Tuesday, December 22, 2020 – Edition: #6877

Good Morning, Sheetheads!

BS SUBSCRIBER NOTE:
The Bull Sheet will be shutting down for the holidays Friday Dec. 25-Friday Jan. 1 inclusive. Following the Dec. 24 edition, the next Bull Sheet will be published for Monday Jan 4, 2021. All subscribers will receive account credits for missed service days. Thanks for an awesome year of BS, and Happy Holidays, all!

BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ A Russian TV channel wants to find a female version of Tom Cruise to star in its first film to be shot in space. The country’s Roscosmos space agency has teamed up with Channel One in hopes of finding the star for its movie, which has the working title “Challenge”. Filming is set to start in October onboard the International Space Station, and they say they the selected candidate will be a “real superhero”, who “wants to go to the stars… at the same time as becoming a big international star”. It will be in a race against time with Tom Cruise, who has been announced as the star of an upcoming film backed by NASA and Elon Musk, which is being billed as the first movie to be shot outside the earth’s atmosphere.
-LADBible
★ With Christmas approaching, John Krasinski has returned to brighten things up. The star of “The Office” has dropped a brand-new holiday edition of his “Some Good News” web series, bringing much-needed cheer at the end of a long year, with help from very special guests George Clooney, Justin Timberlake, and Dwayne Johnson as Santa. Krasinski launched “Some Good News” in March, at the beginning of the COVID-19 lockdown, producing eight episodes of the show before selling it to ViacomCBS.
-MSN
★ Netflix is delaying production on “The Gray Man” amid surging cases of COVID-19 in California. The movie – starring Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling and Ana De Armas – was due to begin filming in mid-January, but that’s been pushed back, despite the fact that sets are already under construction in the Long Beach area of Los Angeles. The action thriller follows a former CIA operative turned freelance assassin named Court Gentry – also known as the ‘Gray Man’ – who is hunted across the globe by his former CIA cohort Lloyd Hansen.
-ContactMusic
★ Will Ferrell’s Grammy nomination came as a huge surprise…even to him. The soundtrack to “Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga” scored a nod for best compilation soundtrack for visual media at the upcoming 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, and according to Ferrell, “There was a lot of things written saying: ‘Hold on everyone. These songs are actually good. They should be nominated…Which is great to be mentioned in that regard. But then to actually get the nomination for the soundtrack and to know that all these wonderful people like Savan Kotecha and Molly Sandén are getting credit — it’s so deserved.”
-ContactMusic

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/Global): Miley Cyrus, Tony Romo (R)
• “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” (CBS/Global): Rachel Maddow, Megan Thee Stallion (R)
• “Late Night with Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV): Demi Lovato, Edgar Ramírez, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Carter McLean (R)
• “The Late Late Show with James Corden” (CBS/CTV): Riz Ahmed, Bad Bunny (R)
• “Conan” (TBS): Al Franken (R)
• “The View” (ABC/CTV): Kate Winslet (R)
• “The Talk” (CBS): Taraji P. Henson, Jay Shetty (R)
• “Live with Kelly and Ryan” (ABC/CTV): Mariah Carey, Alanis Morissette
• “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” (NBC/CTV): Sarah Silverman, Jeff Foxworthy, Bon Jovi (R)
• “The Kelly Clarkson Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Lily Collins, Alison Deyette, Josh Groban (R)
• “The Drew Barrymore Show” (CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS): Henry Winkler, Nico Santos, Aaron Sanchez (R)
• “The Bachelorette” (ABC): Season 16 finale
• “NEXT” (FOX): Season 1 finale
• “Saturday Night Live Christmas Special” (NBC): A collection of Christmas-themed sketches including D… in a Box, Mr. Robinson’s Neighborhood, Adam Sandler’s ‘Chanukah Song’, Martha Stewart’s Topless Christmas and more.
• “The Christmas High Note” (LIFETIME): A woman develops feelings for a single father while helping his teenage daughter prepare to sing in a Christmas Eve pageant.

