A tropical tree that is new to science has been named after Leonardo DiCaprio, in recognition of his campaigning and petitioning against logging in order to save the rainforest where it was found.  Uvariopsis dicaprio has large yellow-green flowers on its trunk. It’s beautiful.

Take-two Interactive, the gaming giant behind Grand Theft Auto is buying social game developer Zynga (Words with Friends, Farmville) for $12.7 billion. This acquisition is one of the biggest in video game history.

A Louisiana man saved his pennies for 45 years. He filled 15 five-gallon plastic water containers. “I became convinced that spotting a lost or dropped penny was an additional God-given incentive reminding me to always be thankful,” said Otha Anders. “There have been days where I failed to pray and more often than not, a lost or dropped penny would show up to remind me.” He cashed in $5,136, just in time to pay an unexpected medical bill.

A cup of chopped red bell pepper contains nearly three times more vitamin C than an orange. Red peppers are also a great source of vitamin A.

Walmart has briefly closed dozens of stores (whole stores) as COVID continues to affect operations with employees out. The first tuna sale of the year is a tradition in Japan and is supposed to be a sign of good luck. This year a 465-pound Bluefin tuna sold for $150,000, which is 16.8 million yen. Part of a failed Russian rocket launch made an uncontrolled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere landing in the Pacific Ocean. It is common for debris from space to burn up when reentering Earth’s atmosphere, posing no harm, but larger parts can be dangerous depending on where they land.

Someone on Facebook sent me this. It’s too lovely not to share, and let’s face it, we could all stand to be just a tiny bit nicer, kinder, and more considerate.

1. Compliment three people every day.
2. Watch a sunrise at least once a year.
3. Be the first to say, Hello.
4. Live beneath your means.
5. Treat everyone like you want to be treated.
6. Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen.
7. Forget the Joneses.
8. Never deprive someone of hope. It may be all he has.
9. Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
10. Be tough-minded but tenderhearted.
11. Be kinder than necessary.
12. Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
13. Keep your promises.
14. Learn to show cheerfulness, even when you don’t feel like it.
15. Remember that overnight success usually takes about 15 years.
16. Leave everything better than you found it.
17. Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do.
18. When you arrive at your job in the morning, let the first thing you say brighten everyone’s day.
19. Don’t rain on other people’s parades.
20. Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.

RECENT BIRTHDAYS: Singer Joan Baez is 81. Guitarist Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin is 78. Singer Crystal Gayle is 71. Actor J.K. Simmons is 67. Singer A.J. McLean of the Backstreet Boys is 44. Musician Robert Earl Keen is 66. Singer Rod Stewart is 77. Singer-keyboardist Donald Fagen of Steely Dan is 74. Singer Pat Benatar is 69. Country singer Naomi Judd is 76. Country singer William Lee Golden of the Oak Ridge Boys is 83. Actor Kirstie Alley is 71. Country singer Ricky Van Shelton is 70. Actor Faye Dunaway is 81.

Radio and TV personality Howard Stern is 68. Singer Melanie Chisholm of the Spice Girls is 48. Sporty Spice. Actor Billy Gray of Father Knows Best is 84. Bud Anderson. Guitarist Trevor Rabin of Yes is 68. Drummer Fred White of Earth, Wind and Fire is 67. Actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Seinfeld is 61. Country singer Trace Adkins is 60. Singer-producer T-Bone Burnett is 74.

Do you remember the Many Loves of Dobie Gillis? Dwayne Hickman played Dobie, who pursued, well, almost every girl he met. The series included Bob Denver, Warren Beatty, and Tuesday Weld, and was an instant hit when it debuted in 1959. In addition to being a star and talented artist, he also worked for Howard Hughes, and CBS. He died at 87 from complications related to Parkinson’s. My favorite role of his was when he played Jed in Cat Ballou, with Jane Fonda, Michael Callan, and Lee Marvin.

Sidney Poitier died at age 94. His family was living in the Bahamas, but happened to be visiting Miami, where he was born two months premature, therefore automatically granting him U.S. citizenship. He moved to NY to work when he was 16, employed as a dishwasher and delivery person. After failing his first audition because of his inability to fluently read a script, an elderly Jewish waiter sat with him every night helping him to improve his reading. I guess he did ok. In 1964, he was the first African American and Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor; also receiving two Golden Globe Awards, British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album.

