What I Heard This Week 01-13-2022
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.
- Compliment three people every day.
- Watch a sunrise at least once a year.
- Be the first to say, Hello.
- Live beneath your means.
- Treat everyone like you want to be treated.
- Never give up on anybody. Miracles happen.
- Forget the Joneses.
- Never deprive someone of hope. It may be all he has.
- Pray not for things, but for wisdom and courage.
- Be tough-minded but tenderhearted.
- Be kinder than necessary.
- Don’t forget, a person’s greatest emotional need is to feel appreciated.
- Keep your promises.
- Learn to show cheerfulness, even when you don’t feel like it.
- Remember that overnight success usually takes about 15 years.
- Leave everything better than you found it.
- Remember that winners do what losers don’t want to do.
- When you arrive at your job in the morning, let the first thing you say brighten everyone’s day.
- Don’t rain on other people’s parades.
- 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
