COUNTRY May 25, 2015
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Bits & Breaks • Country Prep • Datebook • Datebook Tomorrow • Entertainment • Fun & Games • Image of the Day • Joke of the Day! • Last Minute Items • News & Nuggets • News Attack • Number for the Day • Television • Video of the Day • Wacky-But-True
DATEBOOK: MAY 25, 2015
This is day 145 of 2015. There are 220 days remaining.
BIRTHDAYS
• Ian McKellen is 76
• Director-Muppetteer Frank Oz is 71
• Connie Sellecca is 60
• Mike Myers is 52
• Anne Heche is 46
• Sidney and Lindsay Greenbush (Carrie Ingalls on Little House on the Prairie) are 45
• Jamie Kennedy (Scream) is 45
• Octavia Spencer is 45
• Justin Henry (Kramer vs. Kramer) is 44
• Molly Sims (Las Vegas) is 42
• Singer Lauryn Hill is 40
• Cillian Murphy (Peaky Blinders, Batman movies) is 39
• Ethan Suplee (My Name Is Earl) is 39
IT HAPPENED TODAY
• 1787: In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, delegates convened a Constitutional Convention to write a new Constitution for the United States. George Washington presided.
• 1925: John T. Scopes was indicted for teaching Darwin’s theory of evolution.
• 1935: Babe Ruth hit his 714th and last home run at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, setting a baseball record that would stand for 39 years.
• 1961: Apollo program: U.S. president John F. Kennedy announced before a special joint session of Congress his goal to initiate a project to put a “man on the moon” before the end of the decade.
• 1977: Star Wars hit movie theaters.
• 1983: The Return of the Jedi set a new movie record for opening day box office sales by grossing $6.2 million.
• 1986: Hands Across America took place. Some 7 million people joined hands to raise money for the nation’s homeless.
• 1988: Debbie Gibson’s Foolish Beat hit #1, making her the youngest artist, at age 17, to write, sing, and produce a #1 hit.
• 1990: Gary Stewart of Los Angeles set a Guinness world record by jumping 177,737 times on his pogo stick.
• 1992: In Manilla, Pepsi announced that 349 was the winning $37,000 number that day in its “Number Fever” contest. Unfortunately, due to what Pepsi called a computer software glitch, 800,000 people had bottle caps with the winning number. In the resulting public relations nightmare, violence erupted as irate consumers attack bottling plants and delivery trucks.
• 1999: Harry Seager found a half-cent piece dated 1723 in front of the town’s 200-year-old town library. Greenfield, Massachusetts, was rebuilding Main Street and ripping up sidewalk sections that dated back a couple hundred years. Other treasure hunters found 18th and 19th century coins, brass buttons and a dozen led musket balls.
• 2011: The Oprah Winfrey Show aired its final broadcast, ending a 25-year run.
SPECIAL EVENTS
• Hurricane Preparedness Week
• Tire Safety Week
• Memorial Day
• National Missing Children’s Day
• National Tap Dance Day
• Brown-Bag-It Day
• Wine Day
• The World Famous ‘Cheese Rolling’ Competition. From the top of the hill a 9-pound round of Double Gloucester cheese is rolled, and competitors race down the hill after it. The first person over the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. In theory, competitors are aiming to catch the cheese; however, it has around a one second head start and can reach speeds up to 70 MPH, enough to knock over and injure a spectator. In the 2013 competition, a foam replica replaced the actual cheese for reasons of safety. The winner was given the prize after the competition. • VIDEO
UPCOMING
• May 25: Memorial Day (Monday)
• June 6: Belmont Stakes (Saturday)
• June 21: Father’s Day (Sunday)
NUMBER FOR THE DAY
40,000: Length of time, in years, dogs have been man’s best friend. (According to an analysis of an ancient Siberian wolf bone.)
NEWS ATTACK!
Three-day weekend. [The first two days of a three-day weekend are spent doing whatever you what to do, and the third day is spent trying to delete the evidence from your online accounts.]
Three-day weekend. [It’s the time of the year when fathers first fire up the grill, and mothers first apply first aid.]
Three-day weekend. [For most people it’s the unofficial start of summer. For mosquitoes it’s like the Opening Ceremony for the Olympics.]
Three-day weekend. [The best part about spending a three-day weekend with the family is it helps you better appreciate the wisdom of the standard two-day weekend. ]
Working today (Memorial Day)? [The traffic isn’t much but be careful because the only people heading to work this morning are really ticked off.]
Working today (Memorial Day)? [If you have to work today, either you have a really important job or your high school guidance counselor steered you seriously wrong.]
Working today (Memorial Day)? [In my opinion, the only people that should have to work today beside medical personnel are people who work in police departments, fire departments, or doughnut shops.]