“Child psychologists have demonstrated that our minds are actually constructed by these thousands of tiny interactions during the first few years of life. We aren’t just what we’re taught. It’s what we experience during those early years – a smile here, a jarring sound there – that creates the pathways and connections of the brain. We put our kids to fifteen years of quick-cut advertising, passive television watching, and sadistic video games, and we expect to see emerge a new generation of calm, compassionate, and engaged human beings?” – Sidney Poitier

Full House star, Bob Saget, died at 65. Saget was a cultural TV icon, a single father-figure that helped raise a generation of Americans. Comedian George Wallace, a longtime friend, said he wished everyone had a friend like Bob Saget.  “The more I think about him, the more I would start to laugh. A family guy he was, but the filthiest mouth on this planet. When he gets to heaven, they’re going to have to change their agenda to let him in. I loved this guy. I wished everybody knew him.”

After last week, you know I had a soft spot in my heart for Betty White, so I’m going to share something else that I found interesting. Then I’ll be quiet for a little while. Maybe. There is a Wisconsin brewery that has been honoring Betty White for years with her own beer called The Blond Betty. They are now letting people buy beer through January, donating all the proceeds towards a cause benefiting animals. Betty White was married to Allen Ludden who was raised, and now buried nearby.

2022 Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo Lineup: Cody Johnson, Keith Urban, Tim McGraw, for King & Country, Ricky Martin, Jon Pardi, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Luke Bryan, Maren Morris, Kane Brown, Journey, Bun B’s H-Town Takeover, Parker McCollum, Dierks Bentley, Sam Hunt, Gwen Stefani, Khalid, Chris Stapleton, Marshmello, Brad Paisley, and of course, George Strait with special guest Ashley McBryde. (FYI: I know that most of you don’t care, but Marshmello is a guy doing electronic dance music with a giant marshmallow helmet covering his head and is considered a worldwide phenomenon.) Hmmm.

Bed, Bath and Beyond is closing 37 out 200 stores in the coming weeks. Currently, only two stores are scheduled to close in Texas; Brownsville, and San Angelo, but a sure way to know for sure is to go to the mall and see if there happens to be a liquidation sale going on. If not, while you are there, you can pick up some great after Christmas sale items. “Ongoing supply chain issues and inventory constraints cost the company about $100 million.”

Richard Branson, Virgin Group founder, is currently recovering from a mild case of coronavirus. He, his wife, and other members of his family all caught the omicron variant. Branson said that he “can’t stress enough” that those eligible for a booster should get.

Seen on back window of a big SUV in traffic: Honk if a kid falls out. I’m still laughing because as a parent, there were days that it felt just like that. I was doing good to just get them stuffed into the car dressed, with swim bags, backpacks, and homework finished, but we did it!

Paint Colors for 2022: The Pantone Color of the Year is Very Peri, a vibrant shade of periwinkle blue. The Better Homes and Gardens collection from Walmart is Laurel Leaf, a dusty green shade. Dunn-Edwards picked a warm, earthy brown shade called Art and Craft. Then Benjamin Moore picked October Mist, a soft, silvery green shade. Sherwin-Williams selected Evergreen Fog, a beautiful grey-green. Valspar named a palette of 12 nature-inspired hues of soothing blues and greens, instead of a single color. HGTV picked Aleutian and describes it as a well-worn pair of faded blue jeans. Glidden picked Guacamole as their color of the year. Behr chose Breezeway, a soft, silvery blue-green reminiscent of sea glass, and PPG Home Depot selected a soft shade of green called Olive Sprig. So, after reading all of this information, I would say that after being stuck inside for the past two years, people are appreciating the outdoors and want to bring those colors inside with them. So, if you are looking to paint your house this year, greens, blues, and shades of nature are in colors.

Hard Rock International bought The Mirage Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for approximately $1.08 billion, whew, which includes an aquarium, an artificial volcano, and a dolphin habitat. By 2025, a new guest-room tower will be erected in the shape of a humongous guitar, and they plan to add a live music venue and tear down the volcanos.

Have you seen the Progressive Insurance commercial where the young adults are in training on how not to become their parents? It’s pretty funny. Today I took out my instructions on how to set up my iPhone as a magnifying glass. The instructions were in the AARP magazine which to me, should be very simple for those of us that are becoming age-challenged. Ha-ha. Open Settings. Go to Accessibility. Tap Magnifier and turn on. A Magnifier app will be added to your phone’s screen. As bad as we hated it, Tina and I had to call in a much younger person to help us. Maybe that commercial isn’t really that funny.

LISA

In France, thieves stole more than 6,000 pounds of oysters that were being raised on the Mediterranean coast. Instead of installing new security cameras, installing tracers in the oyster beds, or calling the police, the owners typed up several tiny notes and glued them inside empty oyster shells, explaining that whoever found the scrap of paper had “just won their own weight in oysters.” A phone number was attached to call in order to collect the prize. Gee. There haven’t been any oyster thefts since 2016 when the notes started appearing in the empty oyster shells. If someone calls the prize number, they are asked where they bought the “winning” oysters. If they were bought from an unknown vendor, then the “winner” is informed that they purchased stolen oysters and the police are notified. I do believe that I could eat my weight in oysters.