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Ariana Grande — is engaged to her boyfriend Dalton Gomez. On Instagram, she showed off her hefty diamond engagement ring in a series of photos that also included candid shots of her and Gomez. She was first linked to the real estate agent in February, and confirmed the relationship in May with her ‘Stuck with U’ music video.
• Taylor Swift – First, she and Paul McCartney coordinated the release dates for their new albums to avoid overlap, and now they’re supporting each other. McCartney tweeted: “Congratulations to my friend Taylor Swift (and her boots) on her wonderful ‘#evermore’ album charting at #1.” He included a clip of himself helping Swift pull off one of her boots. She replied: “Everyone stream/buy McCartney III because it’s excellent but also because Paul is the kind of friend who steps in to help you when your boot is stuck.”
• Foreigner – is set to play the first socially-distant music festival in the US. On March 23 and 24, the band will take to the stage at Frontyard Festival at Dr. Phillips Center in Orlando, Florida. The Frontyard Festival is a new venue designed for socially-distant events, which gives groups of up to 5 their own 5’ X 7’ box to enjoy the show. The ‘festival’ takes place over six months.
• Bonnie Tyler – has release her new single ‘When the Lights Go Down’, which she says has that “magic I hear in my favorite Bruce (Springsteen) and Rod (Stewart) songs.” It will appear on her new “The Best Is Yet to Come” album, out Feb. 26. LINK:  https://tinyurl.com/y83qbhvo
• R.E.M. – Former frontman Michael Stipe has given himself the “challenge” of writing all the music on his upcoming solo album, in addition to the lyrics. Quote: “I’ve never written music before, which means I’m coming from a completely different vantage point than I ever did with R.E.M.”
• Elvis Presley — According to an article by Vice music writer Dan Ozzi, he faked his 1977 death and had a cameo in the movie “Home Alone”. He isn’t the first to point out the “cameo,” but he wrote a deep dive into the death conspiracy and why people believe it is Presley. But in the film’s commentary, director Christopher Columbus discussed the theory with Macaulay Culkin, finding it quite humorous. LINK TO THE “CAMEO”:  https://youtu.be/cOYbXeLTnf0
• Eddie Van Halen – is being recognized with the “Lifetime Achievement Award” by the National Guitar Museum. The organization said in a release: “Everyone who has ever heard his guitar playing knows. Eddie certainly would have received this award at some point in the future, as it seemed that he still had a lifetime of guitar greatness to give…We only wish we could deliver this in person.”
• Carrie Underwood – You may have heard (no pun intended) that she asked her husband for – and received – 2 cows for Christmas. Why? She told Seth Meyers: “I grew up with cows and I love them…They’re probably my favorite animal…they make me so happy.”
• Thomas Rhett – posted that he is going to “hop off Instagram for a little while”. He wrote that there is “too much negativity on the app” after receiving a lot of online blowback as a result of posting pics of a trip to Cabo with family and friends amid the pandemic.
• Alabama – singer Randy Owen has been named as one of the co-chairs of the World Games, which are coming to his home state in 2022. “The World Games 2022 Birmingham”, which marks the 40th anniversary of the event, will take place July 7-17.

GOOD SCOUTS:
A Boy Scout troop in Texas is helping residents at a nursing home get a little closer to their visitors with a “hug booth” that they’ve designed with COVID-19 safety in mind. Heartis Clear Lake, an assisted-living facility in Webster, can now allow residents and their loved ones limited physical contact by using the booth, which has a plexiglass window that allows guests to stick their hands through large, sanitized gloves for hugging. Although this is not the first invention of its kind, the lifestyle director at the facility says that Boy Scout Troop 848 “built it exactly the way” they envisioned it. Physical contact with loved ones is recognized as being important to the well-being of those in assisted care homes.
VIDEO LINK:  https://abc13.com/video/embed/?pid=8767575
(What I wouldn’t have given to have one of these whenever Grandma came in for a squeeze when I was 12!)
(I know how they feel. Since the pandemic started, the only hug I’ve had was from the shower curtain!)
(The “kissing booth” is still on the drawing board…)
-UPI

