BS SHOW BIZ BUZZ:
★ This week the 2nd season of critically-acclaimed FX-TV series “Fargo” has begun production in Calgary AB, and there are several changes in store. Besides an entirely new cast that includes Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Ted Danson, and Patrick Wilson, the series – inspired by Joel & Ethan Coen’s 1996 movie – jumps back in time from 2006 to 1979 and to a new town, Luverne, Minnesota. The new season is set against the backdrop of the presidential campaign of Ronald Reagan. No air date has been set but the series is likely to return in the Fall.
– “USA Today”
★ Tony Verna, the man who invented ‘instant replay’ for live sports, has died at the age of 81. Instant replay has been a staple of TV sports for the past 5 decades but it was used for the first time on December 7, 1963 when Verna came up with the technology for the annual Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia PA. The concept was so new that when Army scored a touchdown, announcer Lindsey Nelson had to warn viewers: “This is not live! Ladies & gentlemen, Army did not score again!”
– Telegraph.co.uk
★ Not to be outdone by designer-wife Victoria, David Beckham has launched a new clothing line for retailer H&M. The 39-year-old retired soccer superstar has chosen his favorite menswear pieces from his ‘Modern Essentials’ collection as part of an all-star ‘Modern Essentials Selected by David Beckham’ line, which he’s modeled in a series of photos taken by film director Marc Forster (“Quantum of Solace”, “World War Z”). The Spring wardrobe collection first becomes available on March 5th.
– BangShowbiz.com
★ And 7 ft-3 in “Star Wars” actor Peter Mayhew, who is reprising his role as ‘Chewbacca’ for “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”, is being treated in hospital for pneumonia. The 70-year-old was forced to cancel a personal appearance at a comic book store in Texas but is expected to make a full recovery. “Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by “Star Trek” helmsman JJ Abrams, is currently in post-production and will be released in cinemas on December 18th.
– ContactMusic.com

TODAY’S SHOW BIZ SKED:
• “American Idol” (FOX) – Another round of vocalists audition for the judges in hope of making it to the next level.
• “Conan” (TBS/CTV) – Belle & Sebastian (“Girls In Peacetime Want to Dance”).
• “Ellen DeGeneres Show” (syndicated/CTV2) – Becky G (“Play It Again”).
• “Jimmy Kimmel Live” (ABC/CityTV) – Tess Henley (“High Heels & Sneakers”).
• “Last Call With Carson Daly” (NBC) – Shannon & The Clams (“Dreams In the Rat House”). Rerun.
• “Late Night With Seth Meyers” (NBC/CTV) –  Jennifer Lopez (“American Idol”); Lupe Fiasco (“Tetsuo & Youth”).
• “Late Show With David Letterman” (CBS/Omni1) – Damien Rice (“My Favourite Faded Fantasy”). Rerun.
• National Television Awards (London) – Winners of Britain’s fan-voted NTAs are announced at a gala at O2 Arena. “Doctor Who”, “Downton Abbey”, and “Sherlock” are among those battling it out for ‘Best Drama’. Interestingly, “The X Factor” co-stars Simon Cowell and Cheryl Cole compete against each other for ‘Best Talent Show Judge’.
NET: http://www.nationaltvawards.com
• “Queen Latifah” (syndicated) – R&B great Gladys Knight. Rerun.
• “The Talk” (CBS) – Ella Henderson (“Chapter One”).
• “The View” (ABC/CTV) – Natasha Bedingfield (“Strip Me Away”).
• “Wendy Williams” (syndicated) – Jennifer Lopez again.

