CONNECT SELECT WEEKEND EDITION A wide selection of interesting and trending stories – rip ‘em, read ‘em and post ‘em! , MAY 21, 2021

TODAY IS…

• NATIONAL BIKE TO WORK DAY (third Friday in May) Still working from home? Just do a few turns in your driveway and you’re good. DID YOU KNOW?…. Cycling for 30 minutes at just 12 miles-an-hour burns about 300 calories. Two miles faster will help you burn another 100 calories (that’s almost one donut!).

• NASCAR DAY (third Friday in May) NASCAR hosted its first race on February 15, 1948 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

• NATIONAL WAITSTAFF DAY Tip. Your. Server! Especially now!

• NATIONAL MEMO DAY Did you get the memo? It’s National Memo Day. In case you didn’t know, it’s short for ‘memorandum’ (because who has time to spell out “M-E-M-O-R-A-N-D-U-M’?!).

• WORLD MEDITATION DAY Take a minute for yourself, close your eyes and forget why your boss is yelling at you over Zoom right now. MEDITATION FUN FACTS: • A Harvard study found that meditation can improve your memory and even slow the loss of brain function in older people. • Meditation has been shown to help reduce blood pressure. • Researchers found meditation can sometimes be more effective at restoring mental focus than getting sleep. CLICK HERE FOR THE SOUND OF A MEDITATION BELL HERE’S MORE MEDITATION SOUNDS (TRY NOT TO GET TOO MINDFUL)

• NATIONAL PIZZA PARTY DAY (third Friday in May) According to a recent nationwide poll, America’s most-hated pizza topping is (no surprise) anchovies. Eggplant and artichokes are also considered gross on a pizza. But pepperoni is still America’s favorite. PIZZA FUN FACTS: • The modern pizza had its beginning in Naples, Italy. • The first American pizzeria opened in New York’s Little Italy in 1885. • Americans eat about four-billion pizzas every year.

SATURDAY IS…

• SHERLOCK HOLMES DAY Celebrating the world-famous fake detective with an extraordinary eye for detail. Sherlock Holmes was created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in 1887 and went on to inspire a ton of other characters from TV’s ‘House’ and ‘Monk’, to ‘Spock’ on ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Patrick Jane’ on ‘The Mentalist’ (point is, Sherlock is everywhere!). CLICK HERE FOR THE THEME TO THE BBC’S ‘SHERLOCK’ SERIES (STARRING BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH)

• GOTH DAY Who says you don’t look good in black lipstick?! Goth (short for gothic) emerged from the punk movement in the 1980s, mostly among fans of the first English goth-rock band ‘Bauhaus’ (they really loved wearing black!). CLICK HERE FOR BAUHAUS’S ‘BELA LUGOSI’S DEAD’

• NATIONAL MARITIME DAY Tipping our captain’s hat to the maritime shipping industry and all of America’s Merchant Marines for their sacrifices and contributions. CLICK HERE FOR A JAUNTY SEA SHANTY (DRUNKEN SAILOR)

SUNDAY IS…

• TITLE TRACK DAY Celebrating all the songs that were so good they named the whole dang album after them, like Green Day's ‘American Idiot,’ Bruce Springsteen's ‘Born To Run,’ ‘What's Going On’ by Marvin Gaye and AC/DC’s ‘Back in Black.’ How many can you name?

• NATIONAL LUCKY PENNY DAY Find a penny, pick it up…now you’ve probably got something gross on your fingers. Pennies don’t buy us much these days - heck, even Canada got rid of them a few years ago. And since the cost of making a penny now exceeds its actual face value, the penny could soon become extinct. How’s that for change?!

• WORLD TURTLE DAY It’s World Turtle Day, highlighting conservation issues and ways people can protect turtles.

BIRTHDAYS:

FRIDAY:

• RONALD ISLEY, 80: Singer. The lead singer of the R&B group The Isley was the third of six brothers and began singing at the age of two. CLICK HERE FOR ’ “SHOUT”

• MR. T (Lawrence Tureaud), 69: Actor. We pity the fool who doesn’t wish this ‘A-Team’ actor and former pro wrestler a happy birthday today. CLICK HERE FOR “THE A-TEAM” THEME CLICK HERE FOR MR. T “I PITY THE FOOL” (00:14)

• LISA EDELSTEIN, 55: Actress. The star of the TV show ‘House’ also plays Phoebe in ‘The Kominsky Method.’

• JUDGE REINHOLD, 64: Actor. He played Brad in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’

• MARY ROBINSON, 77: Politician. She was the 7th President of the Republic of Ireland and the first woman to hold the office.

SATURDAY:

• NOVAK DJOKOVIC (JOKE-a-vitch), 34: Tennis Player. The Serbian tennis superstar is the number one men’s player in the world.