I’m a teenager trapped in an old body. Betty White (same, Betty, same)

In a file cabinet in my office, I keep several sets of rough clothes and shoes, just in case I have time or the inclination to run outside and play in the garden dirt, in back of the office. Most of the time, after I wear the clothes, I wash and bring them back pretty quick, so I never seem to get to the bottom of the clothes drawer. Today my feet were freezing, and I needed a pair of socks, so I started digging and rummaging through the drawer, and finally found a thick white pair that I hadn’t seen in ages. That knowledge was reinforced when I bent down, slipped them on my cold feet and listened to the dead and dying elastic pop as my feet squeezed into them. They could fall right off my feet at any moment, they’re not pretty, but my feet are warm for now.

People have told me that Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with old friends.  At my age, if I wanted to keep in touch with old friends, I’d need a Ouija board. Betty White

An LA Times photographer covering a pro-Trump rally documented the Capitol attack with his GoPro camera attached to his helmet, letting the camera run until his battery died. The video was not shown until recently.  He said that the only time he really felt in danger was when a man hit him in the back of the head with a flagpole and shouted that he was “fake news.” Luckily, he was wearing a helmet, but some of his colleagues who were also attacked that day were not as lucky. Because the newer cameras have the ability to send photos, he was able to immediately supply images directly back to his office for stories and pictures to be posted online. I guess the video will be made public soon.

“It’s [old age] not a surprise, we knew it was coming – make the most of it. So, you may not be as fast on your feet, and the image in your mirror may be a little disappointing, but if you are still functioning and not in pain, gratitude should be the name of the game.” Betty White

Who doesn’t love the Home Alone movies! In real life Arizona, parents of an 11-year-old boy were arrested after having left him home alone with plenty of frozen food. Officials received a tip about a welfare check needed for a boy alone for an undetermined length of time. They found the boy’s mother had left to go out of state before Thanksgiving and the father soon after. The boy had not been to school for at least two weeks. I have always said that just because you can have children, doesn’t mean that you should.

In 2016, Ghislaine Maxwell secretly married a Silicon Valley entrepreneur named Scott Borgerson. He called her a “wonderful and loving person” and tried to help secure her release on bail by offering up millions of dollars after she was accused of helping sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. While Maxwell was being held in jail, her husband told her by phone that he had moved on with another woman. Hmmm. The wonderful and loving person now faces up to 65 years in prison.

RECENT BIRTHDAYS: TV host Jack Hanna is 74. Actor Dabney Coleman is 90. Singer-songwriter Van Dyke Parks is 79. Singer Stephen Stills is 77. Bassist John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin is 76. Actor Mel Gibson is 66. Actor Dyan Cannon is 83. Country singer Patty Loveless is 65. Country-gospel singer Cristy Lane is 82. Former talk show host Charlie Rose is 80. Actor Diane Keaton is 76. Actor Ted Lange of The Love Boat is 74. Actor Pamela Sue Martin is 69. Dynasty. Singer Marilyn Manson is 53. Actor Yvette Mimieux of Where the Boys Are is 80. Singer Kenny Loggins is 74. Actor Barbara Rush is 95. Peyton Place. Former “Sunday Morning” host Charles Osgood is 89. Actor Model Christy Turlington is 53. Actor Robert Duvall is 91. Actor-comedian Larry Storch of F Troop is 99. Actor Julia Ormond is 57.

Accordionist Joey, the CowPolka King, of Riders in the Sky is 73. Singer Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is 71. Actor-comedian Rowan Atkinson of Mr. Bean is 67. Country singer Jett Williams is 69. She was 21 when she realized Hank Williams could be her biological father. Singer Kathy Sledge of Sister Sledge is 63. Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner is 76. Actor David Caruso is 66. CSI: Miami. TV anchor Katie Couric is 65. Country singer David Lee Murphy is 63. Bassist Kathy Valentine of The Go-Go’s is 63. Actor Nicolas Cage is 58. Game show host Bob Eubanks of The Newlywed Game is 84. Actor Victoria Principal is 72.

Legendary star Betty White died of natural causes in her sleep, just weeks before her 100^th birthday. She definitely made the world a funnier place for people, and a happy, healthier place for animals. I have honored her throughout the column with some favorite quotes.

