INTERPREP PRO ★ MAY 8, 2020

[printfriendly]

Audio • Bits & Breaks • Datebook • Datebook Tomorrow • Entertainment • Fun & Games • News & Nuggets • News Attack • Number • TV • Wacky-But-True

DATEBOOK: MAY 8, 2020

BIRTHDAYS

• NFL coach/commentator Bill Cowher is 63

• Melissa Gilbert (Little House on the Prairie) is 56

• Matt Davis (The Vampire Diaries) is 42

• Domhnall Gleason (Star Wars films, Harry Potter films, Ex Machina) is 37

• Julia Whelan (Once and Again) is 36

IT HAPPENED TODAY

• 1847: Robert W. Thompson patented rubber tires, which he called “air wheels.”

• 1886: Pharmacist John Styth Pemberton invented a carbonated beverage that would later be named “Coca-Cola”.

• 1945: President Harry S. Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe. May 8 is called V-E Day.

• 1977: County Commissioners in Parker County voted Buck Naked, Texas, out of existence. They decided that Buck Naked’s road signs caused too many misunderstandings. Residents had chosen the name as a joke.

• 1987: Gary Hart, dogged by questions about his personal life, withdrew from the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

• 1989: A 23-year-old University of Kansas student died from injuries suffered when a soft drink machine fell on him. He had rocked the machine after it took his money but didn’t release a drink.

• 2010: The last piece of Yankee Stadium fell in the Bronx, New York, marking the end of the two year demolition process.

• 2018: The largest-ever wave at 78 feet was recorded in the South Hemisphere at Campbell Island by New Zealand scientists.

SPECIAL EVENTS

• V-E Day

• Child Care Provider Day

• Fintastic Friday: Giving Sharks A Voice

• Military Spouse Appreciation Day

• No Socks Day

• Coconut Cream Pie Day

DATEBOOK WEEKEND

SATURDAY, MAY 9

• Candice Bergen is 74. Billy Joel is 71. John Corbett is 59. Rosario Dawson is 41. Audrina Patridge is 35.

• Mother Ocean Day. Archery Day. Babysitters Day. Dog Moms Day. Miniature Golf Day. Windmill Day. World Belly Dance Day. Shrimp Day. Foodies Day.

SUNDAY, MAY 10

• Chris Berman is 65. Bono is 60. Linda Evangelista is 55. Kenan Thompson is 42. Lindsey Shaw is 31. Lauren Potter is 30.

• Mother’s Day. Clean Your Room Day. Hampster Day. Liver and Onions Day.

NUMBER FOR THE DAY

3 million: Abandoned oil wells across the United States, wells that do not have any ties to a solvent company anymore, or ties to anyone who is responsible for them.

NEWS ATTACK!

Mother’s Day is Sunday. [Three words that will make mom love you even more: monogrammed vegetable peeler.]

The information in a documentary called “Plandemic” is so wrong people are mocking it. [Comedy Central plans to air it.]

Betty White will film a Christmas movie for Lifetime. [I just realized she’s the only actor in Hollywood who’s not been in a Marvel movie.]

Mother’s Day spending will be way down this year. [Whatever you do don’t say this in front of mom: “That just means more money to spend on dad for Father’s Day!”]

The National Football League will have a Christmas Day game. [Watch out, Easter, the NFL is coming for you next.]

The White House staff will be tested daily for coronavirus after someone who has been in close proximity to the president tested positive for the disease. [Close proximity means he or she could actually see Trump’s thumbs moving as he tweeted.]

Astronomers have found the closest black hole to earth. [It’s full of lost socks.]

The Dallas salon owner who violated an order to close has been let out of jail. [But not before doing 17 manis and pedis on her jailhouse sisters.]

The ringing cellphones of pregnant women startle their fetuses. [What I’d like to know is where in the world on their bodies are these women carrying their phones.]

Each year Americans commuting to work lose over 3 billion hours sitting in traffic delays. [So that’s a coronavirus bright spot — fewer hours wasted in traffic, more hours wasted with Netflix and Candy Crush.]