• JULIAN EDELMAN, 35: NFL Player. The New England Patriots wide receiver who was the MVP of Super Bowl 53 just announced his retirement.

• GINNIFER GOODWIN, 43: Actress. The actress played Snow White in ‘Once Upon a Time.’ CLICK FOR “ONCE UPON A TIME” THEME

• NAOMI CAMPBELL, 51: Supermodel. She’s one of the world’s most recognizable faces since the late 80s and is still cat-walking today.

• MORRISSEY (Steven Patrick Morrissey), 62: Musician. The rock singer and former frontman for The Smiths also had a successful solo career. CLICK HERE FOR THE SMITHS’ ‘HOW SOON IS NOW’ CLICK HERE FOR MORRISSEY’S SOLO SONG ‘EVERY DAY IS LIKE SUNDAY’

• BERNIE TAUPIN, 71: . He’s been the wordsmith to Elton John’s music for more than 50 years. He won an Oscar for ‘I’m Gonna Love Me Again’ from the film ‘Rocketman.’ CLICK HERE FOR ‘I’M GONNA LOVE ME AGAIN’

• TOMMY JOHN, 78: Baseball pitcher. The Major League Baseball All-Star was the first pitcher to have pioneering elbow reconstruction surgery, known as the “Tommy John Surgery.”

SUNDAY:

• JAMES CHARLES, 22: Makeup Artist. He was named the first male spokesperson for Cover Girl cosmetics. His popular YouTube channel has more than 18 million subscribers.

• JEWEL (Jewel Kilcher), 47: Singer-songwriter. She’s known for hits like ‘Who Will Save Your Soul’ and ‘Intuition.’ She grew up in Alaska, singing and yodeling in a duo with her dad. CLICK HERE FOR JEWEL’S ‘INTUITION’

• KEN JENNINGS, 47: Game Show winner/Host. The “Jeopardy” champion who holds the record for the longest winning streak of 74 games is currently vying for the job of permanent host. CLICK HERE FOR ‘JEOPARDY’ THEME

• LINDEN ASHBY, 61: Actor. The former soap actor who played Sheriff Stilinski on “.”

• DREW CAREY, 63: Actor/Comedian. The funnyman who starred in his own namesake 90s sitcom now hosts ‘The Price is Right.’ CLICK HERE FOR ‘THE PRICE IS RIGHT-COME ON DOWN’ THEME

TRENDING/ODD

ISRAELI CEASEFIRE (00:18) Israel and Hamas have agreed to cool it with all the missiles - for now, at least. The Israeli government has approved a ceasefire effective today. They’ve been bombing Palestinian targets in Gaza for 12 days straight. At least 227 people have been killed, including more than 60 children - most of them were Palestinian.

NYC’S MASK BURNING CEREMONY FLAMES OUT (00:28) They held a mask burning ceremony in yesterday that pretty much went up in smoke. It started off well, with the 70s disco group ‘The Trammps’ singing ‘Burn, Baby, Burn’ from their hit ‘Disco Inferno.’ But everything kinda ‘flamed out’ after that. For one thing: the organizers didn’t know that surgical masks don’t burn, they melt. And someone should have brought some ointment, because the candidate for New York City mayor who came up with ‘Mask-Burning Day’ ended up burning his hand. CLICK HERE FOR THE TRAMMPS’ ‘DISCO INFERNO’

CALIFORNIANS LINING UP TO SNIFF ‘CORPSE FLOWER’ (00:19) People near San Francisco have been lining up outside an abandoned gas station to get a whiff of the so-called ‘corpse flower.’ Its owner dragged it there so people can experience just how bad it smells. The rare 15-foot-tall flower only gives off a stench when it blooms - something people compare to the smell of roadkill in the summertime.

TWITTER NOW LETTING ANYONE GET ‘VERIFIED’ (00:21) Rich and famous people will no longer be the only ones with a blue check mark on their Twitter account. Soon, almost anyone will be allowed to apply for Twitter’s ‘verification’ program, but that doesn’t mean you’ll get it. Twitter says your account has to be of ‘public interest.’ Government workers, entertainers, journalists and activists will be considered starting next month.

BUS HIJACKER TORMENTED BY ANNOYING KIDS (00:21) Some guy with a rifle hijacked a loaded school bus in South Carolina but gave up after only six minutes because the kids wouldn’t stop asking him annoying questions. Eighteen kindergarteners were on the bus. None of them were hurt. The driver says the gunman got so frustrated by all the questions, he pulled over, let everyone off and drove away. The 23-year-old guy has been arrested.

