Wednesday, January 20, 2021 – Edition: #6897
Sheet For Brains!
BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ “The Crown” and “Ozark” lead all programs with 6 nominations for the 26th annual Critics’ Choice Awards. The drama “Lovecraft Country,” the comedies “Schitt’s Creek” and “What We Do in the Shadows” and the limited series “Mrs. America” all received 5 nominations, while “Better Call Saul” and “The Plot Against America” received 4 each. The Critics’ Choice Awards film nominees will be announced on Feb. 7, with the film and television awards handed out on March 7 at a ceremony whose format has yet to be determined.
-TheWrap
★ Alec Baldwin has flown the Twitter coop, announcing that he will leave the social media platform “for now.” He wrote: “Twitter is like a party where everyone is screaming. Not much of a party”. His departure comes weeks after his wife, podcaster and author Hilaria Baldwin, came under fire after the internet began questioning her Spanish heritage. Old videos surfaced of Hilaria seeming to speak with a Spanish accent. She was born in Boston, MA, but did spend time in Spain growing up.
-Yahoo
★ Walt Disney, Frank Capra, Whitney Houston, Billie Holiday, Johnny Cash and Alex Trebek are among the entertainment industry figures who have been added as honorees in the National Garden of American Heroes monument project unveiled by President Donald Trump in July. As he began his final 48 hours in office, Trump issued an amended executive order, adding dozens of names slated to be honored in the planned statuary park. The location for the park has yet to be determined.
-Yahoo
★ Joe Biden has invited plenty of guests to his virtual inauguration parade this afternoon, and one of them is TikTok star Nathan “Doggface” Apodaca. Apodaca is the skateboarder who went viral with his charming TikTok video set to Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Dreams’ last year. Sources who worked on the parade say they asked Apodaca to join because of how feel-good his viral moment was, bringing joy to people across the world at a time that was anything but joyful for most.
-Complex
TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “The Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden Jr.” (ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/MSNBC/PBS): Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the oaths of office to become the next president and vice president of the United States. (***See “BS Reasons to Party”, below***)
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): John Oliver
• “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” (NBC/CTV): Martin Scorsese, Fran Lebowitz, Hunter Schafer, Playboi Carti
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Jon Lovett, Jon Favreau, Tommy Vietor, Peter CottonTale, Chance the Rapper, Cynthia Erivo, the Chicago Children’s Choir, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, Kofi Lost
• “The Late Late Show with James Corden” (CBS/CTV): Dakota Johnson, AJR
• “Conan” (TBS): Max Greenfield
• “Watch What Happens Live” (Bravo): Meredith Marks, Heather Gay
• “Live with Kelly and Ryan” (ABC/CTV): Kate Mara, Jonathan Scott, Jason Cameron (R)
• “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (NBC/CTV): Thomas Middleditch (R)
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Cheryl Hines, Michelle Buteau (R)
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Hailee Steinfeld, Karamo Brown
• “Riverdale” (CW): Season 5 premiere
• “Nancy Drew” (CW): Season 2 premiere
BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Lewis Capaldi – His song ‘Someone You Loved’ has been named the most relaxing song in an analysis of 2,200 tunes featured in Spotify playlists. A research team looked at beats per minute, key, and time signatures to find a formula for the ‘most chilled’ song.
• Justin Timberlake – confirmed on “Ellen” that he and wife Jessica Biel welcomed their second child last year – a son called Phineas. It was reported in July that the pair, who also have 5-year-old son Silas, had quietly become parents for a second time, but the couple remained silent on the rumors.
• Pink – She, along with Alicia Keys, Khalid, Mary J. Blige, Ty Dolla $ign and Keke Palmer are featured in a powerful new Black Lives Matter clip. They read out “17 Ways Black People Are Killed in America”, paying tribute to some lives that were taken over the past 4 years, including while “Jogging, driving, sitting in a wheelchair, riding your bike,” and even while “sleeping in your bed, Breonna Taylor.”
• Dr. Dre — Just a day after being released from hospital, he was back in the studio. The music mogul was taken to ICU on Jan. 4 following a brain aneurysm. Producer Focus shared a photo of himself alongside Dre, with the caption: “My big Bro is Super Good!!! We Working…”.
• The New Radicals – are set for a reunion for Inauguration Day, after more than 20 years apart. Today, they will perform their 1998 hit ‘You Get What You Give’ at the virtual event “Parade Across America”. The song was the 2020 campaign trail walk-on song for Doug Emhoff, the soon to be Second Gentleman to Vice President-Elect, Kamala Harris.
