11/17/2023: The Original American Lumberjacks
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11/17/2023: The Original American Lumberjacks
PLUS: Love for the Ages; Diddy Bombshell; and Who Leaked?
Today is Friday, November 17, 2023.
It is the 321st day of the year.
44 days remain.
WHAT’S ON TAP
Starship waits at least another day to launch and strikes slow down Starbucks’ Red Cup Day. Details in HIT LIST.
SNOOP DOGG is (maybe) giving up the ganja and MARTHA STEWART is all turkeyed out. Find out why in SHOWBIZ.
ED HELMS is actually toothless and viewers point out a blunder in “The Crown.” More in CASTING CALL.
A psychic predicted the KARDASHIAN’s fame. More on that in KARDASH.
Who leaked details about the birthday call from PRINCE HARRY? Conflicting answers in ROYALS.
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HIT LIST
The Friday morning launch of SPACEX’s Starship has been postponed to as early as Saturday, according to an X post by ELON MUSK.
Musk wrote explaining the delay, “We need to replace a grid fin actuator.” [via X].
BY THE WAY: Space.com explains that a grid fin actuators are “waffle-iron-like structures on Starship's Super Heavy first stage, which help the booster steer its way back to Earth.”
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A new study reinforces the argument that not only did ancient Vikings beat Columbus to “discover” the New World, but they regularly visited from Greenland to harvest natural resources.
Analysis of Viking artifacts shows extensive use of hemlock and jack pine, which are not native to Greenland. Instead, the lumber likely came from trees cut down in modern-day New England and Nova Scotia in Canada.
The earliest finds date lumber to 985 AD – more than five centuries before Columbus’ 1492 voyage. [via Popular Mechanics]
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If your Starbucks order took particularly long yesterday, workers in your store might have been on strike.
The Workers Union coincided the walkouts with the coffee chain’s annual Red Cup Day, which typically marks a major sales day for the year. The union called it the “Red Cup Rebellion.”
Organizers expected 5,000 walkouts across the company in the United States. [via AP News]
FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH: Baristas say one of their biggest gripes is with the endless customization options that online ordering enables, drastically adding to wait times, workloads, and the downstream effects of managing irritated customers.
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A report by dating app Bumble shows that Americans looking for love are less and less worried about an age gap between partners.
Nearly two-thirds say age isn’t a defining factor and 59% of women say they’re more open to dating someone younger than they used to be. More than one-third of women say they’re less judgmental about age gaps in other relationships. [via Mashable]
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A Nigerian woman has been crowned by Guinness World Records for creating the longest ever handmade wig, measuring 1,152 feet, 5 inches.
Professional wigmaker Helen Williams spent 11 days -- and around $2,493 -- creating the lengthy hairpiece, which is made up of a 1,000 bundles of hair, 12 cans of hairspray, 35 tubes of hair glue and 6,250 hair clips.
As for why Williams took on the challenge, it appears as if it was all for fun. [via Guinness World Records]
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On Tuesday we asked about your tipping habits, and it turns out Morning Martini readers are a generous bunch!
No one said they regularly tip less than 15%. About a third said their tips typically range between 15 and 20%, while the rest of you leave at least 20%.
Cheers to that!
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DEATHS
DANA CARVEY’s eldest son, DEX CARVEY, has died.
He passed away Wednesday night of an accidental overdose, according to a statement from Dana and his wife, Paula.
Dex was following in his dad’s footsteps, and even opened up for him in his Netflix comedy special, “Straight White Male.”
He was only 32.
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RELATIONSHIPS
“Laguna Beach” alum STEPHEN COLLETTI is engaged to NASCAR reporter ALEX WEAVER after a year of dating.
Weaver announced the news on Instagram with a photo of her new ring.
By the way -- he’s 37 and she’s 27.
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BY THE NUMBERS
📈 The DOW lost 45 points (0.13%) to close at 34,945 on Thursday. The S&P ticked up 5 points (0.12%) to close at 4,508 and the NASDAQ added 9 points (0.07%) to close at 14,113.
🛢 WEST TEXAS INTERMEDIATE closed at $72; BRENT CRUDE at $77.
⛽ The national average price of a GALLON OF GAS was $3.34 on Thursday.
₿ BITCOIN dropped 5% on Thursday, trading back under $36,000.
🛩 There were more than 2,335 FLIGHTS delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Thursday and more than 60 such cancellations.
💰Tonight’s MEGA MILLIONS drawing will be for a $267 million jackpot or a $122 million cash payout. Saturday night’s POWERBALL drawing will be for a $280 million jackpot or a $128.6 million cash payout.
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SHOWBIZ NEWS
New Music Friday:
2 Chainz and Lil Wayne, “Welcome 2 Collegrove”
Billy Porter, “Black Mona Lisa”
Dolly Parton, “Rockstar”
H31R, “Headspace”
Jeremy Squires, “Riddle of Stars”
The Kinks, “The Journey -- Part 2”
Kyle Gordon, “Kyle Gordon is Great”
Plain White T’s, “Plain White T’s”
Steve Aoki, “HiROQUEST: Double Helix”
Wrabel, “based on a true story”
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SEAN “Diddy” COMBS is being sued by his ex-girlfriend, CASSIE, who has made some shocking allegations against the musician.
In the suit she claims that toward the end of their relationship in 2018, when she was looking to make a clean split, Diddy forced himself on her at her apartment.
Cassie also says their lengthy on-again, off-again relationship was filled with physical and emotional abuse at the hands of Diddy and he would often force her to have sex with several different male prostitutes while he filmed it.
Lastly, Cassie says Diddy once threatened to blow up rapper KID CUDI’s car after he found out that during one of their “breaks” she had a brief relationship with him in 2011. Get this, in 2012 Cudi’s car did in fact blow up in his driveway.