THIS IS HOW MANY DRINKS BRITS HAVE TO BUY TO MAKE UP FOR COVID BAR LOSSES (00:16) Someone in Britain did some math and figured out that pubs there have to sell 124 pints of beer - PER PERSON - just to recover the cost of the lockdown. British restaurants and pubs lost 36-billion dollars during the pandemic. But hey, they’re Brits, they’ll drink that in…like…a week!

AIRLINES COULD START WEIGHING PASSENGERS (00:21) Think weighing your luggage at the airport is embarrassing? Some airlines could soon start weighing YOU before you board. The FAA says they’re trying to update their data on how much the average passenger weighs, since their info is a few decades old. The plan is to only weigh plus-sized passengers. They say it’s all for safety, so that planes don’t exceed their weight limit (riiiight, until the airlines start charging ‘by the pound’)

LAW & DISORDER

GIRL CREDITS ‘LAW & ORDER’ FOR HELPING STOP KIDNAPPER (00:30) A young girl in Florida was able to fight off a kidnapper. She says watching episodes of [Law & Order’ trained her well. The security cam video has gone viral. The would-be kidnapper grabbed and threatened her with a knife. At the time she was playing with blue slime while waiting for the school bus. She says the TV show taught her to leave evidence behind. When Escambia County deputies caught up with the suspect, he had the slime on him. "Caught blue handed" is how the girl's mother put it. She says her 11-year-old is a brave girl.

NATIONAL GUARD MEMBERS LEAVING DC FOUR MONTHS AFTER RIOT (00:14) The National Guard has been protecting the nation’s capital since January, after the DC riot. It looks like they'll be going home soon. Their mission ends Sunday. More than two-thousand Guard members have been stationed in and around the Capitol building.

MORE PEDESTRIANS HIT BY CARS IN 2020, DESPITE FEWER PEOPLE DRIVING (00:16) Most of us drove a lot less this past year while working from home and staying safe. But those behind the wheel were a little too "fast and furious." The number of people hit and killed by cars increased. Pedestrian deaths jumped five-percent last year. Reckless driving is to blame.

WEIRD SCIENCE & TECH

PHILADELPHIA GOES DARK…FOR THE BIRDS (00:22) Philadelphia is going dark. The city’s skyscrapers are turning off the lights to keep birds from dying. One-hundred-million birds migrate over Philly every spring and the lights mess up their navigation and make them fly into the buildings. Over the last few years, hundreds of thousands of birds have died. Philadelphia will keep the skyscraper lights off at night until the end of the month.

RECALL: PACEMAKERS COULD CAUSE ELECTRICAL SHORT (00:18) If you know someone who had a pacemaker installed over the last six years, listen up. The FDA is recalling about 62-thousand pacemakers because they could collect moisture inside and short- circuit. So far, no one’s died, but at least 135 people have been hurt by ‘em. The faulty pacemakers were distributed between 2015 and 2019.

COVID VACCINE WILL LIKELY NEED A BOOSTER, AND SOON (00:20) One shot, two shots, and now a third shot will likely be needed to keep the coronavirus away. The CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna say we'll likely need a third dose between eight and twelve months after getting vaccinated. That means the first Americans to roll up their sleeves could need the booster by September. Doctors are still researching how long the vaccine protects us.

NEW KIND OF CORONAVIRUS SPREAD BY DOGS IN MALAYSIA (00:14) A doctor worried about the next coronavirus thinks he found it. We're not talking COVID-19 but something similar, and it's being spread by dogs in Malaysia. They've noticed the infection in hospitalized pneumonia patients and mainly in kids.

YOUR MONEY/SHOPPING

BURGER KING DEBUTS NEW CHICKEN SANDWICH NEXT MONTH (00:18) In case you’re not sick of chicken sandwiches yet, Burger King is now coming out with one that’s just like the rest of them. BK’s version is called the Ch’King (adorable). They’re a little late to the party…Popeye’s - who started the trend - came out with theirs two years ago. Burger King’s version is available on June 3rd.

RANSOM PAID, GAS EXPENSIVE & STATIONS STILL DON'T HAVE FUEL (00:31) In that cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline, we now know a massive ransom was paid. The company's CEO says hackers left a ransom note on a control room computer. He says because he didn’t know how far the hack went or how bad it was, he knew he had to pay quickly --- to the tune of four-point-four-million dollars. The Colonial Pipeline was shut down for days, leading to gas shortages. The national average is still high at over three-bucks a gallon. And gas stations are still out of gas. More than a third are running empty in DC, the Carolinas and Georgia.

