On Today’s Show

➢ Captain Tom Moore passed away yesterday at the age of 100 years old.  He’s the veteran in the U.K. who raised over $45 MILLION last year by walking outside his house.  He’d been battling pneumonia after testing positive for COVID-19 last month.  (Here’s a clip from an interview he did last year, where he explained that his philosophy in life was optimism.  One of the lines ended up becoming the title of his autobiography that came out in September called, “Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day.”)

➢ The teacher who made Bernie Sanders mittens has partnered with the Vermont Teddy Bear Company to make 18,000 pairs to meet demand.

(Earlier this month she explained how she got started.)

➢ As a general rule, most people dislike spiders or imagining them in their home. So the internet understandably freaked when a woman on Twitter shared a series of photos she says she got from a friend. The photos were taken in Australia, and show a huge amount of spiders piled up into two ceiling corners in the room.

When people accused her of the photos being faked, she then shared a video to follow up. The spiders are Huntsman spiders, which are known for their large size—they can achieve a leg span of 12 inches. Luckily, they’re considered a low-risk to humans.

➢ Snakes don’t care who you are. British soap opera star Harry Visinoni had to call animal rescuers after discovering a four-foot snake slithering across his toilet seat.

The actor plays Seb Franklin on the popular show Coronation Street, and says he noticed the snake pop up while he was brushing his teeth. He says he quickly left the room and closed the door. He contacted the RSPCA, and a rescuer identified the snake as a royal python. The snake is believed to have belonged to the previous occupant of the apartment, who died several months earlier. It’s thought the snake hid in the apartment the entire time, but the animal is now in the care of an RSPCA specialist reptile keeper.

➢ Michelle Pfeiffer was offered “Silence of the Lambs”, but she passed, because it SCARED her.  She says, quote, “I was trepidatious.  There was such evil in that film.  It was that evil won in the end, that at the end of the film evil ruled out.  I was uncomfortable with that ending.  I didn’t want to put that out in the world.”  (Here’s the end scene where Dr. Lecter says he’s “having an old friend for dinner.”)

TODAY IS……………….

• “Halfway point of Winter”, in the Northern Hemisphere. Today is the exact halfway point between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox. Many think the midpoint of winter is always Groundhog Day, but it varies. Winter is the shortest of the four seasons, lasting 88.99 days

• “Carrot Cake Day”, saluting an idea hatched in the Middle Ages. At that time, sugar and other sweeteners were rare and very expensive, so people used sweet vegetables for flavor.

• “The Day the Music Died”, in memory of the death of three American musicians — Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP Richardson. While on tour, logistical issues and tour bus problems them to charter a small plane to their next venue. On February 3, 1959 it crashed near Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all on board. Don McLean would call it “The Day the Music Died” in his 1971 hit ‘American Pie’.

_________________________________________________________________________

COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE

Toby Keith claimed the top spot on the Billboard country singles chart with “You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This” in 2001.

_________________________________________________________________________

REAL REAL ESTATE DEAL:
There was a story from a few weeks ago where dilapidated homes in Italy were being offered for sale for just over a dollar.

Well, if you had second thoughts about the hassle of renovating one of those ‘fixer-uppers’, one town has an offer that might just tempt you. The waterfront community of Biccari, with a view stretching to the Adriatic Coast, is selling off dilapidated homes priced at €1, but it also has bargain deals on ready-to-occupy places.

Prices of empty turnkey homes start as low as €7,500 (US $9,000). Most are in the range of €10,000-€13,000 (US $12,000-16,000). The sale is part of Mayor Gianfilippo Mignogna’s mission to save his town from dwindling to nothing, after years of people leaving to pursue jobs in Italy’s cities or abroad.

Biccari’s population now stands at about 2,000. There are roughly a dozen €1 and 20 “upper-scale” homes available. The mayor says the turnkey houses have been shut for years, but are habitable, and perhaps a better deal than those on sale for €1, once the cost of renovating a more dilapidated building in considered.

Photos and maps of the properties will soon be put online on the town hall website. LINK: http://www.comune.biccari.fg.it/

FOUR RANDOM FACTS

1. The surface area of the five Great Lakes combined is roughly the same size as the entire United Kingdom.

2. There’s a fake McDonald’s in City of Industry, in Southern California, that’s just used for filming.  Most of the McDonald’s ads you’ve seen were shot in that building.