SCREEN DREAM:
We’ve all been there. One moment of distraction or inattention, and the next thing you know, you’re staring at a cracked smartphone screen. And not only can that give you a headache, you’re probably looking at a hefty repair bill too. But now, researchers in South Korea say that’s about to become a thing of the past, because they’ve created a self-repairing electronic material that will seal cracks in damaged phone screens. The team from the Korea Institute of Science and Technology say “colorless polymide” is as transparent as glass but has the strength to resist scratches even after being folded thousands of times. Their screen coating, made by adding oil-filled microcapsules to a mix of silicone and a coating of colorless polymides, can repair 95% of a screen’s damage in just 20 minutes.
(My 12-year-old has a phone screen that fixes itself too – it’s called “Mom”.)
(That’s great, because I’m not sure how much longer I can keep this cracked screen a secret from my wife!)
(That still doesn’t help if the cracked screen is half-way to the water treatment plant…)
-StudyFinds

SPOTIFY’S MOST-STREAMED CHRISTMAS SONGS OF ALL-TIME:
1. Mariah Carey – All I Want for Christmas Is You
2. Wham! – Last Christmas
3. Ariana Grande – Santa Tell Me
4. Michael Bublé – It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas
5. Justin Bieber – Mistletoe
6. Andy Williams – It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
7. Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas? (1984)
8. Frank Sinatra – Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!
9. Bing Crosby – White Christmas
10. The Pogues – Fairytale of New York (feat. Kirsty MacColl)
-TooFab

YE OLDE (REAL) COLD WEATHER WORDS TO GET YOU THROUGH WINTER:
• Crule – A verb meaning to shiver with cold, or to crouch by a fire to warm up.
• Ice-legs – Like sea-legs at sea, the ability to walk safely on ice without falling over.
• Meggle – An old Scots word meaning “to trudge laboriously through mud or snow”.
• Hogamadog – A snowball that gets bigger and bigger when rolled through a field of snow.
• Snow-bones – The leftover lines of snow at the sides of roads after the rest has melted.
• Moble – To wrap up your head with a hood.
• Mufflements – An old Lancashire dialect word for thick, warm, insulating clothes.
• Aquabobs – An 18th century word for icicles. Also known as ice-candles.
• Snow-blossom – An old word for a single snowflake.
• Clart – A single snowflake large enough to stick to your clothes.
– Condensed from MentalFloss.com

DID YOU KNOW?
Sweden’s Icehotel – which creates a different seasonal concept each year – has debuted its 12 new interactive art suites, and you don’t have to go there and freeze your butt off to see them. The new suites are designed by different artists, and while each is a little bit different, all of them come equipped with in-room QR codes, so guests can hear an audio guide that tells them about the project. Concepts include an icy sauna, a suite with a Maltese dog, a playful “toybox” room, and more. If a trip to Sweden isn’t on the agenda for you between now and the spring melt, you can still explore each suite’s concept on Instagram using the hotel’s specially made augmented reality (AR) experiences.
-TravelandLeisure

BS CHRONOMETER 12.22.20

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1945 [75] Diane Sawyer, Glasgow KY, news anchor (“ABC World News Tonight: 2008-2015, “Good Morning America” 1999-2016)

1946 [74] Rick Nielsen, Rockford IL, rock singer-guitarist (Cheap Trick-‘I Want You to Want Me’, ‘Dream Police’)

1962 [58] Ralph Fiennes (***PRON: Rafe Fines***), Suffolk UK, movie actor (“Grand Budapest Hotel”, “Harry Potter” films)/stage actor (Tony Award-“Hamlet”) COMING UP…”The Dig”, 2021

1989 [31] Jordin Sparks, Phoenix AZ, pop singer (w/Chris Brown-‘No Air’, ‘Tattoo’)/“American Idol 6″ winner at age 17 (2007)

1993 [27] Meghan Trainor, Nantucket MA, pop singer (‘All About That Bass’, ‘Dear Future Husband’)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Abilities Day”, honoring disabled people and their care-givers. It is also a time to recognize that we all have abilities and disabilities of various kinds.

• “Date Nut Bread Day”, celebrating the rich loaf that is moist and delicious and great toasted for breakfast. Sort of like Christmas cake, only with half the weight.

• “National Cookie Exchange Day”, cookie exchanges/swaps/parties are loads of fun and pretty simple to put together. Whip up a batch or two of your favorite tried-and-true homemade cookie recipes or try that brand new recipe you’ve been eyeing and share/trade with your friends, family, or co-workers – while following COVID-19 protocols, of course.