• Chris Cornell – His 16-year-old daughter Tori has shared a video of herself singing a cover of Temple of the Dog’s ‘Hunger Strike’. In the caption, she points out the song “was released 30 years ago today”, and she recorded it “for Music Lives to raise money for covid relief…and in tribute to my dad.” Chris Cornell was lead singer for Temple of the Dog, a short-lived supergroup.
• Morgan Wallen — broke the record for the most streams by a country album in a week. His new “Dangerous: The Double Album,” tops the latest Billboard 200 album chart, powered by its 240 million U.S. streams in the week ended Jan. 14. That more than doubles the prior record of 102 million streams, achieved by Luke Combs in October.
• Garth Brooks — has joined the lineup of performers for Joe Biden’s inauguration today. He’ll be part of the swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol, which will also see performances from Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez. Of his appearance, he said: “This is not a political statement, this is a statement of unity.”
SHOOTING THE BULL
BLUETOOTH FOR YOUR SWEET TOOTH:
Researchers at Texas A&M University say they have created a wireless device which can be used to help people lose weight. The team says the tiny implant uses light to trigger a particular stomach nerve to make the patient feel full, eliminating the urge to overeat. Similar devices act like a pacemaker and need a power cord to operate. The scientists say their invention can survive the acids of the digestive system and responds to a remote radio frequency signal. They believe implementation of the new invention could spare many patients from undergoing gastric bypass surgery, which involves a lengthy recovery time.
(Eliminates the urge to overeat? Challenge accepted!)
(It gives new meaning to the phrase: “I’m eating light”!)
-StudyFinds
CORONAUPDATE:
⇒ More than 40,000 people in Florida are now overdue for their second COVID vaccination, apparently because many who have had the first shot have heard that the side effects are worse the second time around. Of the hundreds of thousands who have been vaccinated in Florida, almost 80,000 have returned for their second shot. But the Florida Department of Health is reporting that 40,661 people are overdue for their second shot. According to Seminole County EMS Medical Director Todd Husty, that rumor is basically true — The second shot is supposed to have worse side effects than the first, and it means your body is doing what it’s supposed to do, which is mount a defense against the virus.” He says the solution is educating people that getting coronavirus is far worse than the side effects, which can be handled with some rest and a Tylenol. (And you’ll be just fine in time for a socially-distanced early-bird dinner at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon!)
⇒ A municipality in Northern Canada is holding a lottery, and the only way to get a ticket is to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Residents of the hamlet of Arviat, Nunavut, population 3,000, can win one of five $2,000 prizes for getting the shot. Mayor Joe Savikataaq Jr. says “It’s a very small price to pay in order to get herd immunity here, in case we get a second wave.” The majority of Nunavut’s 266 confirmed cases to date have been in Arviat. (Or, you could REALLY gamble and NOT get the shot!)
-WFLA, CBC
COMMON WORDS THAT DIDN’T EXIST UNTIL THE 1980s:
➢ Laptop: The first official laptop was the $4,000 Gavilan SC, introduced in 1983, which came with 48 kb of ROM (a far weaker tech than the RAM found in today’s machines).
➢ Microbrewery: Small-batch breweries have been around for hundreds of years, but when The New York Times reported on a California micro-brewery, in 1983, it was the first mainstream publication in the US to use the term.
➢ Hip-hop: The Sugarhill Gang’s 1979 hit ‘Rapper’s Delight’ that introduced the word to the masses. But when, in 1982, a story in Village Voice predicted “hip-hop could be…the most significant artistic achievement of the decade,” it became more than just a lyric.
➢ Cyberspace: Science fiction author William Gibson came up with the word for his 1982 short story “Burning Chrome,” but it took his 1984 novel Neuromancer for it to enter the zeitgeist.
➢ Snail-mail: Of course, before the 80s, it was just “mail”. (Then e-mail came along…)
➢ Eco-friendly: While Earth-friendly products have been around for years, it was in a 1989 Daily Telegraph story that the term “eco-friendly” made its debut.
➢ Channel surfing: Cable and satellite TV was still in its infancy in 1986 when the Wall Street Journal came up with a fun way of describing the short attention span viewing that came with too many TV options. “Channel surfing” would soon spawn “web surfing”.
➢ Infomercial: While they actually go back as far as 1949 (for a blender), infomercials as we know them didn’t exist until 1981, when program-length ads were OK’d in the US. (making late-nite TV a haven for Ginsu knives, ThighMasters, and psychic hotlines…)
➢ Foodie: It came from a New York magazine food critic, who gifted us with the word in a 1980 restaurant review.
➢ Doh!: Homer Simpson uttered his first “d’oh” (written in the script as “annoyed grunt”) in a 1988 short called “Punching Bag” on the Tracey Ullman Show. It would become one of the most repeated and beloved comedic quotes of all time.
