On Today’s Show

Nightmare evening for Canadian beach volleyball in Tokyo. Both Canadian pairs, including the world’s number one duo Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, crash out the quarterfinals.

Canada’s medal total remains stuck at 14.

But Canadians are in position to reach more podiums soon — including Andre De Grasse going for his second medal of the Games in the men’s 200-metre final this morning at 8:55am 

Canadian swimmer Penny Oleksiak won four medals at the 2016 Summer Olympics, and another three in Tokyo.  And she just Tweeted, quote, “I just Googled ‘Canada’s most decorated Olympian’ and my name came up.

“I want to thank that teacher in high school who told me to stop swimming to focus on school because swimming wouldn’t get me anywhere.  This is what dreams are made of.” 

She later added that she wasn’t shading ALL teachers . . . just the one who “constantly dragged her down.”

➢ A 49-year-old guy in Florida named Reza Baluchi built a giant hamster wheel for humans that goes on water.  And he keeps trying to run across the OCEAN in it, but never gets far.

He does it to raise money for charity, so that part’s good.  But he had to be rescued off the coast of Florida in 2014, and again in 2016.  Then his third attempt got stopped by the Coast Guard a few months later.  So he just tried a FOURTH voyage recently but washed ashore near Daytona Beach on day two.

His original plan was to run 1,000 miles from Florida to Bermuda.  Then he said Florida to New York.  And now he’d just like to get farther up the East Coast.  No word yet on a fifth attempt, but he says he’ll never give up. 

➢ People are praising a soon-to-be bride’s very lengthy, yet informative, and considerate questionnaire she sent out to her bridesmaids to help with planning the wedding.  Here is Talia Morales going through some of her survey. 

➢ The New York Yankees brought in a couple of big-time hitters at the trade deadline . . . but on Monday, fans didn’t have much to cheer about with the Yankees down 7-1 to the last place Baltimore Orioles in the eighth inning.

That is, until a CAT ran onto the field. 

This isn’t the first time a cat has scampered onto a playing field but this time, it took a WHILE to clear the field.  It was like a full-on halftime show.

It took so long that the bored Yankees fans exploded with life, chanting “MVP!  MVP!” and “Let’s go cat!”  

The Orioles announcers joked that the cat was “faster than anybody on the Yankees,” and people on social media joked that the grounds crew in New York needed to “revisit their ‘cat-on-the-field’ training manual.”

COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE

Jamie O’Neal‘s “When I Think About Angels” became her second chart-topping single in 2001.

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FOUR RANDOM FACTS 

1. Octopuses are one of the most intelligent creatures on the planet, capable of solving complex puzzles, using tools, escaping captivity, opening screw-top jars, and stacking rocks to protect the entrances to their dens.

2. Neil Armstrongand the crew from Apollo 11 all had to fill out customs forms when they landed back on Earth.

3. There’s been a version of “Playboy”printed in BRAILLE since 1970.  It doesn’t have any photos in it so you’re literally getting it for the articles.

4. Ray Romanowas originally cast on the ’90s sitcom “NewsRadio” but was fired before the pilot when the producers decided to take the character in a different direction.  After an actor named Greg Lee replaced him and was also fired, Joe Rogan got the part for good.

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BIRTHDAYS 

Jeff Gordon, racecar driver (50)

Roger Clemens, baseball player (59)

Barack Obama, former POTUS (60)

Billy Bob Thornton, actor (66)

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 More Things We’re Googling About the Olympics

1. “Why do swimmers slap themselves?”  It’s a wayto warm-up.  They slap their body to get the blood flowing.

2. “How wide is an Olympic balance beam?”  Four inches.  They’re 16-and-a-half feet long, four feet off the ground, and onlyfour inches wide.

3. “How do they transport horses for the Olympics?”  The short answer is cargo planes. 

4. “Why does the U.K. compete as Great Britain?”  Their fullname is actually the “Great Britain and Northern Ireland Olympic Team.”  That’s because Northern Ireland isn’t part of Great Britain. It IS in the U.K., so that would be easier.  But they’ve been going by “Great Britain” since the first Summer Olympics in 1896, and they’re sticking with it.

5. “Why do swimmers wear two caps?”  There are two reasons.  One, it helps secure their goggles, which go over the first cap and under the second.

And two, wearing caps made of different materials helps reduce drag in the water.  The first cap is latex, which stays on the head better but is prone to wrinkling . . . while the second cap is silicone, which is smoother to cut through the water. 

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I’M WITH A BAND:
In another sign of “the new normal”, a company is selling colored “social distancing wristbands” as a way for event attendees to signify how willing they are to engage in physical contact with others, as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be relaxed. 

A red band tells others that the wearer still would like to maintain distancing of 6 feet (2 meters). Yellow means touching elbows is okay, and for people wearing green, it’s OK to party like it’s 2019 – they’re are good with handshakes, high-fives, and hugs. 

A company called Social Bands started selling them last year, aimed at those who attend things like “trade shows, office buildings, churches, and cruise ships.” But with vaccination rates rising and calendars filling back up these days, the color-coded social distancing wristbands are really taking off now. 

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HAVE AN ANCIENT ANDROID PHONE? YOU WON’T BE ABLE TO SIGN INTO GOOGLE AFTER SEPTEMBER 27TH 

Google is completely killing support for very old Androids. 