3. The Burj Khalifa tower in Dubai is so tall, you can watch the sun set from the ground level, then take an elevator to the top and watch the sun set again.
4. In the 1700s and 1800s, squirrels were popular pets.

_________________________________________________________________________

GOOD NEWS

A Tennessee man reeled in a massive paddlefish that may have broken records if he hadn’t released it without weighing it.

Robert Livingston shared video and photos of the American paddlefish, also known as a spoonbill, that he reeled in while fishing with a friend on Cherokee Lake.

Livingston is sure the fish would have out-weighed the 104-pound state record for the species, but he released the fish without weighing it.

When asked why he didn’t take it back to be weighed, he said, “I would hate to catch the fish of a lifetime and then say, ‘Yeah, I killed it.’ It’s there swimming around so maybe one day somebody else will catch it.”

________________________________________________________________________

BIRTHDAYS

[65] Nathan Lane, actor

[45] Isla [‘EYE-luh’] Fisher, actress

FOOTBALL TEAM NAMES:
In honor of Sunday’s Super Bowl, here are some NFL team names that were considered, but not picked…fortunately!)
✗ Cincinnati Rhinos:  Because of the city’s large German population, when it was awarded a pro team in 1966, owners almost called it the “Rhinos”, a play on Germany’s Rhine River. After it was pointed out that rhinos are fat and slow, they decided to go with “Bengals”.

✗ Seattle D. B. Coopers:  A 1975 naming contest for the new franchise brought in suggestions including “Lumberjacks”, “Abominable Snowmen”, the “Soggies” …and the “DB Coopers”, after the mysterious hijacker who jumped out of a plane over Washington in 1971. They eventually went with the “Seahawks”.

✗ Atlanta Yellow Dogs:  In 1965, the city was awarded an NFL team. The team had competition in the football programs at Georgia Tech (The “Yellow Jackets”) and University of Georgia (“Bulldogs”). To attract fans from both, the name “Yellow Dogs” was considered. Eventually a fan vote pointed to the name “Falcons”.

✗ Dallas Steers:  The Dallas expansion team was all set to begin the 1960 season when the owner realized that it might be bad optics if their mascot was the steer – a castrated male cow raised to be turned into beef. He considered “Rangers”, but didn’t want conflict with the then-minor league baseball team, so he decided on “Cowboys”.

✗ Oakland Señors:  In 1960, “Señors” was the winner of a name-the-team contest. It is thought the contest was fixed, as a joke, because the team’s co-owner, a local celeb named Chet Soda, called everyone he met “señor”. Owners decided to go with the 3^rd place vote-getter: the “Raiders”.

____________________________________________________________________________

Reason Dogs Are Now Treated Like Part of the Family? It’s All Thanks to Women

Do you feel like your dog is part of your family?  Of course, you do.  Most people do.

And a new study out of Washington State University figured out WHY . . . it’s all thanks to women.

The researchers found that women formed early bonds with dogs just as dogs were becoming domesticated, and as a result, quote, “[Dogs] were more likely to be included in family life.”

Women are responsible for dogs getting names, sleeping on furniture, and getting funerals when they passed away.  And that’s how dogs became SO important to people and bonded with us so well . . . which is still going on today.

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 3^RD  

1. Captain Tom Moore passed away yesterday at the age of 100 years old.  He’s the veteran in the U.K. who raised over $45 MILLION last year by walking outside his house.  He’d been battling pneumonia after testing positive for COVID-19 last month.  (Here’s a clip from an interview he did last year, where he explained that his philosophy in life was optimism.  One of the lines ended up becoming the title of his autobiographythat came out in September called, “Tomorrow Will Be a Good Day.”)

2. The Toronto Raptors’ Fred VanVleet set a franchise record with 54 points last night (February 2nd) in Toronto’s 123-108 win over the Orlando Magic. It was also a career best for the 26-year-old, who additionally had a career-best 11 three-pointers. The previous franchise record was 52 points, scored by DeMar DeRozan in January 2018.