(The biggest question I have is this: If newspapers go down the tubes, who will invent all the new words for us?)
-BestLife
DID YOU KNOW?
The annual “Bad Sex in Fiction” award was cancelled for 2020, because organizers believe that the public was “subjected to too many bad things (in 2020) to justify exposing it to bad sex as well”. (Fortunately, you can still get yourself some “bad pizza…”!)
-QI
BS CHRONOMETER 01.20.21
TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1930 [91] Buzz Aldrin (Edwin Eugene Aldrin Jr.), Glen Ridge NJ, astronaut (The second person to walk on the moon, he was the pilot of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission)/fighter pilot/engineer
1946 [75] David Lynch, Missoula MT, filmmaker (“Dune”, “Blue Velvet”)/TV director (“Twin Peaks”)
1952 [69] Paul Stanley (Stanley Bert Eisen), New York City NY, rock singer/guitarist (Kiss-‘Rock & Roll All Nite’, ‘I Was Made For Lovin’ You’)
1956 [65] Bill Maher, NYC, TV talk show host (“Real Time With Bill Maher” since 2003, “Politically Incorrect” 1994-2002)
1966 [55] Rainn Wilson, Seattle WA, TV actor (“The Office” 2005-13)/movie actor (“Juno”)
1970 [51] Skeet Ulrich (Bryan Ray Trout), Lynchburg VA, movie actor (“Scream”, “The Craft”)/TV actor (“Riverdale” since 2017)
1971 [50] Questlove (Ahmir Khalib Thompson), Philadelphia PA, alt hip-hop drummer/DJ (The Roots w/Duffy-‘Well, Well, Well’, house band on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon”
1985 [36] Brantley Gilbert, Jefferson GA, country singer (‘Bottoms Up’, w/Lindsay Ell-‘What Happens in a Small Town’)
1987 [34] Evan Peters, St Louis MO, TV actor (“American Horror Story” since 2011)/movie actor (“X-Men” franchise, “Kick-Ass”)
TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “US Inauguration Day”, a ceremony to mark the commencement of a new four-year term of the president of the United States. The 59th presidential inauguration will take place on the West Front of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. Biden will take the oath of office as president, and Kamala Harris will take the oath of office as vice president.
A quick rundown of planned events:
-10am (local time): The inauguration ceremony will kick off with a first-ever curated live stream for “young Americans” including a message from Biden’s wife, Jill Biden.
-Oath taking: The live stream will be followed by swearing-in of Biden and Harris at the US Capitol building. After taking their oaths of office, Biden will deliver an inaugural address. This will include a rendition of the national anthem by Lady Gaga and performances by Jennifer Lopez and Garth Brooks.
-Pass in Review: The incoming president, vice president, the first lady and second gentleman will participate in the long-standing military tradition that reflects the peaceful transfer of power, on the east front with members of the military.
-Presidential Escort: Biden will then receive a Presidential Escort to the White House without attracting large crowds and gatherings. This will be followed by a virtual “parade across America” with performances in communities across the country.
-“Celebrating America”: is scheduled for 8:30pm. Hosted by Tom Hanks, it will include remarks from Biden and Harris and performances by Jon Bon Jovi, Demi Lovato, Justin Timberlake and Ant Clemons.
• “Cheese Lover’s Day”, celebrating the more than 900 known cheeses of the world. Which is best? Mmm, 18-month-old Comté from France. NET: http://tinyurl.com/jsnxhp7
CHEESY FACTS:
➢ Cheese was created over 4,000 years ago-by accident.
➢ It takes ten pounds of milk to make just one pound of cheese.
➢ There are more than 2,000 varieties of cheese available worldwide, mozzarella is the favorite.
➢ If a cheese is named after a city, it’s capitalized. Examples include Asiago, Brie, Camembert, Gouda, and Parmesan.
➢ Mice don’t like cheese. They prefer sweets and carbs.
• “Penguin Awareness Day”, to increase awareness of the interrelationship between humans and marine animals. FUN FACT: 37 million years ago, a species of penguin grew to a height of 6 foot 8 inches tall (2.03m).
• “Camcorder Day”, a tribute to videography of all varieties. Perhaps you’re a professional and enjoy shooting wildlife (with a lens, not a gun), or an extreme sports fan who attaches a GoPro to your helmet before jumping out of a plane.
• “International Day of Acceptance”, a day dedicated to the social acceptance of disability and to honor the late Annie Hopkins, founder of 3E Love and creator of the International Symbol of Acceptance.
• “National Disc Jockey Day”, initiated long ago by some unknown radio personality somewhere.
