On Today’s Show

➢ DAN LEVY from “Schitt’s Creek” made this year’s “People” Sexiest Man Alive issue.

Dan says he tried to develop his skills in the kitchen during quarantine, making pasta sauces, breads, and chocolate chip cookies.  But in the end, he realized that cooking wasn’t for him.

Quote, “None of these inspiring exercises in the kitchen worked out for me.  All it did for me was remind myself that I should be saving my money and putting it towards ordering food so that someone can do it for me.”

He also did some binge-watching, starting with shows like “Insecure” and “Normal People”, then devolving into stuff like “The Real Housewives of Atlanta”and “Below Deck Mediterranean”.  He says, quote, “We were really into sophisticated fare at first and now it’s people throwing drinks at each other on a yacht.”

➢ Stefano Bozzini, who was unable to visit his wife Carla due to Covid-19 restrictions, decided that rules weren’t going to stand in the way of the love he and Carla share. Stefano grabbed his accordion and sat in the courtyard of the hospital in Castel San Giovanni – a small town in the north of Italy – and played his wife a love-song. “I did it for Carla – to show her how much I love her and to thank her for all she has given me,” Bozzini said. “I wasn’t able to see her in hospital and so went to the courtyard with the accordion – my heart told me to go. After she heard the music she looked out of the window, so at least I got to see her.” Stefano played her ‘Spanish Eyes’ by Engelbert Humperdinck.

➢ A girl on TikTok is going viral after she used a toaster to cook her boyfriend a steak.

So does it really work?  Well, Rhett & Link from YouTube tried it out a while back and got pretty good results.  (Here’s a clip from the video they posted in 2017.)

➢ Nathan “Doggface” Apodaca, who became an internet sensation thanks to a TikTok video of him skateboarding to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’, is giving back to his local community of Idaho Falls, Idaho.

He had his first-ever meet and greet on Sunday with a portion of proceeds going to Lionheart Martial Arts studio to help them recover from the pandemic. Nathan was born in the city and has lived there his whole life. He even works at the local potato plant.

TODAY IS……………….

• “Apple Cider Day”. A few facts…
  – The cider industry uses about 45% of all harvested apples.
  – There are more than 300 varieties of apples grown for the sole purpose of making cider.
• “Mickey Mouse Day”, generally observed as his ‘birthday’ when he first appeared in the cartoon short “Steamboat Willie” in 1928 (now making him 92). It was the first cartoon with synchronized sound.

They originally called him, Mortimer Mouse, but Walt was convinced by his wife to change the name to something friendlier.  _____________________________________________________________________________

COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE

Johnny Lee received a gold single for “Lookin’ For Love,” his best-known contribution to “Urban Cowboy” in 1980.

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CHRISTMAS T.V. HISTORY

Someone owns a big part of Christmas TV special history, after buying Rudolph and Santa from the 1964 stop-motion special, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

They were sold together in one lot and went for $368,000.  The buyer remained anonymous.

Background on the iconic figures:  They were made by Japanese puppet maker Ichiro Komuro out of wood, leather, wire, cloth, and yak hair.

One of the show’s producers gave the figures to his secretary as a gift.  She later gave them to a nephew, who in 2005, took them to get appraised on “Antiques Roadshow”.

Back then, they were worth 8 to 10 thousand.  The nephew later sold them on eBay to the owner of Time & Space Toys in Pennsylvania.  He said that as soon as he purchased them, Peter Lutrario of New York kept making him offers to sell.  Peter was the seller this weekend.

FOUR RANDOM FACTS

1. Before Chumbawambahad their giant pop hit “Tubthumping” in 1997, they were an anarchic and politically charged punk band.

2. The first Wrigley Field wasn’t in Chicago . . . a baseball park in Los Angeles called Wrigley Field opened in 1925.  The Cubs’ stadium was called Cubs Park at that point, but changed its name to Wrigley Field in 1926.  The L.A. one was torn down in 1969.

3. Between 1912 and 1948, art competitions were a part of the Olympics.
4. The ‘Q’ in Q-tips stands for quality.

GOOD NEWS

When Nathan Leduc-Lavigne of Châteauguay, Que. heard his local food bank’s supplies were shrinking before the holidays, the 11-year-old got to work.

He set a goal of filling up his parents’ two cars with groceries and donating it all but he has done much more than that — with enough to fill the two vehicles multiple times.

He’s also collected at least $950 in cash donations, and he’s not done yet.

The family goes around to do pickups every night and they’ve established drop-off points at two local businesses.  The project was inspired by Leduc-Lavigne’s high school application process which asked him what he would do to make the community better.

He decided not to wait until he was in Grade 7 to get to work. Instead, he wanted to make a difference right away. He looked into the local food bank and his idea blossomed from there.

The 11-year-old admitted that working with his family can be a bit annoying at times, but “it’s a team sport.” The best part, he said, is how well that team effort has paid off.

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BIRTHDAYS

[81] Margaret Atwood, Ottawa ON, ‘Dean of Canadian Authors’ (“The Handmaid’s Tale”)/Order of Canada (1981)/Canada’s Walk of Fame (2001)

[62] Oscar Nunez, actor (‘Oscar Martinez’ on “The Office” 2005-13)

[52] Owen Wilson, actor

CONNECTICUT FAMILY FREES OWL STUCK IN CHIMNEY

Imagine hearing funny noises in your chimney and then finding an owl stuck in there. That’s exactly what happened to a family in Trumbull, Connecticut. A company called “All About Bats and Wildlife” managed to get the owl out of the chimney. A video of the rescue has gone viral.