BS MUSIC NOTES:
• Adele – Word has it she’s hired Los Angeles vocal coach Ron Anderson to work with her in an attempt to avoid damaging her vocal cords again. She was forced to undergo emergency surgery in 2012 to repair a vocal cord hemorrhage. Could this mean she’s about to surface from her self-imposed hiatus?
• Ariana Grande – “Glee” co-creator Ryan Murray’s next TV project, the horror anthology “Scream Queens”, will feature her in a recurring role. The show, also starring “Glee” alum Lea Michele, goes into production this Spring.
• Beyoncé / Jay Z – They’ve scratched plans to move to LA. after losing out in a bidding war on an incredibly expensive Beverly Hills mansion, which sold for circa $70 mil to “Minecraft” mastermind Markus Persson. Mr & Mrs Z have reportedly told friends they really wanted that house and it’s soured them on looking further, so for now they’re putting LA on ice.
• Cold War Kids – Tonight the indie rockers kick off a new slate of tour dates, beginning in Denver CO and running through March 21st in Boston MA. The tour is in support of their 5th studio album, “Hold My Home”.
• Dallas Smith – The former frontman of alt-rockers Default is now on his 2nd solo country album, “Lifted”, which has spawned the #1 Canadian country hit, “Wastin’ Gas”. Smith is touring through February, tonight playing Guelph ON. He’ll appear at Country Thunder in Florence AZ on April 9th.
• John Legend – He says receiving accolades for “Glory”, which he co-wrote with Common for the movie “Selma”, are extra special at this point in his career. He’s already won a Golden Globe Award and is nominated for an Oscar. He’s also up for 2 Grammy Awards this year.
• John Mellencamp – Tonight his massive new 80-show “Plain Spoken” tour gets underway in South Bend IN. Dates are slotted through August 4th back in Indiana at Indianapolis.
• Meghan Trainor – She’s recorded a duet called “Someday Maybe” with One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles. The “All About That Bass” hitmaker says it’s a love song that they co-wrote using her ukelele.
• Metallica – Tonight they get on the ice with the NHL’s San Jose Sharks for a special “Metallica Night” to benefit the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club. The band will participate in a ceremonial puck drop and partake in some of the intermission fun and games.
• Paula Abdul – She’s in talks to return to the small screen as a judge for the 12th season of “So You Think You Can Dance”, which premieres later this year.
• TLC – The surviving members of the 1990s girl band are using Kickstarter to fund what will be their 5th and final album. Singer Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas tells “Billboard” they’re doing the fan-funded project so they have ‘complete creative control’.

CHILLAXING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook and Twitter can help you de-stress … but only if you’re female. Academic researchers say they were taken aback by the surprise result of their study. Experts at the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project think it may be because women tend to use social media to communicate with family & friends and to feel community support. In addition, women who are responsible for ‘maintaining household family relationships’ save time by completing the task using social media. It’s also thought that women tend to be far more active sharers on social media, and no matter whether positive or negative events are shared, the very act of sharing lowers levels of stress. (Guys only share where to meet for Happy Hour.)
– Metro.co.uk

FROM THE BS POLL VAULT:
A statistical look at who we are and the things we do …
• 60% of employees think their co-workers should NOT be allowed smoke breaks.
• 30% of drivers don’t know how to refill their windshield washer reservoir.
• 25% of us have at least one stuffed animal in the bedroom.
• 23% of us have faked being on the phone in order to avoid talking to someone.
• 10% of all the photos ever taken were taken in the last 12 months.
• 5% of doctors admit to dating a patient at some point in their careers.

WHY WOMEN HAVE CASUAL SEX:
The most common reasons cited by women for participating in a purely physical relationship, according to a new survey by University of Ottawa’s Human Sexuality Research Laboratory …
1. “The person’s physical appearance turned me on.”
2. “It feels good.”
3. “I was horny.”
4. “I wanted to experience the physical pleasure.”
5. “The person had a desirable body.”
6. “It’s fun.”
7. “It was in the heat of the moment.”
8. “The person had an attractive face.”
9. “It’s exciting, adventurous.”
10. “I wanted the pure pleasure.”
(Clearly the mushy emotional stuff comes later.)
– NationalPost.com

PUZZLING PHONE:
Google has developed Project Ara, a build-your-own modular phone with components that fit together like Lego. The phones with swap-able parts should cost less to maintain and be more attractive to consumers who want to customize their devices. Google plans to have 20-to-30 modules available which clip into the handset and could include cameras, speakers, batteries, displays, blood-sugar monitors, laser pointers and other items that are affixed to the shell by magnets. The design is also intended to increase the life of the phones as it will allow users to replace individual components, rather than the entire phone. Google plans to test-market the product later this year in Puerto Rico. (Just wait till your toddler gets hold of one of these!)
– Gizmodo.com

BS BUZZWORDS:
New cutting-edge vocab …
• ‘Autofail’ – An error introduced into a message by automatic spell-checking or word-completion software, particularly when that error is indecorous or nonsensical.
• ‘Bridechilla’ – The opposite of a ‘bridezilla’, this is a bride-to-be who, while planning her wedding, remains calm, relaxed, and easy-going.
• ‘Digital Hoarding’ – Saving all one’s digital data, no matter how trivial or useless.
• ‘Sharebait’ – A social media post with text, images, or video designed to entice the reader to share the post.

