Today is Tuesday, October 22, 2024.
It is the 296th day of the year.
70 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
A follow-up on the stranded kayaker and another credit crunch heading into the holidays. Details in HIT LIST.
JELLY ROLL leaves X and BRITNEY SPEARS is all about self-love. More in SHOWBIZ.
COOPER KOCH details his special bond with ERIK MENENDEZ in CASTING CALL
An Australian comedian squats at one of YE’s mansions. More on that in KARDASH.
An activist legislator protests KING CHARLES down under. Details in ROYALS.
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HIT LIST
THERE ARE 14 DAYS TO GO until Election Day.
– September fundraising reports show starkly different spending and fundraising strategies between KAMALA HARRIS and DONALD TRUMP’s campaigns. Harris showed a gangbusters month, raising $221.8 MILLION and spending $222 MILLION on media buys and production. Trump’s team spent just $53 MILLION on media, raising about $62 MILLION.
– Harris stumped in swing states with Republican LIZ CHENEY on Monday, holding town hall-style events and rallies in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
– When asked about whether President JOE BIDEN intends to campaign for his veep, White House Press Secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE said there will be “more to come.”
– The media and pundits are having a totally normal one after Trump’s Sunday photo op at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s, where he worked the fryer basket and drive-thru for the cameras in moments that went viral.
– In the Real Clear Politics average, Harris leads the national popular vote 49.2% to 48.3%. Trump leads in battleground states 48.4% to 47.4%.
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FOLLOW UP: The 17-year-old kayaker who was rescued after spending 12 hours stranded in the ocean last week says his biggest concern was all the worry his disappearance was causing loved ones back on land while he was missing.
“The longer I would be out there would mean that they would get more and more stress and more worried and I didn't want to put that burden on them,” Kahaiu Kawai tells local media.
Ultimately, survival instincts kicked in, he says, trying to stay within sight of land without drifting farther out to sea. He focused on how the warm sun would feel to fight past the shivering cold, he says. [via KITV]
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A NerdWallet survey shows 28% of Americans are still paying off credit card bills they ran up for last year’s Christmas.
The news comes as the National Retail Federation expects yet another annual uptick in total spending in the last two months of the year, up to $989 BILLION. That amounts to $1,778 on average per American – and 74% plan to put it on a credit card. [via CNBC]
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Millennials might not be as financially strapped as they like to think they are, at least compared to other generations.
Fortune looked at a report from the US Bureau of Labor and Federal Reserve data that shows the typical net worth of an American millennial – people between 26 and 41 years old – is 8.4% higher than Gen Xers and 46% higher than Boomers at the same point in their lives, inflation-adjusted of course.
Even after shelling out for their Starbies orders and avocado toasts, or whatever else internet dorks say millennials consume, millennials in 2022 spent about 75% of their pre-tax income, while at the same point in their lives Gen X-ers spent 83% and Boomers 91%. [via Fortune]
WORTH NOTING: Many Xers and especially boomers didn’t also have the flood of subscriptions or internet and smartphone bills to keep up with, either.
ALSO WORTH NOTING: This was written by a 35-year-old square in the middle of the millennial generation so save your emails.
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The winner of 2024’s “America’s Best Restroom” is located at a Maverik service station near Salt Lake City International Airport.
Sponsored by Cintas, the contest allows people to suggest bathrooms from around the country, in an attempt to find the “cleanest, most innovative and most decorative” abodes.
Notables include: HOP Shops in Florence, Kentucky; Indiana Caverns in Corydon, Indiana; Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium in Kansas City, Missouri; and Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. [via BestRestroom]
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DEATHS
Former IRON MAIDEN singer PAUL DI’ANNO has died.
He passed away at his home in Salisbury, Wiltshire on Monday, according to a statement from his family. A cause of death was not shared.
Di’Anno was the lead vocalist for the band from 1978 to 1981.
He was 66.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW lost 344 points (0.8%) to close at 42,931 on Monday. The S&P lost 10 points (0.18%) to close at 5,853 and the NASDAQ increased 50 points (0.27%) to close at 18,540.
🛢 WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $70; BRENT CRUDE at $74.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.17 on Monday.
₿ BITCOIN tumbled on Monday, down over 1.7% and trading around $67,800.
🛩 There were more than 2,020 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Monday and more than 60 such cancellations.
💰Tonight’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $205 million jackpot or a $97.5 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
Three new lawsuits have been filed against SEAN COMBS, all accusing him of sexual assault and/or rape.
Two of the suits are from men who accuse Combs of sexual assault they say occurred in 2022. The third is from a female who claims Combs raped her in 2000 when she was only 13-years-old.