NEWS & NUGGETS

🦠 CORONAVIRUS TRACKERS _ New York Times | Bing | Johns Hopkins | Johns Hopkins county | WorldOMeters

GOOGLE SAYS EMPLOYEES CAN’T EXPENSE FOOD WHEN WORKING FROM HOME _ Google employees won’t be able to expense food or gym costs while working from home. The company issued an updated policy in the last week that states employees cannot expense perks while working from home, including food, fitness, home office furniture, decoration or gifts. The policy also states that employees cannot use unused budgets to do things like purchase meals for themselves or their teams during virtual meetings or donate to charities of their choice.

… The clarification comes as some employees, who enjoyed a plethora of perks as one of their draws to the company, hoped they would be able to maintain some of these perks after they were ordered to work from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

MOTHER’S DAY SPENDING WILL BE WAY DOWN _ In a typical year Mother’s Day spending adds about $15 billion to the economy, but not this year.

🎧  WASH AWAY YOUR WORRIES WITH SOAP AND WATER _ Your soap-and-water sessions might do more than just scrub away dirt and bacteria. Research (University of Michigan) suggests that hand washing can actually wash away worries about day-to-day decisions.

HUMANS REPLAY EVENTS FROM THEIR WAKING HOURS AS THEY SLEEP _ Scientists have proved for the first time that humans replay events from their waking hours as they sleep — and that dreaming is a crucial part of how we form memories. In a groundbreaking study, researchers (Massachusetts General Hospital) were able to watch people playing out what had happened in their day, with their brains mimicking the same neuronal firing patterns as those exhibited before they went to bed. This is the first direct evidence that we relive real-life experiences in our sleep, and could help explain how memories are consolidated in the mind.

NFL SCHEDULES CHRISTMAS DAY GAME BETWEEN VIKINGS AND SAINTS _ The National Football League has scheduled a Christmas Day game between the New Orleans Saints and the Minnesota Vikings. In a tweet Thursday afternoon, writer Jeff Duncan of The Athletic wrote that he was able to confirm two games penciled in for the 2020-2021 NFL season: the Christmas Day match between the Saints and Vikings, to be held in New Orleans, and a Week 2 Monday Night Football game between the Saints and the Raiders, with the Las Vegas team hosting.

PRAYING MANTISES: A SOLUTION TO MURDER HORNETS? _ The news about “murder hornets” making it to the United States prompted an old video of one of the hornets being eaten by a praying mantis to circulate on Twitter. Now everyone is wondering if the insect is the solution to fighting off the much-feared hornet. • VIDEO

… The Asian giant hornets were first sighted in Washington State in December. At two inches long, capable of penetrating beekeepers’ protective gear, and venomous, the hornets seem especially threatening as an invasive species. While they do pose some threat to humans, they don’t usually attack people or pets. The biggest threat posed is actually to honey bees as the hornets hunt the pollinators, first for food for their young and then to take over their hives for the winter. They’re also capable of killing and eating small rodents, lizards, and hummingbirds, so check out the links there if you want to be thoroughly upset today.

WIFE SENDS HUSBAND FAKE TEXTS SO HE’LL DO THINGS AROUND THE HOUSE _ A woman from Australia was so fed up with trying to get her husband to help out around the house that she’s taken extreme measures. Mom of four Rebecca admitted in a private Facebook group that she’s been pretending to be her landlord and will send her husband texts any time she wants something done.

… “I’m going to let you ladies in on the biggest secret of my life and also my best cleaning ‘hack’ if you have a husband like mine who is great but not very helpful around the house. I went and got a cheap mobile phone and saved the number under ‘Landlord’ so every time I want something done I text myself that they are coming to check, fix or need access to something, so my hubby does the chore I want done.”

… Apparently it’s been working like a charm for the past three years.

COFFEE WON’T HARM YOUR HEART _ If your doctor has cautioned that the caffeine in coffee can set your heart racing and cause an abnormal heartbeat, here’s some good news. Researchers. “were unable to find any evidence that those who drank coffee had a higher risk of developing abnormal heart rhythms. That’s especially relevant because a common reason that health care providers recommend avoiding coffee is precisely to avoid abnormal heart rhythms.”

… In fact, coffee may reduce the risk for future atrial fibrillation (a-fib) and other arrhythmias, said Dr. Gregory Marcus, a professor of atrial fibrillation research at the University of California, San Francisco.

