tweeted a picture of the note and the rock, and reminded other people not to take rocks from the parks.
➢ Reports are saying that “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel of Fortune” are set to resume production soon. In fact, they’ll be in the studio this week and next. But there WILL be some changes to keep people safe. For “Wheel of Fortune”, the wheel has been redesigned to provide proper social distancing between contestants.
And on “Jeopardy!”, the stage has been tweaked a bit to allow for more space between the three contestant podiums. Of course, the contestants will also be at a safe distance from host ALEX TREBEK. Only essential crew members will be there . . . they’ll have personal protective equipment for everyone behind the scenes . . . and the staff and contestants will be tested on a regular basis.
TODAY IS……………….
- “International Lasagna Day” celebrating the famous Italian dish that’s become a worldwide favorite. Almost all recipes for the “perfect lasagna” feature ricotta as the cheese of choice.
- “National Chicken Wing Day”, first proclaimed in 1977 by Buffalo NY mayor Stan Makowski. Legend has it that spicy “Buffalo Wings” were invented at the city’s Anchor Bar in 1964.
- “Rain Day” in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania, an annual festival that started when a local farmer noticed it always seems to rain on July 29th. They now claim it’s rained on this date in 115 of the 146 years since…alas, this year’s event is a virtual festival.
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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE
1968 Johnny Cash was at #1 with “Folsom Prison Blues”. Cash was inspired to write the song after seeing the movie Inside The Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force.
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A RARE FIND
Whitney Jardine was driving in Northern Ontario on Highway 101 near Foleyet when she saw a “Spirt Moose”, an all white moose on the side of the road.
She said it happened during a break between thunderstorms and pulled over to look at the animal that was eating near the side of the road. She guessed it was about a year or two old.
She grew up near Chapleau she is used to seeing moose and had heard stories about the spirit moose and seen pictures, but this was the first time seeing one in person.
Her six-month-old Golden Retriever was in the car with her at the time and Jardine wasn’t sure how she would react, but the puppy remained calm and didn’t scare the moose off.
The moose’s colouring is due to a condition called leucsim, which causes a partial loss of pigmentation in the hair and skin, and is different from albinism.
It is against the law in Ontario to hunt moose that are predominantly white, 50 per cent white or more, along King’s Highway 101 from Chapleau to Timmins.
She recently graduated from McMaster University, and recently returned to the north to spend some time with her parents and has just accepted a part-time teaching job at Northern College.
FOUR RANDOM FACTS
- Only 2% of humans have green eyes, the rarest of eye colors.
- In 1500s England, beards were taxed according to their length.
- There are seven countries where people have won more Nobel prizes than Olympic medals: Israel, Myanmar, Guatemala, East Timor, Yemen, Bangladesh, and St. Lucia.
- The inventor of revolving doors did so because he hated opening doors for women.
GOOD NEWS
There’s a 28-year-old woman named Victoria Price who’s a reporter at the NBC station in Tampa, Florida.
And last month, she got an anonymous email saying, quote, “Hi. Just saw your news report. What concerned me is the lump on your neck. Please have your thyroid checked. Reminds me of my neck. Mine turned out to be cancer.”
Victoria says her boyfriend talked her into listening to the email and going to her doctor. And . . . the viewer was right. Victoria had thyroid cancer.
But because she caught it this early, she’s optimistic that after surgery this week her doctors will be able to get rid of it entirely. She says she wrote back to the anonymous emailer to thank them . . . but hasn’t heard back yet.
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BIRTHDAYS
[48] Wil Wheaton, actor (“Star Trek: The Next Generation” 1987-94, “The Big Bang Theory” )
[46] Josh Radnor, actor (‘Ted Mosby’ on “How I Met Your Mother” 2005-14)
THINGS THAT MAKE YA GO HMMM…..
- 82% of people agree that smartphones can ruin social gatherings.
- 70% of women say they’d rather clean bathrooms than try on bathing suits.
- 60% of us have fallen asleep while holding a phone.
- 50% of men have never seen their partner’s natural hair color.
- 10% of children experience sleepwalking.
- 2% of pet owners have dressed up their critter in a goofy outfit.
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STRESSBUSTERS:
With more and more special events like graduation ceremonies, weddings and family reunions being cancelled due to the pandemic, a new study has found that we could use events like these more than ever these days.
Researchers from the University of Connecticut say that rituals, events, and traditions foster significant stress relief. In a release, the research team said: “Normally, rituals like weddings or even a barbecue party serve as a familiar source of comfort for people. Looking forward to and planning for such events help us cope with daily stressors and anxiety, and function as “mechanisms of resilience.”
Unfortunately, COVID is robbing us of many of these events and traditions this year, which partially explains why so many people feel so overrun with stress.