Who did we lose in 2021? Former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, former NFL coach John Madden, whose namesake video game had sold more than 180 million copies by 2018. We lost Oscar-winning actor Christopher Plummer, Ed Asner – the iconic newsman Lou Grant. Cloris Leachman – the most-awarded performer in Emmy history, Michael K. Williams, Larry King who conducted more than 50,000 interviews during his career, including every US President since Gerald Ford. Jessica Walter, best known as Lucille Bluth in Arrested Development. Saturday Night Live’s Norm MacDonald. Dustin Diamond – Screech in Saved by the Bell, and James Michael Tyler, coffeehouse waiter, Gunther, on Friends. Biz Markie, whose feel-good single “Just a Friend” was certified platinum in 1990. Legendary Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts, Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Nanci Griffith, Actor-musician Michael Nesmith of the Monkees, Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. Human rights activist Desmond Tutu, the first Black bishop of Johannesburg and archbishop of Cape Town, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004. Bob Dole led the Senate Republicans. Retired Army General Colin Powell, the country’s first Black secretary of state and chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO.  Larry Flynt, founder of Hustler magazine. NASA astronaut Michael Collins, who, along with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, flew to the moon on the Apollo 11 mission in 1969. E.O. Wilson, often referred to as “Darwin’s natural heir.” Rush Limbaugh, Phil Spector, the record producer whose hits included “Let It Be,” “Imagine,” and “Unchained Melody.” Bernie Madoff, financier and former chairman of the Nasdaq who ran the world’s largest-ever Ponzi scheme. To name just a few…

When asked why she isn’t on Facebook, Betty White responded, “Facebook just sounds like a drag. In my day, seeing pictures of people’s vacations was considered a punishment.”

In California, a couple welcomed fraternal twins, a baby boy at 11:45 pm on New Year’s Eve, and then 15 minutes later at midnight, his little sister arrived, making them twins born in different years. The press release said that some estimate the chance of twins being born in different years are 1 in 2 million.

Butterflies are like women. We may look pretty and delicate, but baby, we can fly through a hurricane. Betty White

Alaska recorded their warmest December day: 67 degrees. Yep. 67 degrees… December… in Alaska. A 20-year-old woman was detained on suspicion of giving birth after officials found a newborn baby in the plane restroom trash can after a flight, during customs check on January 1^st. ☹  Apple is almost to the $3 trillion mark. The stock just needs to hit $182.85 to make it the first publicly traded company ever to hit such a number. The stock has tripled in value in just three years, hitting $1 trillion in August 2018, then 2 trillion in August 2020. Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers both announced they had tested positive for Covid, were feeling fine, and were appreciative they had been vaccinated and ‘boostered’ (not a real word yet).

My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get, unless you’re a banana. Betty White

A U.S. judge has dismissed the case against Jeffrey Epstein’s jail guards. Texas DPS agents made a huge drug bust recently near Kingsville,  and seized 54 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside water tanks with an estimated street value of over $4.7 million. It’s called Operation Lone Star. Little Caesars’ Hot-N-Ready $5 pizzas is now going to cost $5.55, an 11% increase from its old price. A NC police chief was placed on unpaid leave for telling officers about a “clinic” to obtain Covid-19 vaccination cards without getting the vaccines. WHAT!  Royal Caribbean has temporarily suspended any bookings on departing cruises until January 10^th. This will assist in social distancing on the cruise ships. Elizabeth Holmes former CEO of Theranos, has been convicted of defrauding investors and patients.

Betty White had a long-standing crush on Robert Redford. She once said: “My answer to, ‘What have you not done in the business that you’ve always wanted to do?’ is ‘Robert Redford’.”

A judge dismissed a child pornography lawsuit filed against the surviving members of Nirvana over the cover image on the Nevermind album. The baby pictured “chasing a dollar bill” on the 1991 album cover is Spencer Elden, and even though was just months old at the time, he says the image of him was taken and used without his consent and the nudity amounts to an image of child abuse. His parents were paid $200 for the picture and when you think about it, Elden has spent thirty years profiting from his self-proclaimed celebrity as the Nirvana Baby. In 2016, in a 25^th anniversary recreation of the photo shoot, he volunteered to do it naked again, then changed his mind and posed in swimming trunks. The judge ruled a dismissal was made “with leave to amend” which means he has given him until January 13^th to refile a new complaint or the matter will be considered closed. Sounds like Spencer is still chasing the dollar.

We didn’t have Facebook in my day. We had a phone book, but you didn’t waste an afternoon on it. Betty White

Right here I was planning on telling you that Covid cases have risen by 948% in Florida. But instead, I want to leave you with another Betty White quote. When asked about her habits, she said, “Get at least 8 hours of beauty sleep. 9 if you’re ugly.” The quote that I REALLY wanted to use, we decided against because Betty White could be a little bit salty, and I didn’t want you talking bad about me.

Thank you for sticking with The Source Weekly in 2021, and then hanging around for the start of 2022. We appreciate you! Please sell something.

LISA