… Arrhythmia refers to an improper beating of the heart — either too fast, too slow or erratically. Untreated arrhythmias can lead to cardiac arrest and stroke.

YOU CAN ‘TRAIN’ YOUR TASTE BUDS TO LIKE VEGGIES _ Want to eat healthier, but just can’t take the taste of kale, broccoli or other bitter veggies? New University of Buffalo research indicates you might want to consider the sage advice: “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” That’s because our taste buds can be trained to like vegetables.

… Every forkful of food that enters your mouth must first be dissolved by saliva before the taste receptor cells have a turn. There are some 1,000 proteins in our saliva, and these proteins are influenced by what we eat. So the more we eat those bitter greens, the better they taste.

… Just how many servings of vegetables does it take to adjust our taste buds? The data doesn’t provide a number, such as 12 servings of broccoli. However, for people who avoid these foods because of their bitterness, but would like to include them in their diet, they should know their taste will eventually change.

PEOPLE ARE RUNNING 2.23 MILES TODAY FOR AHMAUD ARBERY _ Supporters will distance-gather today (Friday) to mourn Ahmaud Arbery, the black man who was fatally shot while jogging in February, by putting on their sneakers and posting on social media to say #IRunWithMaud. Arbery was jogging in a neighborhood outside Brunswick, Georgia, on February 23 when he was chased down by a former police officer and his son who were armed. Arbery was shot after struggling with the son over his shotgun. The former officer later told officers that he thought Arbery looked like a suspect in a series of nearby break-ins.

… Jason Vaughn was Arbery’s high school football coach. He’s asking supporters to honor Arbery by going for a run of 2.23 miles, representing the date of his death today (Friday), which would have been his birthday. He asks that runners document their run and post it to social media under the hashtag #IRunWithMaud.

REMEMBER THIS? A YEAR AGO THIS WEEK: HOW TO GET THE BEST BEER FLAVOR _ There’s nothing quite like a beer in a frosty glass. But despite its awesome factor, a chilled glass isn’t ideal in every situation. According to the food and drink blog The Kitchn, a chilled glass is best used for room temperature beer. When a beer is at room temperature, the chilled glass brings the temperature of the beer down to the optimal flavor range, usually between 40 and 55°F. Beer already at that optimal range — like beer you’ve kept in the fridge — suffers when poured into a chilled glass.

WACKY-BUT-TRUE

WACKY-BUT-TRUE: MONKEY CAUGHT ON VIDEO ‘ROBBING’ BANK ATM _ Officers in New Delhi, India, were called to a bank ATM on Wednesday after someone found the cash machine with the front torn off — although nothing had apparently been taken. Suspecting a botched robbery, cops reviewed security footage and discovered that a curious primate had hopped on top of the ATM and tugged away before uncovering the hardware inside. How the monkey was able to access the ATM, behind a glass wall and locked door, has yet to be determined.

WACKY-BUT-TRUE: MAN WENT INTO DUNKIN’ WITHOUT PANTS _ A Vermont man faces charges after police say he went into a Dunkin’ Donuts store without his pants. Police say 39-year-old Benjamin Stearman went into the store and exposed himself to the clerk.

WACKY-BUT-TRUE: MAN CHASES TRUCK THIEF WITH HIS HELICOPTER _ Emmanuel Toner went into a gas station in Canada (Grand Falls, N.B.) to get a receipt for the gas he’d just pumped. He thought he’d be fast enough that he could leave his engine running, but when he came back out about 30 seconds later his truck was gone. Police set off in pursuit — while Toner followed his dad’s suggestion and got in his helicopter. Through reports coming in on Facebook and Toner’s information relayed to officers on the ground, police were able to get a spike strip in front of the truck, and Toner watched as the Mounties captured the suspect.

WACKY-BUT-TRUE: I THOUGHT YOU WANTED TO RACE _ Indiana state troopers spotted a red Mustang traveling at well above the speed limit. After radar indicated it was going 120 mph in a 70-mph zone, they gave chase. The high-speed pursuit went for 25 miles until officers used stop sticks to end it. During the arrest the 25-year-old man allegedly told the officers he didn’t stop because he “thought” they “wanted to race.”

ON TELEVISION

FRIDAY

SEASON FINALE: MACGYVER (8p ET, CBS) — New. Jeri Ryan guest stars in the last new episode this season. There are other new episodes that have been produced, but no air date has been set and may be held over for next season.