FORD UNVEILS ALL-ELECTRIC F-150 PICKUP TRUCK (00:21) Who woulda thought this day would come; an all-electric F-150 pickup truck will be sold next year. Ford calls it "Lightning.” It gets up to five-fifty-three (553) horsepower. If the lights go out, it can act as a generator and power a house. The truck has storage space where the engine used to be and can carry up to 400 pounds. The base model will start at just over 40-thousand dollars.

OAT MILK NOW TRADED ON THE STOCK MARKET (00:23) Have you chuckled when someone's ordered oat milk with their coffee? The latest dairy-free drink is no laughing matter. The brand Oatly is now being traded on the stock market. Oh you know it, the company's CEO was in their Super Bowl ads singing, "Wow no cow.” Oatly initially opened Thursday at 17-bucks a share on the NASDAQ. It closed at just over 20. The oat milk's early investors include Oprah and Jay-Z.

LIFE/SURVEY SAYS…

STUDY: WE’RE MORE SELFLESS THAN BEFORE (00:23) The pandemic has us being way more generous. Two-thirds of Americans say they’re more selfless now than before COVID. A new survey finds 87-percent of us donated part of our paycheck in the last year. Four-in-ten Americans have helped a stranger across the street. Thirty-eight-percent say they’ve gone out of their way to take out their neighbor’s trash, and another 31-percent have walked a neighbor’s dog since last March.

10 BEST COUNTRIES FOR REMOTE WORKERS (00:18) If you can do your job from a beach, Club Med has just compiled a list of the best countries for remote workers. They looked at stuff like cost, safety and average Internet speed. Thailand ranked the best, followed by Sri Lanka and Singapore. Brazil and Mexico were the only non-Asian countries to make the top 10.

ENTERTAINMENT

TIM TEBOW SIGNS WITH JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS (00:11) Tim Tebow is making his NFL comeback. He signed with the Jacksonville Jaguars as a tight end. It's a one-year deal. Tebow is 33 now. He's spent the last five years playing baseball with the Mets.

TV PREVIEW FRIDAY (00:21) • At 8:00pm ET CBS salutes the classic sitcom ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show’ with ‘The Dick Van Dyke Show – Now In Living Color,’ an hourlong special featuring two colorized episodes of the show, which was originally shot in black and white. • It’s the season finale of ‘Shark Tank,’ airing at 8:00pm ET on ABC. • An assassin is after Elizabeth on ‘The Blacklist,’ airing at 8:00pm on NBC.

TV PREVIEW SATURDAY (00:08) • It’s the season finale of ‘Saturday Night Live’ with host Anya Taylor-Joy and musical guest Lil Nas X. The show airs at 11:30pm ET on NBC.

TV PREVIEW SUNDAY (00:11) • The ‘Billboard Music Awards’ air at 8:00pm ET on NBC. Nick Jonas is hosting the show. Pink will receive the distinguished ICON Award, and Drake will receive the Artist of the Decade Award.

WEEKEND / “ICYMI”

STUDY: WORKING LONG HOURS IS KILLING US! (00:21) A new report from the World Health Organization says long work hours are literally killing us. A global study finds people who work at least 55 hours a week are 35-percent more likely to die of a stroke and have a 17-percent higher chance of keeling over from a heart attack, compared to folks who work 40 hours a week. Middle-aged or older men were the highest-risk age group.

7 IN 10 WHITE COLLAR WORKERS ARE STILL REMOTE (00:14) Most white-collar employees are still working remotely. A Gallup poll finds 72-percent are working from home, compared to 51-percent of overall workers. Just 14-percent of blue-collar workers are remote. Those rates have been pretty steady since about last fall.

A JANITOR DID NOT CREATE THE FLAMIN’ HOT CHEETO (00:28) No, a janitor did not create Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. Frito-Lay is setting the record straight and calling the claim an “urban legend.” Ever since the late 2000s, a former custodian for the company has claimed he’s responsible for pitching the chili-covered snack. He got a book deal out of it, has been hired for speaking engagements and even inked a movie deal with Eva Longoria. But turns out, it’s all bogus. He did, however, work his way up from a Frito-Lay plant worker to a director, which is cool.

MATHEW MCCONAUGHEY IS SERIOUS ABOUT RUNNING FOR GOVERNOR (00:30) Matthew McConaughey really is considering running for Texas governor. He’s apparently “feeling it out,” making calls to influential political people in the state. For months now, he’s been toying with the idea, but many blew it off as a PR stunt. But according to a Dallas Morning News poll, 45-percent of Texans say they’d vote for him. Thirty-three-percent would vote for incumbent Governor Greg Abbott, who would be seeking a third term in 2020. And 22-percent said they’d go with someone else. McConaughey lives in Austin. No word yet on what party he’d run under.

Can’t find the email? It’s all there on CBSConnectFeed.com Go to Notifications for your daily Prep and Select, click the green “i" it’s easy!