AND REMEMBER . . .
[Wed] Festivus
[Wed] National Roots Day
[Thurs] Christmas Eve
[Thurs] National Egg Nog Day

THIS DAY IN SHOW BIZ . . .
2006 [14] “Night At the Museum”, starring Ben Stiller, opens in movie theaters (spawns 2 sequels)

2007 [13] Late night TV host Jimmy Fallon (“Tonight Show”) weds producer Nancy Juvonen

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENTS . . .
2002 [18] The Clash singer Joe Strummer dies in Broomfield, England at age 50 of an undiagnosed congenital heart defect

2012 [08] Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood (65) marries girlfriend Sally Humphreys (34)

2014 [06] Joe Cocker (‘With a Little Help From My Friends’, “Up Where We Belong”) dies of lung cancer at 70 in Crawford, Colorado

TODAY’S FIRST . . .
2001 [19] Richard Reid unsuccessfully attempts to destroy American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami using explosives hidden in his shoes (due to this one feeble attempt, passengers are forced to remove their shoes at security for over a decade)

BULL’S BITS

BS WHACK CHRISTMAS FACTS:
✓ The tallest Christmas tree ever cut was a 221-foot Douglas fir that was displayed in 1950 at the Northgate Shopping Center in Seattle, Washington.
✓ In Slovakia, it is a tradition to keep “Christmas Carp”, which live in the family bathtub for a few days before they are eaten.
✓ Christmas carolling is based on the English custom of ‘wassailing’, which was a tradition to toast to someone’s good health and fortune. St. Francis of Assisi converted it to the modern form of carolling.
✓ Tiny Tim in Charles Dickens’ classic story ‘A Christmas Carol’ was almost named “Little Fred.”
✓ ‘Silver Bells’ was called ‘Tinkle Bells’ until co-composer Jay Livingston’s wife told him “tinkle” had another meaning.
-List25, MentalFloss

(***Caution***) BS THINGS SAID BOTH AT CHRISTMAS AND DURING SEX:
• “Are you going to wrap that?”
• “Let me pinch those cheeks.”
• “Larry down the street got the same thing and he was happy.”
• “It needs batteries.”
• “I don’t think I can do this sober.”
• “Oh my God! You came!”
• “You’ve been a naughty girl…”
• “This is the only time I ever think about Mariah Carey.”
• “You want WHAT??”
• “It’s Christmas and we are having sex.”
-Twitter

Best of BS . . .
LEAST-POPULAR 2021 CALENDARS:
Giving a calendar as a gift this year? Best stay away from these …
✗ Apple’s “Nerd-a-Day Desk Calendar”
✗ “A Year of Fat Accountants Named Fred”
✗ “365 Tips for First Class Toenail Maintenance”
✗ “Senators Unclothed!”
✗ “Keith Richards’ Health Tip-a-Day Calendar”
✗ “12 Close-Up Views of Ed Sheeran’s Wart”
-First published in BS in 2016

TODAY’S SLICE OF BS:
➠ A Georgia student has been sentenced to 4 months in prison in the Cayman Islands after breaking COVID-19 protocol by visiting her boyfriend. (This is really sad news, but millions just like her are faced with the same problem. . . living in Georgia!)
➠ LeAnn Rimes, aka ‘The Sun’ has won the 4th season of “The Masked Singer”. She STOLE the trophy from The Crocodile and Mushroom. (Then, STOLE 3 husbands on her way out…)
➠ A study claims that Facebook helped get people to vote this year. (That may explain why turnout is expected to be huge in this year’s election for President of Farmville…)
➠ Doctors say using an iPad or smart device before bed can cause sleeplessness. (Unless you’re using it to watch “Jimmy Fallon”. Then it’s sweet dreams, Brutus.)
➠ Pornhub has suspended over 10 million videos in an effort to eradicate illegal content. (Well, I guess it’s back to National Geographic for me!)

BS WEB GOODIE:
Dads before a snowstorm:  https://tinyurl.com/ybzlrnz2

BS PHONE STARTER:
What’s one thing you’re excited about that’s coming up in 2021?

BS RANDOM JOKE:
Christmas sweaters are only acceptable as a cry for help.

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question:  Only 7% of people say they’ve actually done THIS during the holiday season. What is it?
Answer:  Roasted chestnuts on an open fire

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
Peace on earth will come to stay, when we live Christmas every day.