THE BLACKLIST (8p ET, NBC) — New. The Task Force investigates a kidnapping executed by seemingly impossible abductors.

SHARK TANK (8p ET, ABC) — New. Products include a modern version of a fading men’s fashion trend, and a clothing design which helps to comfortably bring dads and their babies closer together.

WWE SMACKDOWN (8p ET, FOX) — New.

MASTERS OF ILLUSION: IMPOSSIBLE ESCAPES (8p ET, CW) — Dean Cain hosts this special, as magicians attempt seemingly impossible escapes.

MAGNUM P.I. (9p ET, CBS) — New. Magnum and Higgins are each hired by a different spouse who are in the middle of a contentious divorce to dig up dirt on the other. Betsy Phillips, the wife of series star Zachary Knighton, guest stars.

DATELINE (9p ET, NBC) — A new, 2-hour edition.

20/20 (9p ET, ABC) — A new, 2-hour edition.

SEASON FINALE: DYNASTY (9p ET, CW) — New. Dynasty has been renewed for another season.

IN THIS TOGETHER: A PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT STORY (9p ET, PBS) — People from across the U.S. use self-shot videos, photos and texts to explain how COVID-19 is impacting their lives.

SEASON FINALE: MAGNUM P.I. (10p ET, CBS) — New. Hawaii Five-0’s Ian Anthony Dale and Mixed martial artist Cowboy Cerrone guest star, and Corbin Bernsen returns. The show has been renewed for another season

FRIDAY NIGHT IN WITH THE MORGANS (10p ET, AMC) — New. Guests tonight are Kelly Ripa and her husband Mark Consuelos.

SERIES PREMIERE: THE EDDY (Netflix) — This new limited drama series follows an American expatriate (André Holland) in present-day Paris who owns a struggling jazz club. Joanna Kulig, Amandla Stenberg, Tahar Rahim and Leïla Bekhti also star.

SEASON PREMIERE: DEAD TO ME (Netflix) — Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini return for season 2 of this dark comedy.

JIMMY O. YANG: GOOD DEAL (Amazon Prime) — New stand up special from the Crazy Rich Asians co-star.

SERIES PREMIERE: SOLAR OPPOSITES (Hulu) — Co-created by Rick & Morty’s Justin Roiland and Mike McMahan, this edgy new animated comedy centers around a team of four aliens who escape their exploding home world only to crash land into a move-in ready home in suburban America. Featuring the voices of Justin Roiland, Thomas Middleditch, Sean Giambrone, and Mary Mack.

SATURDAY

DOWNTON ABBEY (8p ET, HBO) — The family and staff prepare for a royal visit in this 2019 big-screen adaptation of the hit British TV drama. The whole original cast, including Hugh Bonneville, Elizabeth McGovern, Michelle Dockery and Maggie Smith return.

SEASON FINALE: SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE (11:30p ET, NBC) — New. The last episode of the shortened season is another From Home edition.

SUNDAY

THE DISNEY FAMILY SINGALONG VOLUME II (7p ET, ABC) — The Muppets will open tonight’s show, with performances by Shakira, John Legend, Katy Perry, Tituss Burgess, Sabrina Carpenter, Jennifer Hudson, Rebel Wilson, Ben Platt, Seth Rogen, Donald Glover, Billy Eichner, Idina Menzel, Halsey, Derek and Julianne Hough and Josh Gad. Ryan Seacrest hosts.

FEEDING AMERICAN COMEDY FESTIVAL (7p ET, NBC) — Comedians including Eddie Murphy, Tiffany Haddish, Adam Sandler will perform for this Feeding America fundraiser.

… Among the other comedians confirmed to contribute pre-taped segments are Louie Anderson, Judd Apatow, Jack Black, Wayne Brady, Billy Crystal, Whitney Cummings, Bill Engvall, Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Hart, George Lopez, Jon Lovitz, Howie Mandel, Caroline Rhea, Chris Rock, Sarah Silverman, JB Smoove, Kenan Thompson, Marlon Wayans.

AMERICAN IDOL (8p ET, ABC) — New. The live (to tape) shows continue. The finalists perform two songs, one from the Disney songbook and one dedicated to the mother figures in their lives.