AND THE RICH GET …
A new report from British anti-poverty charity Oxfam claims the world’s richest 1% will soon amass wealth that represents more than the entirety of that owned by the rest of the people on Earth. The study, published to coincide with this week’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, suggests that by 2016 the gap between the world’s rich and poor will widen to the extent that those at the top of the income pile will control over 50% of total global wealth. The report notes that in 2014 there were 1,645 people listed by “Forbes” as billionaires. 34% of them inherited some or all of their money; 85% are over age 50; and 90% are male. (These are the ORG … Old Rich Guys.)
– USAToday.com

BS AMAZING FACTS:
• Colombia, Jamaica, and Saint Lucia are the only countries in the world where a woman is more likely to be a boss than a man.
– “Washington Post”
• Millennials are projected to out-number Baby Boomers for the first time this year, according to Pew Research Center. Analysts define Millennials as the generation aged 18-to-34 in 2015, and Boomers as being 51-to-69.
– BuzzFeed.com

BS CHRONOMETER 01.21.15

TODAY’S CELEBIRTHDAYS . . .
1956 [59] (Virginia) Geena Davis, Wareham MA, 6-ft movie actress (“Thelma & Louise”, Oscar-“The Accidental Tourist”)

1973 [42] Chris Kilmore, Dillsburg PA, rock DJ (Incubus-“Love Hurts”, “Anna Molly”)

1976 [39] Emma Bunton, London UK, pop singer (ex-Spice Girls-“Say You’ll Be There”, “Wannabe”)

TODAY’S BS REASONS TO PARTY . . .
• “Hugging Day”, a day to hug anyone who will accept a hug and to see how many you can hug before the day is over (make sure you have a lawyer on retainer).
NET: http://www.nationalhuggingday.com

• “Squirrel Appreciation Day”. So take a moment today and think about the squirrels. (Huh?!?)

TODAY’S MUSIC EVENT . . .
2004 [11] Recording Industry Association of America sues 532 individual computer users that it claims are illegally distributing songs online (party poops!)

TODAY’S FIRSTS . . .
1986 [29] 100 participate in the 1st “Nude Olympics” in 38 F (3 C) weather in Purdue, Indiana

2009 [06] Toyota officially passes GM to become the world’s largest automaker

TODAY’S RECORD . . .
2008 [07] ‘Black Monday’ in worldwide stock markets as Britain’s FTSE (footsy) has its biggest-ever one-day points fall and Asian stocks drop 15% (the pattern spreads to North America, leading to the global economic turndown)

COMING UP . . .
[Thurs] “Nightwatch” premieres (A&E)
[Thurs] Answer Your Cat’s Questions Day
[Thurs] Women’s Healthy Weight Day
[Fri] “Black Sea”; “The Boy Next Door”; “Cake”; Mortdecai” open in movie theaters
[Fri] Handwriting Day
[Sat] 2015 BET Honors (Atlanta GA)
[Sat] Country Music Awards of Australia (Tamworth NSW)
[Sat] Talk Like a Grizzled Prospector Day
This Week Is … No Name-Calling Week
This Month Is … Polka Music Month

BULL’S BITS

SLANG TERMS YOU THINK ARE NEW BUT ARE IN FACT ANCIENT:
✓ ‘Bae’ – “New Yorker” places the first usage in the early 1990s as ‘bae bae’, a mutant of ‘baby’.
✓ ‘Cool’ – As in ‘hip’, ‘rad’, etc. First recorded to mean ‘fashionable’ in 1933.
✓ ‘Dude’ – The first recorded use was in 1882 as an abbreviation of ‘Yankee doodle’.
✓ ‘High’ – Meaning ‘under the influence of drugs’, it dates to at least 1932; meaning ‘drunk’ it goes all the way back to 1627.
✓ ‘Hipster’ – The first recorded use of the word was in 1941.
✓ ‘OMG’ – First used to stand for ‘Oh! My God!’ in a 1917 letter to Winston Churchill from Lord Fisher.
✓ ‘Onesie’ – A trademark of Gerber baby clothing, registered in September 1984.
✓ ‘Snark’ – Based on ‘snarky’, meaning ‘to find fault with’, which goes back to 1886.
✓ ‘Swag’ – Appeared in the book “The Tragedy of Sir John van Olden Barnavelt” … in 1640.
– Sourced from BuzzFeed.com

BS PHONE STARTER:
☎ If you were appointed ‘Grammar Czar’ and given the ability to make or change accepted grammar policies, what would be your first big move? What existing rule would you most want to enforce?

BS U-PICK ANIMAL TRIVIA:
• Hyraxes are small furry mammals of Africa and South Asia, whose diet consists of plants and fruit. Oddly enough, the nearest relatives of the hyrax among other mammals are …
a. Bears.
b. Elephants. [CORRECT]
c. Giraffes.
• What type of animal is a ‘grison’?
a. Aquatic, the smallest member of the dolphin family.
b. Domestic, any small house pet.
c. South American, a relative of the weasel. [CORRECT]
– TriviaPark.com

BS RANDOM JOKE:
Smoking doesn’t kill people. People who are trying to quit smoking kill people.

BS WATER COOLER QUESTION:
Question: The average cost of one of THESE is $3,950, a 21% increase from last year.
Answer: Super Bowl ticket.

BS DEEP THOUGHT:
You can’t change the past, but you can ruin the present by worrying over the future.