Texas-based attorney TONY BUZBEE, who is working with a slew of other accusers filed the suits, and announced plans to file an additional four over the next couple of weeks. [via NY Post]
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JELLY ROLL is done with X.
In his exit post, the country singer called the app “the Wild West” and a “safe place for everyone to say mean [stuff] to each other with no consequences.”
This isn’t the first time JR has expressed his displeasure with social media. Earlier this year, he took a brief hiatus after getting bullied over his weight. [via X]
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After dropping her latest album, “Harlequin,” LADY GAGA announced the release of the first single from her upcoming seventh studio album, titled “Disease.”
It drops on Friday.
No word on when the album will be released in its entirety. [via Variety]
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DAVE PORTNOY received a handwritten letter from TAYLOR SWIFT before attending her “Eras Tour” concert in Miami over the weekend.
Delivered to him personally by Swift’s brother, Portnoy shared that the letter thanked him “for always being so supportive, so loyal, and for having [her] back when a lot of people didn’t.”
It seems he has earned the self-proclaimed title, “King of the Swifties.” [via TMZ]
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BRITNEY SPEARS is once again a married woman…sort of.
In her latest Instagram post, the 42-year-old shared a video of her in a wedding dress, telling fans she married herself.
“Bringing it back because it might seem embarrassing or stupid, but I think it’s the most brilliant thing I’ve ever done !!!” she captioned the post. [via Instagram]
*crickets from the Free Britney movement*
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Following his untimely passing, fans have flocked to music streaming sites to listen to LIAM PAYNE -- both his solo tracks and ONE DIRECTION songs.
Last week, Payne had 4.7 million monthly listeners on Spotify, but after his death, that number has nearly doubled.
1D has also seen a spike in monthly listeners, jumping from 42.4 million to now close to 50 million. [via TMZ]
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INA GARTEN wrote in her recently released memoir, “Be Ready When the Luck Happens,” that she and fellow lifestyle guru MARTHA STEWART had a falling out due to them living in different states.
But Stewart says that’s “not true,” and that Garten stopped speaking to her “after [she] went to jail.”
Check out more on the topic in the upcoming Netflix doc, “Martha,” which drops October 30. [via EW]
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Just days after SHAQ shared his envy over LEBRON JAMES getting to share the same court with his son, it was revealed that SHAREEF O’NEAL has joined the NBA, signing with the Sacramento Kings.
Prior to this, the 24-year-old played for NBA G League Ignite, based out of Las Vegas.
Shareef’s journey to the big leagues hasn’t been easy. In 2018, he underwent emergency heart surgery, after which he had to relearn how to walk. [via The Blast]
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DESHAUN WATSON’s season with the Browns is over after suffering a season-ending Achilles injury during Sunday’s game against the Bengals.
The 29-year-old is in the middle of a five year contract worth $230 million with the team, which he signed in 2022 as part of a trade deal from the Texans.
The latest season-ending injury is kind of par for the course, as Watson missed the first 11 games of his initial season with the team after accusations of sexual misconduct from several massage therapists. Last year his season ended early as well after undergoing season-ending shoulder surgery.
Based on the chorus of boos from fans in his direction week after week, Watson likely won’t be missed. [via NY Post]
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CASTING CALL
COOPER KOCH grew quite close to ERIK MENENDEZ while preparing to play him in Netflix’s “Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story.”
“I think he is an amazing human being. And so, after playing him, getting to meet him was so rewarding and special and one of the most amazing experiences,” he told People Magazine.
As previously reported, Koch met both Menendez brothers during a prison visit alongside KIM KARDASHIAN, KRIS JENNER, and KHLOE KARDASHIAN.
No word on if the two continue to communicate or if Koch will be part of the move to get the brothers released. [via People]
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
Australian comedian JOHN SAFRAN released a new book, titled “Squat,” detailing the week he spent “squatting” at YE’s Calabasas mansion, including sleeping in his bed and raiding his pantry.
Safran writes about how “unnerving” the decor was, including a room with a pile of human-sized ragdolls, and his fears of getting caught by the neighbors or even Ye himself.
As far as whether he is concerned how Ye will react to the squatting, Safran says he just “pray[s] that he has bigger fish to fry.”
Read more on his experience here>
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
During KING CHARLES’ visit to Australia’s parliament on Monday, one rogue legislator had to be escorted out after loudly shouting accusations of genocide at the monarch.
Senator Lidia Thorpe, who has indigenous heritage, shouted, “Give us what you stole from us — our bones, our skulls, our babies, our people. You destroyed our land.” Thorpe has been a vocal anti-monarchy activist in recent years. “This is not your land. You are not my king,” she said as she was escorted out.