DAL 6 – CBJ 3                      MTL 5 – VAN 3                     CAR 4 – CHI 3 SO               STL 4 – ARI 3

WPG 3 – CGY 2                    COL 2 – MIN 1                     ANA 3 – LAK 1                     EDM 4 – OTT 2

3. This is scandalous stuff if you really believe rodents can predict the weather:

Wiarton Willie said we would have an early Spring, Punxsutawney Phil said six more weeks of winter yesterday.  But his lesser-known counterpart at the Staten Island Zoo disagreed.

“Staten Island Chuck” also makes a prediction each year.  And he said we’re in for an early spring.  But that’s not the scandalous part.

The Staten Island event was virtual this year and was supposed to air live on Facebook.

But people who watched it quickly realized the whole thing had been PRE-RECORDED, because there wasn’t any SNOW on the ground.  (Here’s the video.  The prediction happens at 17:16.)

A huge snowstorm dumped close to two feet on New York this week.  But there wasn’t any snow in the video, so they obviously pre-taped it.

A bunch of people made fun of them online, and a few were OUTRAGED.  One parent said their kids were confused and wanted to know why the snow disappeared.  The zoo later said that the, quote, “magic of Chuck” must have melted it.

4. Here’s the wondrous mind of comedian Mitch Hedberg.  (Vacuums, a fly, shampoo, and hot water faucets.)

• Luke Combs – Not only has he announced his first live appearance since COVID-19 shut down live events with a planned pre-race concert at this year’s Daytona 500 on Feb. 14, on Sunday, he released “The Great Divide,” a collaboration with bluegrass artist Billy Strings. LINK: https://youtu.be/2LFP2KLabp4
• Carrie Underwood – has shared a video preview and the cover art of her upcoming gospel album “My Savior” Calling it the album “I have always wanted to make”, she posted that it will be released on CD and Digital on March 26 and on vinyl on April 30. LINK: https://tinyurl.com/yy26gu94

Morgan Wallen Was Filmed Drunk, Swearing, and Using the N-word

MORGAN WALLEN was filmed swearing, and using the N-word in front of his house on Sunday around midnight.  He and some friends had just returned from partying and they were so loud the neighbors noticed, and filmed it.

TMZ has three videos.  One is a doorbell cam from across the street and that’s mostly shouting and honking horns.  The second clip is when the neighbor started recording it, and that’s the one that Morgan may never live down.

He’s kind of stumbling toward his house and telling someone to watch over one of their friends, and then he lets loose with two disgusting sentences.

Here’s what he told TMZ:  Quote, “I’m embarrassed and sorry.  I used an unacceptable and inappropriate racial slur that I wish I could take back.  There are no excuses to use this type of language.  I sincerely apologize for using the word.  I promise to do better.”

Kelsea Ballerini on the Time She Spit Out Blood in Front of Miranda Lambert

KELSEA BALLERINI was on Friday’s “Kelly Clarkson Show“ talking about the time she spit out blood in front of Miranda Lambert.  It was last fall at the CMAs . . . and they were hanging out after the show.

Kelsea was nervous because she didn’t know Miranda . . . and to make it worse, they were drinking wine from those “super thin” glasses that you’re afraid to squeeze.

Well, her glass bumped against her tooth and shattered IN her mouth.  She cut her lip, and was spitting out bloody glass.

Here’s what happened next, quote, “I had to run to the bathroom, make my lip stop bleeding and was like, ‘Well, I can’t leave now . . . ’cause I need people to NOT think that I’m weird . . . ’cause I care way too much about what people think of me.

“Then, I had to go back into this party and hold my lip, so it stops bleeding and try to act casual around Miranda Lambert.  Anyway, we still don’t know each other.”

____________________________________________________________________________

BRETT YOUNG TO PERFORM LIVESTREAM CONCERT FROM FLORIDA AIRPORT RUNWAY

Brett Young will hop on a flight to Florida as Spirit Airlines and Mastercard celebrate the launch of the all-new Free Spirit loyalty program and Free Spirit Mastercard with Brett Young: Live from the Runway. His free performance will be the first-ever concert streamed worldwide from the runway of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday, Feb. 4th at 8 p.m.

Brett’s performance will begin inside one of Spirit’s newest aircraft before moving outside.

FAST FACTS

Spirit will be donating 100,000 points to one of Brett’s favorite charities, myLIFEspeaks, which is focused on family empowerment, education, public health, and special needs advocacy in Haiti.

Categorised in: Mornings

This post was written by Dave Palmer