FORREST GUMP (8p ET, CBS) — Tom Hanks, Sally Field and Robin Wright star in this 1994 hit film.

SEASON FINALE: OUTLANDER (8p ET, Starz) — Season 5 comes to a close.

A SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE MOTHER’S DAY (9p ET, NBC) — A new, 2-hour special.

THE LAST DANCE (9p ET, ESPN) — Two new episodes

SERIES PREMIERE: I KNOW THIS MUCH IS TRUE (9p ET, HBO) — Mark Ruffalo stars as twins in this new limited series. Paranoid schizophrenic Thomas Birdsey (Ruffalo) has a violent public breakdown, and Dominick Birdsey (also Ruffalo) finds himself stepping up to defend his identical twin brother in unexpected ways.

SEASON FINALE: THE ROOKIE (10p ET, ABC) — New. Nolan’s discovery goes much deeper than he expected and could put his life and career in jeopardy.

ENTERTAINMENT

IN THEATERS A YEAR AGO _ A year ago this weekend Avengers: Endgame was about to win its third weekend in a row. Taking on the Marvel movie was Pokémon Detective Pikachu, The Hustle, Tolkien and Poms.

HARRY POTTER’S RUPERT GRINT AND GEORGIA GROOME WELCOME BABY GIRL _ On Thursday, Rupert Grint and Georgia Groome announced that they have welcomed a baby girl together.

… In a 2018 interview with The Guardian, Grint opened up about his dreams of starting a family, telling the UK media, “I’d like to settle down and have kids soon.” While on the topic of kids, he joked that he doesn’t think he’d name his future child after anyone from the Harry Potter franchise.

ABC WILL AIR SOME OF YOUR FAVORITE DISNEY MOVIES THIS SUMMER _ If you don’t have Disney+, ABC is bringing back The Wonderful World of Disney so you can watch some of your favorite Disney movies at home this summer. The network announced Thursday it will air Moana, Thor: The Dark World, Up and Big Hero 6 over four consecutive Wednesdays starting May 20. These titles are currently available to stream on Disney+.

… ABC is not the only network raiding its film library to pad its prime-time TV lineup during the COVID-19 crisis, which has brought Hollywood film and TV productions to a halt. CBS has also gone retro, reviving its Sunday Night Movies starting this month. CBS reached into the Paramount Pictures library and will be airing Forrest Gump, Mission: Impossible, Titanic and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade over the remaining Sundays in May.

LATE NIGHT TV VIEWING IS REALLY UP _ Comcast released new data related to how people are watching television during the lockdowns. TV viewing is, of course, up. The biggest jump: late night viewership hours are up 40 percent.

RYAN REYNOLDS TELLS PARENT TO SHOW TOBEY MAGUIRE’S SPIDER-MAN _ Ryan Reynolds has had a lot more free time on his hands since the movie industry essentially shut down during COVID-19. He was actually in the middle of shooting Red Notice with Dwayne Johnson and Gal Gadot when they had to halt production. So, the Deadpool star has been staying busy donating to charities and interacting with fans on social media.

… Just recently, someone asked if he should rent Green Lantern because it was only 99 cents on iTunes. Reynolds told him to “Walk away.”

… A parent was faced with the difficult decision about whether to show their young son Deadpool. It’s a superhero movie, but it’s also a hard R with crude language, hyper violence and Stan Lee in a strip club. The child is 4-years-old, too. Reynolds was able to steer the parent in another direction. “No. Put on Spider-Man (from 2002) and tell him it’s Deadpool. It’s what I do with my kids. Remember to look him straight in the eye when you lie. Good luck.”

ARIEL WINTER ACCIDENTALLY CUT OFF THE TIP OF HER THUMB _ Ariel Winter recently suffered a gruesome knife injury while cooking. The Modern Family explained that she accidentally sliced the tip of it off while trying to cut a tomato. Ariel explained that she sliced through an artery, so the bleeding was intense. She and her boyfriend rushed to the hospital — but not before he grabbed her severed thumb off the kitchen counter and put it in a plastic bag. The story only gets worse from there. Ariel didn’t realize her thumb was inside that plastic bag… so when the nurse handed it to her, she tossed it in the garbage. But Ariel assured everyone that she’s doing fine now: “It definitely hurt, and wasn’t fun, and was a good portion of [the finger]. But at the same time, they took great care of me. … I will have just a mildly sad looking thumb. So it’ll be okay.”