During the kerfuffle, the King quietly chatted with Australia’s Prime Minister while security intervened.
In 1999, Australians voted to maintain the British monarch as their formal head of state. [via Associated Press]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National Make a Dog’s Day
Leave a Review Day
Wombat Day
National Nut Day
Smart is Cool day
International Stuttering Awareness Day
International Caps Lock Day
National Color Day
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ON THIS DATE
1797 - The first recorded human parachute jump is made.
Andre Jacques Garnerin leaps out of a hydrogen balloon over Paris, about six-tenths of a mile up.
Garnerin constructed the idea of his parachute while a prisoner in Hungary during the French Revolution. His design included a canopy 23 feet in diameter connected to a basket by rope.
For his first historical jump, he ascended in a hydrogen balloon. Then bailed out.
It was a hard lesson learned. He landed safely, though a little jarred. He had not thought to let some air vent through the balloon, so he was jolted around violently during the descent.
Five years later, he would make another jump from 8,000 feet.
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1907 - Ringling Brothers buys Barnum & Bailey circus.
The purchase came after the passing of co-founders James Anthony Bailey and P.T. Barnum, who formed “The Greatest Show On Earth” in the 1880s.
In 1919, the two would officially be merged.
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1934 - Federal agents kill mobster Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd in Ohio.
He had been on the run for four years, following the massacre of four officers at a train station in Kansas City.
Though Floyd was wrapped up in crime, he became a darling of Depression-era Americans, with some stories suggesting he used some of the money he stole to help those struggling. There is even a line speaking favorably of him in Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath."
But others knew him to be a ruthless criminal.
His last words were of his innocence in the officers’ shooting.
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1964 - Philosopher and writer Jean-Paul Sartre is awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature, and ostentatiously declines.
Much of his writing discusses existentialism, finding one's own meaning in life, rejecting the material because it has no significance, blah blah blah.
One of his major works was called "Being and Nothingness," so, you know, that kind of stuff.
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1962 - JFK announces to the nation the discovery of Soviet missiles across Cuba, capable of attacking the United States.
The strategy moving forward would be to quarantine Cuba, blockading any more shipments from the USSR.
The announcement came one week after analysts first discovered the weapons from spy plane imagery. For the next six days, many feared the outbreak of nuclear war.
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1981 - Sugar substitute aspartame is approved by the FDA.
It was discovered as an artificial sweetener in 1965 while being used as an ulcer drug. One researcher found it to be very sweet -- 200 more times than sugar, by a certain measurement.
It also had fewer calories than sugar and was marketed as such.
But objections arose in 1974. Over the next seven years it was further studied and approved for use. It quickly found its way onto restaurant tables, plus in the development of candy, cereal, coffee, pudding, gum, and any other sweet food you can think of.
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2012 - Taylor Swift releases her 4th studio album, “Red.”
It debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 1.2 million copies. It is Swift’s third consecutive number-one album, making her the first female artist to have two million selling album openings.
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2018 - A pipe bomb is sent to the home of George Soros.
He would be the first on a long list of Democrats to receive such a threatening package.
Soros has long been a target of conservatives.
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2021 - Melbourne ends its sixth covid-induced lockdown after 70% of people 16 and older report having received two doses of the jab.
There were still limits in place however, such as only having 10 visitors in an indoor setting, pubs and funerals can host 20 fully vaccinated people indoors and 50 outdoors, and kids return to school part-time.
Known as the “world’s most locked down city,” the latest lockdown lasted 260 days.
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BIRTHDAYS
Warren Zeiders - country singer - 25
Roddy Rich - rapper - 26
21 Savage - rapper - 32
Dylan Scott - country singer - 34
Kyle Gallner - actor, “Veronica Mars” - 38
Heath Miller - football player - 42
Michael Fishman - actor, “Roseanne” - 43
Jesse Tyler Ferguson - actor, “Modern Family” - 49
Katharine Norland - actress, “Malcolm in the Middle” - 51
Ichiro Suzuki - baseball player - 51
Shaggy - reggae singer - 56
Bob Odenkirk - actor, “Breaking Bad” & “Better Call Saul” - 62
Jeff Goldblum - actor, “Jurassic Park” & “Independence Day” - 72
Christopher Lloyd - actor, “Back to the Future” films - 86
Born On This Date
Curly Howard - comedian, “The Three Stooges” - 1903 (d. 1952)
Collis P. Huntington - railroad executive, Central & Southern Pacific Railroad - 1821 (d. 1900)
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