ALLIGATOR, DRIVER UNINJURED AFTER COLLISION ON FLORIDA ROAD

Who knew that alligators could be so lucky. The Cocoa Police Department in Florida recently tweeted a photo of an alligator wandering on U.S. 1. They wrote, “The things that go bump in the night: patrol officers rescued this little guy as he wandered into dangerous territory. He was hit by a car on US1 at Dixon Boulevard.” They also noted that both the gator and the driver avoided injuries. The alligator will be relocated by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

GIANT GATOR

You might be forgiven for thinking dinosaurs still walk the earth after seeing footage of a HUGE alligator roaming on a Florida golf course.

Spotted at Valencia Golf & Country Club in Naples, Fla. during tropical storm Eta, the gator was seen walking round a tee box by a professional at the club last Wednesday.

The sheer size of the animal had many on social media questioning whether it was actually real.

However, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, there was “nothing unusual” about the size of the alligator.

“It’s an iconic species and conservation success story. But in short, there’s nothing unusual about this alligator or the video,” they said on Twitter.

By the way, the club didn’t close the course because they “usually just keep to themselves”.

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CONTACT SOLUTION:
Anyone who uses contact lenses knows what an ordeal they can be to put in and remove (especially…AHEM…after a night on the town…), but thanks to a Florida doctor, that might not be the case much longer.

Craig Hershoff has invented a tool that makes inserting and removing them easy. After losing most of his vision and experiencing difficulty with contacts, he was inspired to come up with the device which uses suction cups to measure the precise amount of force needed to insert and remove the lenses.

The user looks straight down, and monitors what’s going on by looking at a video display with the opposite eye, allowing them to track the motion of the contact lens at all times. He or she then commands the device to go to the eye, and sensors detect contact (no pun intended…) as the lens is inserted. The invention is undergoing clinical trials now, and it’s hoped it will be approved for commercial use next year.

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18^TH  

1. Last night, Jimmy Kimmel revealed that Michael B. Jordan is “People’s Sexiest Man Alive 2020”.  Here they are talking about it.  (From “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on Tuesday, November 17, 2020)

2. Tropical Storm Eta caused Tom Brady’s dock . . . with two Jet Skis on it, to break free.  He managed to get the jet skis back after findingthem lodged in a neighbor’s dock about 300 yards away.

3. Earlier this year, we learned that a 51-year-old woman in Illinois named Julie Loving was pregnant with her own GRANDCHILD.  Her daughter couldn’t carry the baby herself, so she acted as the surrogate.  And this week, they announcedthat Julie gave birth to a healthy baby girl.  (Here’s part of an interview she did about it in June.)

4. Steven Wright on 24 hour stores and going skiing

LADY A TO RELEASE DELUXE EDITION OF ‘OCEAN’ ALBUM ON FRIDAY

In celebration of the one-year anniversary of Lady A’s last studio album, Ocean, they will release a deluxe edition of the project on Friday (Nov. 20th). This expanded edition features the original 13 songs plus six additional mostly live tracks.

Hillary Scott said, “It’s crazy to think this album is only turning a year old because it has already been part of so many moments for us as a band.”

Ocean Deluxe Edition includes a version of Lady A’s current Top 10 hit, “Champagne Night,” from the primetime series Songland.

Lady A will be among the performers featured on this month’s CMA Country Christmas special. The show will air on ABC on Nov. 30th at 9 p.m. ET.

Dolly Parton’s $1 Million Donation Helped Fund Moderna’s Vaccine

It seems like a lifetime ago that DOLLY PARTON announced she was donating $1 million to COVID 19 research.  That was back in April, and here we are some seven months later finding out she may have helped save us all.

The money helped Moderna develop a vaccine that’s been almost 95% effective in clinical trials.  You can even find her name in the acknowledgments of the New England Journal of Medicine article.

She was asked about it yesterday on the “Today Show“.  Quote, “Yeah, that’s what I understand.  I haven’t read up enough.  They told me that before I went on the air that they may be asking me about that.

“I’m just happy that anything I do can help somebody else, and when I donated the money to the COVID fund, I just wanted it to do good.  Evidently, it is.  Let’s just hope we find a cure real soon.”

In completely different Dolly Parton news.  TMZ says “Playboy” is interested in her being on the cover again.  That’s a response to her saying she’d like to pose again after she turns 75, which is in January.  She did the cover in 1978 when she was 32.

Lee Brice Has Survived COVID-19 and Is Emerging from Quarantine Today

LEE BRICE has survived COVID-19 and will be out promoting his new album, “Hey World”, which drops Friday.  He talked to “People“ about his symptoms, which, according to him, weren’t too bad.

In the beginning there was fever and body aches, and he didn’t get much sleep.  Quote, “I literally woke up all wet.  I wasn’t shivering and I don’t think the fever got high, but I did wake up feeling like I sweat out a fever or something.”

He also had congestion in his chest and his sinuses were clogged.  On the whole, he compared it to “a very mild cold or allergies” . . . but he considers himself one of the lucky ones.

“My manager had it and he was down.  He couldn’t get out of bed, it hurt to breathe, he was down, down, down.  All I know that this week, I’ve heard about more people having it compared to the last nine months.  Everyone I know has had it.”

He’s been quarantining in his barn and that ends today.  He’ll finally see his wife Sara and their three kids, 12-year-old Takoda, six-year-old Ryker, and little Trulee, who is three.  Quote, “All I want to do is go hug them and kiss them.”

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OLD DOMINION’S ‘JEOPARDY!’ FAME WAS A ‘HUGE MOMENT’

Old Dominion never met the late Alex Trebek, but are certainly fans of Jeopardy! and were especially honored to have been the answer to two questions on the game show over the last few years. Lead singer Matthew Ramsey compared that experience to the one they had on Wednesday (Nov. 11th) after picking up their third Vocal Group of the Year win at the CMA Awards.

Categorised in: Mornings

This post was written by Dave Palmer