CONNECT SELECT WEEKEND EDITION A wide selection of interesting and trending stories – rip ‘em, read ‘em and post ‘em! FRIDAY, 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 Brothers was the third of six brothers and began singing at the age of two. CLICK HERE FOR THE ISLEY BROTHERS’ “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: Songwriter. 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 “Teen Wolf.” • 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 New York City 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.