BETTY WHITE TO STAR AS SANTA WHISPERER IN LIFETIME CHRISTMAS MOVIE _ TV icon Betty White has signed on to star in an upcoming Christmas movie for Lifetime. In the untitled film, White’s character “helps whip would-be Santas into shape, spreading the true meaning of Christmas and leading everyone to wonder: Is she secretly Mrs. Claus?”

SPOTIFY’S NEW GLOBAL MAP TAGS PEOPLE WHO ARE PLAYING THE SAME SONG AT THE SAME TIME _ With its hundreds of millions of users, Spotify has shared a pretty staggering stat point: Every second on Spotify, more than 30,000 people around the world are pressing play on the same song. That insight has led to a new ad campaign called “Listening Together,” which includes an interactive map of the globe that shows examples of two users around the world listening to the same song at the exact same time.

… It would be cool if users could see on-device who else is playing the same song as they are at a given moment, but that functionality is not available yet.

$60 MILLION KEVIN HART SEX TAPE LAWSUIT DISMISSED _ A $60 million lawsuit filed against Kevin Hart by his 2017 sex tape partner has been dismissed for the second time. The suit was tossed by a federal judge in California because it was brought in the wrong venue. The hefty suit was brought against the 40-year-old last year by Montia Sabbag, who claims that she was recorded having sex with Hart in his Las Vegas hotel suite — without her knowledge — by his pal Jonathan Todd Jackson. However, the case was not dismissed with prejudice, so Sabbag can file again in the proper jurisdiction. Since she, Hart, and Jackson all reside in California she can file in local civil courts as opposed to a federal court. Sabbag alleged that Hart let his friend into his Cosmopolitan Hotel suite to set up the hidden video cameras.

… Hart has denied setting up the tape but later issued an apology on Instagram reading, “I’m at a place in my life where I feel like I have a target on my back and because of that I should make smart decisions. And recently, I didn’t. You know, I’m not perfect. I’m not going to sit up here and say that I am or claim to be in any way shape or form. And I made a bad error in judgment and I put myself in a bad environment where only bad things can happen and they did. And in doing that I know that I’m going to hurt the people closest to me, who I’ve talked to and apologized to, that would be my wife and my kids. But I’m also not going to allow a person to have financial gain off of my mistakes and in this particular situation that was what was attempted. I said I’d rather fess up to my mistakes.”

NATIONAL TREASURE SERIES COMING TO DISNEY+ _ Disney is all-in on more National Treasure. Not only is a new National Treasure movie sequel in the works, there’s also a National Treasure TV series being developed for Disney+. The TV series will feature a younger cast, which means that we won’t get the pleasure of seeing Nicolas Cage run around the country finding puzzles left by Ben Franklin and other famous dead guys.

PARAMOUNT REPORTEDLY EYEING GAL GADOT FOR G.I. JOE REBOOT _ Paramount seems determined one way or another to turn the G.I. Joe franchise into a success, despite their two attempts so far doing unspectacular business at the box office. Word is they want to bring Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot into the third film.

LIAM NEESON REPORTEDLY IN TALKS TO RETURN IN OBI-WAN KENOBI SHOW _ Though Liam Neeson only played Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn in one Star Wars film, the character became very popular with fans. With Ewan McGregor back as Obi-Wan Kenobi for his own Disney+ series, the call for Qui-Gon Jinn to make another appearance has only grown stronger. Neeson is now in “early talks” to return as Qui-Gon in the Obi-Wan show. A source says the plan is to have Neeson appear for a small cameo and his involvement in the series wouldn’t be substantial.

KRISTIN CAVALLARI DIVORCING ‘LAZY’ JAY CUTLER BECAUSE HE WAS ‘UNMOTIVATED’ _ The gossip site Page Six reports Kristin Cavallari is divorcing Jay Cutler in part because she was sick of the former NFL star lying around the house.

BITS & BREAKS

NEED A QUARANTINE MEME?

Need a new meme for your social media page? Check out this growing stack. Please add yours in the comments!