It’s Memorial Day. [It’s a time to sit back and listen to NBC’s Brian Williams’ favorite war stories.]
ON TELEVISION
SEASON PREMIERE: AMERICAN NINJA WARRIOR (8p ET, NBC) — Season 7 opens with a qualifying round and features Ninja veterans Kevin Bull and David Campbell, former Baltimore Raven Brendon Ayanbadejo, and Seattle Seahawk Jon Ryan.
500 QUESTIONS (8p ET, ABC) — New
2 BROKE GIRLS (8p ET, CBS) — Repeat
MASTERCHEF (8p ET, FOX) — A 2-hour repeat
MIKE & MOLLY (8:30p ET, CBS) — Repeat
PREMIERE: TEXAS RISING (9p ET, History) — This 5 night, 10-hour event series details the Texas Revolution and the rise of the Texas Rangers. Stars include Bill Paxton, Brendan Fraser, Ray Liotta, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Crispin Glover, Jeremy Davies, Christopher McDonald, Chad Michael Murray, and Kris Kristofferson.
THE BACHELORETTE (9p ET, ABC) — Laila Ali teaches the men to box and Amy Schumer instructs the bachelors on standup comedy in this new, 2-hour edition.
SCORPION (9p ET, CBS) — Repeat
NCIS: LOS ANGELES (10p ET, CBS) — Repeat
SERIES PREMIERE: THE ISLAND (10p ET, NBC) — In this new reality show, Bear Grylls challenges contestants to survive on a deserted island without the basic luxuries of everyday life. The entire series is filmed by the men themselves and there are no prizes, eliminations or even a winner. The six episodes will show 14 American men isolated on a deserted island with only the clothes on their backs and minimal survival tools.
FUN & GAMES
TRIVIA: 5.3 million youth participate in this each year. (Baseball)
JOKE OF THE DAY
A psychiatrist decided to test three patients to determine if they were well enough to be released. He asked the first one, “What’s 3 times 3?” The patient answered. “111.” He asked the same question of the second patient and was told that the answer was “Tuesday.” He told both that they weren’t healed and had to stay. He asked the third one: “What is 3 times 3?” The reply: “9.” “Great! You’re cured! You can go home, but tell me how you knew the answer?” The patient replied, “Simple. I divided 111 by Tuesday.”
LAST MINUTE ITEMS
• Classic cars next to their modern version.
• The E.T. sequel that fortunately never happened.
• Eat This Much automatically creates meal plans that meet your diet goals.
• An architect wants to build an underwater tennis court in Dubai.
• Mac users: get the fantastic Forecast Bar.
• Watch two crazy people fly jetpacks over Dubai.
• Captain American backpack.
COUNTRY DATEBOOK: MAY 25, 2015
• 1951: MARTY ROBBINS signed with Columbia Records.
• 1991: DOUG STONE scored his first number one country hit with In A Different Light.
• 1996: LEANN RIMES’ debut single, Blue, entered the country charts.
• 1999: GEORGE STRAIT won three Golden Pick awards from the nearly 70,000 readers of Country Weekly.
• 2002: ALAN JACKSON topped the charts with Drive (For Daddy Gene).
• 2006: RASCAL FLATTS’ CD Me & My Gang was spending a seventh week at the top of the Country Albums chart after sales of 64,000 copies.
• 2011: REBA McENTIRE and BLAKE SHELTON held the first of two benefits for Oklahoma tornado victims at the Choctaw Event Center in Durant. The shows raised $500,000.
• 2011: SCOTTY McCREERY won American Idol, singing Live Like You Were Dying with Tim McGraw. Runner-up LAUREN ALAINA performed a duet of Before He Cheats with CARRIE UNDERWOOD.
TOM T. HALL is 79. Best known as The Old Storyteller, his hits include Old Dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine and I Love. He also wrote ALAN JACKSON’s Little Bitty.
JESSI COLTER, longtime wife of the late WAYLON JENNINGS, is 72.
COUNTRY MUSIC NEWS
BRAD PAISLEY says his family has seen a dramatic increase in unwanted phone calls and text messages — and they all began after it was announced he’d be opening for the Rolling Stones June 17. Brad says people he doesn’t know are calling his father saying, “Do you remember me? Is there any way” to get tickets? A tip from Brad if you’re asking a a favor: “It’s never a good indicator when they say, ‘Do you remember me?'”
When SHANIA TWAIN says her about-to-launch tour will be her last, she means it. Shania’s Rock This Country tour, her first in 11 years, kicks off June 5 and while Shania told reporters on Friday that it’s “very exciting” to tour again, she’s ready to say goodbye after more than 40 years of performing. But she’s not completely through with music. Shania says she hasn’t made enough records yet — she’s only released four studio albums, her last in 2002. So once her tour ends this fall, Shania says she plans to make new albums, including her fifth studio album that she’s going to start recording while on tour.