The tech giant recently announced, “As part of our ongoing efforts to keep our users safe, Google will no longer allow sign-in on Android devices that run Android 2.3.7 or lower starting September 27th, 2021. 

If you sign into your device after September 28th, you may get username or password errors when you try to use Google products and services like Gmail, YouTube, and Maps.” 

Android 2.3.7 runs on Android Gingerbread, which came out in December 2010. 

And if you’re still using an older phone, there is some hope, as devices that can be updated to a newer Android version (3.0+ or higher), will still be compatible with Google. Mashable notes, “Realistically, no one should be using a device this old anyways, for security reasons—bugs and issues pile up over time, as do the chances of having your device infected with malware.”

WEDNESDAY AUGUST 4TH  

1.   Nightmare evening for Canadian beach volleyball in Tokyo. Both Canadian pairs, including the world’s number one duo Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes, crash out the quarterfinals.

Canada’s medal total remains stuck at 14.

But Canadians are in position to reach more podiums soon — including Andre De Grasse going for his second medal of the Games in the men’s 200-metre final this morning at 8:55am 

North America’s two fastest 5,000-metre runners of all-time will race alongside each other in search of their first Olympic medal.

Moh Ahmed of St. Catharines, Ont., and Toronto’s Justyn Knight finished second and third in their respective heats Tuesday to automatically advance to Friday’s 15-man final at 8 a.m. ET in Tokyo.

Thirty-one-year-old Damian Warner has been a podium fixture for the better part of a decade, winning many medals — but never at the Olympics or worlds.

This could be the year. In May, Warner broke his own three-year-old Canadian record by scoring 8,995 points to win a meet in Austria. Only three decathletes have ever scored higher, and they’re all Olympic and/or world champions.

The decathlon starts with the 100-metre leg tonight at 8 p.m. ET, Warner will be joined by fellow Canadian Pierce LePage, who finished second at the Hypo Meeting.

2.   An Arkansas nurse, sick and tired of being called a “crisis actor” by COVID conspiracy theorists, found a way to make some money off the situation.  Sunny explains that she tells them to Venmo her $10 for the truth . . . and then tells them she isn’t a crisis actor.  Here she is explaining the whole process. 
3.   A Capital Region restaurant owner in New York visited another restaurant to give a $1,840 tipto a waiter and the staff of Lake George Beach Club.  Here is Paesans Pizza owner Frank Scavio and waiter Raffaele Sanchez talking about the kind gesture. 
4.   Here’s comedian Brian Regan riffing on orchestras.  (From his 2021 Netflix special, “On the Rocks”.)

CARLY PEARCE JOINS OPRY, ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF NEW MUSIC 

Carly Pearce was inducted into the Grand Ole Opry last night (Tuesday, August 3rd) in Nashville. Trisha Yearwood was on hand to do the honors.

2021 has been quite a year for Carly, who tells us that between joining the Opry and winning two ACM awards for her hit “I Hope You’re Happy Now” earlier this year, she is truly living her dreams. [“I think it’s just 31 years of dreams that I really have had since I was a little girl, coming true. All I ever wanted to do is have a seat at the country music table, and the fact that I am seeing that I have one – and I know that sounds funny because I’ve been doing this for a few years now – but it just feels… ‘Wait a minute, is this real? Is this real?’ And I feel like these two moments are just really, really special to my heart.”] 

In other Carly news, she is releasing an expanded edition of her latest EP, 29, called 29: Written in Stone, which is due out on September 17th. Rolling Stone reports the new release includes the seven original tracks from 29 along with eight new ones, including one called “Dear Miss Loretta” featuring Patty Loveless and another collaboration with Ashley McBryde. “Dear Miss Loretta” was released yesterday.

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BLAKE SHELTON MARKS 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEBUT ALBUM WITH AMAZON ORIGINAL

Blake Shelton is celebrating the 20-year anniversary of his self-titled debut album, which was originally released on July 31, 2001. To commemorate the milestone, Blake has teamed up with Amazon Music to release a special acoustic Amazon Original of his first-ever radio single, “Austin.”

Blake has now moved onto his 12th studio album with Body Language, which was released in May of this year. The 12-track record features his No. 1 hit “Happy Anywhere” (with Gwen Stefani). 

Blake will return to the road for his Friends and Heroes 2021 Tour later this month. The tour will welcome very special guest Lindsay Ell, with special appearances by Martina McBride, Tracy Byrd and Trace Adkins. October 1: Detroit, MI / Little Caesars Arena

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Dolly Parton on “The House That Whitney Built”

DOLLY PARTON was on “Watch What Happens Live” and Andy Cohen asked what she did with the royalties from Whitney Houston’s cover of her song “I Will Always Love You”, which was in the 1992 movie “The Bodyguard”.

She said, quote, “I bought my big office complex in Nashville.  I thought, ‘Well, this is a wonderful place to be.’  I bought a property down in what was the black area of town, and it was mostly black families and people that lived around there.

“It was off the beaten path and I thought, ‘Well, I am gonna buy this place . . . and the whole strip mall.’  And I thought, ‘This is the perfect place for me to be,’ considering it was Whitney. 

“So I thought this was great . . .  So I just love the fact that I spent that money on a complex, and I think ‘this is the house that Whitney built.'”

Categorised in: Mornings

This post was written by Dave Palmer