MOTHER’S DAY FACEBOOK

FB icon  Describe your Mom in one word.

I’LL ALWAYS LOVE MY MAMA

🎧  Mother’s Day is Sunday. Here’s a funky old song from The Intruders.

HAPPY 40th BIRTHDAY PAC-MAN

Pac-Man was released in Japan on May 22, 1980.

• The game is simple: the player moves Pac-Man around a maze, trying to collect dots while avoiding four ghosts: Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde

• Initially, Pac-Man’s enemies were referred to as monsters on the arcade cabinet, but soon became known as ghosts.

• Pac-Man technically has no ending — as long as the player keeps at least one life, he or she should be able to continue playing indefinitely. However, because of a bug  in the programming routine that draws the fruit, the right side of the 256th level becomes a scrambled mixture of text and symbols, rendering the level impossible to pass by legitimate means.

• A perfect Pac-Man game occurs when the player achieves the maximum possible score on the first 255 levels (by eating every possible dot, energizer, fruit, and monster) without losing a single life then scoring as many points as possible in the last level.

• The first person to achieve the maximum possible score (3,333,360 points) was Billy Mitchell of Hollywood, Florida, who performed the feat in about six hours. This was verified on July 3, 1999.

• Although it is often cited that the character’s shape was inspired by a pizza missing a slice, the main developer of the game admitted in a 1986 interview that it was a half-truth and the character design also came from simplifying and rounding out the Japanese character for mouth, as well as the basic concept of eating.

THE THINGS WHICH MAKE A HOUSE A HOME

A study of 2,000 homeowners has revealed what transforms four walls into a homely space.

  • Sleeping in your own bed
  • Family photos
  • Your own spot on the sofa
  • The memories made in the home
  • A fridge full of food
  • A bookshelf filled with your books
  • The smell of freshly cooked food
  • Freshly washed bed sheets
  • The location of the house
  • Natural light
  • Plants
  • Your children in the house
  • Fresh towels
  • Flowers in vases
  • Candles
  • A fireplace
  • Hosting dinners for friends and family
  • Shoes by the front door
  • Children’s toys in the house
  • Newly painted walls
  • A certain air freshener scent

FUN & GAMES

TRIVIA: There are 17,000 of these in the U.S. (Nail salons)

TRIVIA: The average person will have this as part of their breakfast about 15 times this year. (Bacon)

TRIVIA: Dog, pig, horse, cat, cow. These farm animals are ranked in order of what? (Their intelligence)

TRIVIA: In 1933, what famous screen star received 800,000 fan letters? (Mickey Mouse)

TRIVIA: The average person will spend two weeks over their lifetime waiting for what? (Traffic lights to change)

TRIVIA: In the history of our planet more than 75 million people are estimated to have been killed by what? (Earthquakes)

DATEBOOK: MAY 11, 2020

BIRTHDAYS

• Frances Fisher (Titanic) is 68

• Tim Blake Nelson (Lincoln, O Brother, Where Art Thou) is 56

• Coby Bell (Third Watch) is 45

• Annabelle Attanasio (Bull) is 27

IT HAPPENED TODAY

• 1924: Mercedes-Benz was formed by Gottlieb Daimler and Karl Benz merging the two companies.

• 1927: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was founded.

• 1960: The first contraceptive pill was made available on the market.

• 1997: IBM’s Deep Blue chess-playing supercomputer defeated Garry Kasparov in the last game of a rematch, becoming the first computer to beat a world-champion chess player.

• 1999: A peeping Tom was hiding in the ceiling crawl space of a Mountain Home, Arkansas, tanning salon watching three women tan when the ceiling collapsed. He was so embarrassed he locked himself in the bathroom until police arrive.

• 2006: A science team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign successfully converted pig waste into crude oil.

• 2007: More than 5,500 people in London’s Trafalgar Square smashed the record for the world’s largest coconut orchestra. Original Monty Python Stars Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam led 5,567 members of the public and cast members from the musical “Monty Python’s Spamalot” in a rendition of their classic singalong “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life” to claim the Guinness World Record title.

• 2011: In Nepal, Sherpa Apa Sherpa achieved a new record by climbing Mount Everest for the 21st time.

SPECIAL EVENTS

• Eat What You Want Day

• World Ego Awareness Day