You might occasionally be thankful to McDonald’s for its breakfast sandwiches or french fries, or maybe for the work it gave you as a struggling young actor. But one McDonald’s shareholder, speaking at the company’s annual meeting recently, said there’s another reason we should appreciate the company: Its low wages have ensured a number of successful former employees went on to do better things. During an open question session where a number of attendees brought up the company’s low pay, one man who identified himself as a shareholder for the last 25 years cited a number of celebrities who once worked at McDonald’s, including SHANIA TWAIN, Sharon Stone, Jay Leno, and Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos. The shareholder said at the annual meeting: “I’m sure if they were making $15 an hour, they’d still be working at McDonald’s.”
ERIC CHURCH’s May 20 concert at the Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska set an attendance record with 15,823 fans, surpassing the 2014 record of 14,360 set by Elton John. The show marks Eric’s fourth to break an attendance record on The Outsiders World Tour.
REBA MCENTIRE’s brother Pake is said to be making good progress as he recovers from a stroke. While he still can’t communicate verbally, Pake is moving his arms and legs and opening his eyes on command. Reba and family are thanking everyone for their thoughts and prayers and say to keep them coming.
A marker will be placed in Nashville honoring musicians from the state of Mississippi who came to Music City to make it big. Honorees to be mentioned include CONWAY TWITTY, MARTY STUART, TAMMY WYNETTE, CHARLEY PRIDE, MOE BANDY and FAITH HILL. The marker will be unveiled June 4.
JANA KRAMER has married free agent football player Michael Caussin. The couple wed in an intimate ceremony in Charlottesville, Virginia, Friday (May 22). They plan on taking a honeymoon this winter after her touring schedule wraps up, unless Michael signs with an NFL team.
JUSTIN MOORE will play in the Major League Baseball All-Star celebrity softball game along with musicians Macklemore, Nick Lachey and former major leaguers such as Andre Dawson, Eric Davis and Paul O’Neill. The game is set for July 12 in Cincinnati.
COLE SWINDELL, SARAH BUXTON and songwriter RODNEY CLAWSON have joined the lineup for Stars For Second Harvest. The 11th Annual event, to be held June 9 at Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, will be headlined by DIERKS BENTLEY and hosted by songwriter CRAIG WISEMAN with proceeds going to Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.
The CMA Kickoff Concert is set for June 10 at Nashville’s Riverfront Park with performances by such artists as A THOUSAND HORSES, GREG BATES, PARMALEE, JAMES OTT and CANAAN SMITH.
DATEBOOK: MAY 26, 2015
This is day 146 of 2015. There are 219 days remaining.
BIRTHDAYS
• Stevie Nicks is 67
• Philip Michael Thomas (Miami Vice) is 66
• Genie Francis (General Hospital) is 53
• Comedian Bobcat Goldthwait is 53
• Lenny Kravitz is 51
• Helena Bonham Carter is 49
• Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love) is 45
• South Park co-creator Matt Stone is 44
• Hrach Titizian (Homeland) is 36
IT HAPPENED TODAY
• 1896: The Dow Jones Industrial Average was first published. The average price of the 11 initial stocks was 40.94
• 1907: Actor John Wayne was born Marion Morrison in Winterset, Iowa.
• 1908: The first major oil strike in the Middle East took place as engineers working for British entrepreneur William Knox D’Arcy hit a gusher more than 1,100 feet below ground in Masjid-i-Suleiman in present-day Iran.
• 1969: Apollo 10 returned to Earth after a mission that served as a dress rehearsal for the first moon landing.
• 1977: George H. Willig scaled the outside of the south tower of New York’s World Trade Center; he was arrested at the top of the 110-story building.
• 1978: The first legal casino in the eastern United States opened in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
• 1994: Singer Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley were married in the Dominican Republic. They were divorced 19 months later.
• 1998: The Supreme Court ruled that Ellis Island — historic gateway for millions of immigrants — is mainly in New Jersey, not New York.
• 2002: Barges being pushed by a towboat crashed into the piers of the Interstate 40 bridge in Webbers Falls, Oklahoma, causing part of the structure to fall into the Arkansas River, killing 14 people.
• 2004: Terry Nichols was found guilty of 161 state murder charges for helping carry out the Oklahoma City bombing. He later received 161 consecutive life sentences.
• 2009: President Barack Obama nominated federal appeals judge Sonia Sotomayor to be the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.
SPECIAL EVENTS
• Blueberry Cheescake Day
UPCOMING
• June 6: Belmont Stakes (Saturday)
• June 21: Father’s Day (Sunday)