BS WAYS EVERYONE CAN CELEBRATE “DJ DAY”:
• Whenever you’re talking to someone, hold a hand over one ear.
• Throw a party where everyone mingles about, telling the time & temp.
• Give away stuff that’s not yours.
• Get laughs by using cheap sound effects instead of telling actual jokes. (***SFX***)
• Do play-by-play of the traffic on your way to work.
• Talk DEEP!
COMING UP . . .
[Thurs] Sweatpants Day
[Thurs] Granola Bar Day
[Fri] Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day
[Fri] Celebration of Life Day
THIS DAY IN SHOWBIZ . . .
2008 [13] “Breaking Bad”, created by Vince Gilligan and starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul, premieres on AMC
2020 [01] Actor Liam Hemsworth and singer Miley Cyrus divorce after a year of marriage
TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
1982 [39] Ozzy Osbourne is forced to undergo rabies shots after biting the head off a dead bat thrown at him during a concert in Des Moines IA (he apparently thought it was plastic)
1988 [33] The Beach Boys, The Beatles, The Drifters, Bob Dylan, and The Supremes are inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in its third round of inductions
TODAY’S FIRSTS . . .
2009 [12] Barack Obama is inaugurated the 44th president of the United States (4 years later he’s inaugurated on this date for a second term)
2017 [04] Donald Trump is inaugurated as the 45th President of the United States
TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2007 [14] a 3-man team, using only skis and kites, completes a 1,093-mile (1,759 km) trek to reach the Southern Pole of Inaccessibility for the first time ever without mechanical assistance
BULL’S BITS
BS WHACK FACTS:
✓ Your inner monologue operates at about 6,000 words per minute.
✓ There was no punctuation until the 15th century.
✓ Studies show that if you haven’t read an email in the first 24 hours after receiving it, there is 99% chance you never will.
✓ Single men have stronger body odour than partnered men.
✓ To help speed up the solving-time for Rubik’s Cubes, lubricants can be used to grease the joints. These include “Cubicle Lubicle”, “Cosmic Lube” and “Lubix Cube”.
✓ People cannot pass gas forcefully enough to propel them in zero gravity (it’s been tried…)
-QuiteInteresting
Best of BS . . .
BS WORST THINGS TO YELL OUT AFTER SEX:
• “I hope you have a ride home.”
• “Here’s your participation trophy.”
• “14 more minutes and I could have saved 15% with Geico.”
• “Next!”
• “Mom! Can you bring us something to eat?”
• “You got change for a 20?”
• “So, what are we?”
• The wrong name.
• “I’ve had better.”
• “Guard!”
-Twitter, first published in BS in 2020
TODAY’S SLICE OF BS:
➠ “American Idol” will return for another season February 14th. (Some say you don’t need American Idol to be discovered anymore. For instance, Justin Bieber gained fame thanks to YouTube. (And also, a pact with Satan. But mostly, it was YouTube.)
➠ WWE’s Chris Jericho is reportedly furious that NBA fans body-shamed him, claiming “he got fat” after his recent appearance on NBA Tonight. (Oddly, it was the only time during the program that Shaq and Charles kept their mouths shut!)
➠ The personal chef of NFL QB Tom Brady says Brady’s diet consists of about 80% vegetables. (And unlike in football, Brady doesn’t cheat when it comes to his diet…)
➠ I just read that people who drink too much during middle age risk memory loss later in life. (. . . Also, I’ve read where people who drink too much in middle-age risk memory loss later in life.)
➠ Did you Know: 4.8 billion people own mobile phones, whereas only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (I’m smelling a new invention: The iBrush!)
BS WEB GOODIE:
Stoked sea lions, dude: https://tinyurl.com/y4bxqs7o
BS RANDOM JOKE:
My luck is like a bald guy who just won a comb.
BS GUESS-THE-BRAND:
(Name the company behind the slogan)
• “The happiest place on earth” [Disneyland]
• “Betcha can’t eat just one” [Lay’s]
• “The taste of a new generation” [Pepsi]
• “Does she or doesn’t she?” [Clairol]
• “Leave the driving to us” [Greyhound]
• “Play. Laugh. Grow.” [Fisher-Price]
• “The best a man can get” [Gillette]
• “Let your fingers do the walking” [Yellow Pages]
• “When you care enough to send the very best” [Hallmark]
• “The quicker picker upper” [Bounty]
• “Can you hear me now?” [Verizon]
-Hubspot
BS PHONE STARTER:
What has someone said that will stick with you forever?
BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: According to a poll asking “What is the most effective way to get adult children to leave home?” — 25% of people said THIS. What is it?
Answer: Walk around naked
BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Any fool can criticize, condemn, and complain—and most fools do.