WEDNESDAY JULY 29TH
- Major League Baseball has temporarily suspendedthe Miami Marlins’ season, after half the team tested positive for COVID-19.
Technically, their season has only been paused through this Sunday . . . but it’s unclear how they’d be able to resume next week, considering previous players who have tested positive have been sidelined for at least two weeks.
Naturally, this will cause all kinds of scheduling issues . . . and thanks to the compact, shortened season, it seems unlikely that they’d be able to make up more than a week’s worth of games. So there are a lot of unanswered questions.
People were THRILLED to have sports back last week, but COVID-19 has already tempered that excitement.
In a new poll of 1,000 baseball fans, 56% say they should just shut down the season.
Toronto 5 Washington 1
Detroit 4 KC 3
- The NHL began playing exhibition games on Tuesday (July 28th), which will take place over three days with each team playing just one exhibition game, before the season resumes on Saturday. The NHL is using a “bubble” format, with all Eastern Conference games being played at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto and all Western Conference games played at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Toronto 4 Montreal 2
Edmonton 4 Calgary 1
Philadelphia 3 Pittsburg 2 (OT)
- If the weather cooperates, you could catch a glimpse of two meteor showers. The Delta Aquariid is set to peak now through TODAY and the Alpha Capricornid meteor shower is set to give its biggest show on Thursday (July 30th.) The Delta Aquariids will be active through August 23rd, while the Capricornid meteors will continue through August 15th. To see either, experts recommend finding a piece of sky with little light pollution, laying down (flat or in a reclining chair) and gazing toward the southern horizon, giving your eyes less than 30 minutes to adjust.
- Commissioner of baseball criticized for Marlins game, Fauci’s baseball card, and a cat tested positive for COVID 19. (From Seth Meyers and Jimmy Fallon, on Tuesday, July 28th, 2020.)
GARTH BROOKS PRESS CONFERENCE
Garth Brooks will host a press conference this morning (Wednesday, July 29th) at 11 a.m. ET on his Facebook page and he’s inviting fans to attend virtually. He made the announcement during his weekly Facebook Live show, Inside Studio G, on Monday (July 27th) night. While he hasn’t shared the reason for the press conference, he said, “The last big one you saw of ours was probably (former University of Notre Dame head football coach) Lou Holtz announcing the Stadium Tour at Notre Dame. This one’s going to be…a lot more intimate and dealing with something not as ‘commercial’ as that, but something a little more along the personal lines meets career lines.”
BRETT ELDREDGE WANTED TO ‘SHAKE THINGS UP’ WITH NEW ALBUM
Brett Eldredge is, as he says, “shaking things up” with the music on his brand new album, Sunday Drive. This is his fifth studio album, and Brett co-wrote all but one of the 12 songs on the project. He recorded it near his hometown in Chicago, and for the first time he worked with Grammy-winning producers Daniel Tashian and Ian Fitchuk, who also penned many of the songs on Sunday Drive.
Brett tells us this change alone made a huge difference. [“I was at this moment in my life where I wanted to shake things up a lot and really push myself creatively to create something next level for myself and deeper musically as well as personally, and I knew I had to push outside my comfort zone to do that and so I needed to try some different people out, and I realized as we were recording these demos I actually heard myself, I think, as an artist for the first time.”]
Sunday Drive features Brett’s current single, “Gabrielle.”e.)
MIRANDA LAMBERT ‘BLESSED AND HUMBLED’ BY NUMBER ONE HIT
Miranda Lambert racks up her career seventh Number One single this week on both the Billboard Country Airplay and Mediabase/Country Aircheck charts with “Bluebird.” This is her first chart-topper in six years, and Miranda co-wrote it for her Wildcard album with Natalie Hemby and Luke Dick.
Miranda tells us that this Number One in particular calls for a celebration, even during a global pandemic. [“Well I’m probably going to social distance with Natalie (Hemby) and Luke (Dick) somewhere on a porch with a beverage of some sort. And, I have a feeling I’ll be doing a lot of House party and Zoom calls with people because my family has been definitely, like, stalking my manager asking when and if it’s going to happen. So, we’re all just really excited. It’s been 6 years since I’ve had a song at the top of the charts so you know, celebrating for sure and you know, that, it’s lookin’ good for girls. There’s been about 3 or 4 girls that have had a number one in the last few months and so I’m just glad to be one of them.”]
“Bluebird” is the second single from Wildcard.
WALKER HAYES BIG BREAK
Walker Hayes says he spent 11 years in Music City spinning his wheels and going nowhere . . . but that all changed the day he met Nashville producer Shane McAnally in line at a Smoothie King.
Here’s Walker telling the story.
Categorised in: Mornings
This post was written by Dave Palmer