In response to the accusations, Diddy’s attorney says he “vehemently denies these offensive and outrageous allegations,” while detailing how Cassie has allegedly been blackmailing him for $30 million, “under the threat of writing a damaging book about their relationship.” [via NYT]
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SNOOP DOGG shocked fans Thursday when he announced that he is “giving up smoke.”
He opened up about the decision in a post that reads: “After much consideration & conversation with my family. I’ve decided to give up smoke. Please respect my privacy at this time.”
Snoop quit smoking once before, though it was short lived. [via Instagram]
WORTH NOTING: There’s plenty of speculation that Snoop’s announcement is a stunt to promote a line of edibles or vapes instead of straight-up smoke.
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NSYNC was on hand this week at a quickly thrown together premiere for “Trolls Band Together” in Los Angeles. It was the first time the movie was able to be promoted thanks to the recently concluded actors’ strike.
Many pointed out that the event was one of the few times JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE has shown his face in public since the release of BRITNEY SPEARS’ book, “The Woman in Me.”
“Trolls Band Together” hits theaters today. [via Page Six]
WORTH ASKING: After how many outings will the book stop being brought up in connection to JT? While the end of their relationship was traumatic for her, they were young and dumb. There should be more outrage toward Brit’s parents!
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DEAN MCDERMOTT blames his drinking, money issues, and wife TORI SPELLING’s pet pig for the demise of their marriage.
Speaking to the Daily Mail, McDermott said that the final straw for him was when Spelling swapped sleeping with him at night to sleeping with their animals, which include several dogs, a pig, and a chicken who lived in the adjacent bathroom.
Having gone their separate ways months ago -- and a stint in rehab -- McDermott has owned up to his part in the split. [via Daily Mail]
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BILLIE EILISH has been granted a restraining order against a man named Shawn Christopher McIntyre who has been sending messages to her family and friends declaring his love for her.
The guy has also reportedly been sending threatening messages to Eilish’s brother FINNEAS about killing him and ELON MUSK.
The Musk connection is an oddity, but concerning nonetheless. [via TMZ]
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ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER is being sued by a woman who says she was left “permanently disabled” after he crashed into her car earlier this year.
Cheryl Augustine filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court this week, claiming she suffered “injury to her body and shock and injury to her nervous system and person” which has caused her “great physical and nervous pain [and] suffering.”
HERE’S WHAT HAPPENED: Back in January, Schwarzengger was driving his SUV about a half-mile from his home when he smashed into Augustine’s Prius, which was reportedly making a U-turn in the road. The SUV ended up on top of the Prius’s hood, which caused the airbags to deploy. [via Radar Online]
DOUBLE WHAMMY: This lawsuit comes a week after Schwarzengger was sued by a cyclist he hit in Los Angeles in February.
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TURKEYED OUT: MARTHA STEWART is not celebrating Thanksgiving this year.
“I gave up Thanksgiving. I canceled,” she said on a recent episode of “The Kelly Clarkson Show.” “Nine guests canceled because somebody got sick. So … I called up my chef friend and I said, ‘We’re not doing Thanksgiving.’”
On top of that, Stewart said she had already cooked 14 turkeys for her TV show and had one more to make for an appearance on “Today.” [via People]
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CASTING CALL
It turns out ED HELMS didn’t have to do anything extreme while filming his toothless scene in “The Hangover” because he is actually missing a tooth.
During a recent appearance on “The View,” Helms was asked how he made the missing tooth look so real, to which he said that he “never had an adult tooth come into that spot.”
For filming, Helms wore a flipper with a tooth on it for scenes where he had a full mouth of teeth and then simply took it out for the toothless scenes.
WORTH NOTING: This was all going on while Helms was also filming “The Office,” but he said his slurring speech -- due to the flipper -- worked in his favor because he was shooting a scene in which his character was drunk. [via Decider]
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Viewers noticed a “blunder” during a scene in the first half of the final season of “The Crown.”
In the scene, Dodi Al-Fayed’s father Mohamed is visiting his body in the morgue. While saying good-bye, viewers noticed the sheet draped over Al-Fayed’s body appears to move as he takes a couple of breaths -- something that dead bodies are not supposed to do.
Remember, Al-Fayed died alongside PRINCESS DIANA in a car crash in 1997. The crash itself will not be shown in the Netflix series, but it can, however, be heard right at the end of episode three. [via Daily Mail]
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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS
KIM KARDASHIAN says a psychic predicted her family’s fame nearly two decades ago.
In her cover story for GQ, Kim details how her dad, the late ROBERT KARDASHIAN, saw a medium after serving on the defense team for his friend OJ SIMPSON.
According to Kim, the psychic saw her dad’s last name and said “Kardashian will be internationally known,” to which her dad said at the time is how he knew she was “full of s**t.” [via GQ]
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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS
Earlier this week, reports confirmed that KING CHARLES and PRINCE HARRY did indeed speak by phone for the monarch’s birthday – but insiders tell Page Six that the Sussexes were the ones who leaked the news in the first place.
One source points out, “Harry and Meghan fight for privacy when it suits them, and yet the minute Harry gets on the phone to the King, it’s in a newspaper.”
BUT WAIT: People inside the Sussex camp say Harry and Meg had nothing to do with the leak and Harry is looking forward to another call with the King next week. [via Page Six]
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DAY OF THE YEAR
National Take a Hike Day
International Students’ Day
National Unfriend Day
World Prematurity Day
International Happy Gose Day
National Baklava Day
National Homemade Bread Day
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ON THIS DATE
1558 - Queen Elizabeth I takes the British throne.
She succeeded her half-sister, Mary the First.
Liz was just 25 years old when she became queen. She was a major proponent of Protestant reform, which irked much of the Catholic establishment that had been prominent in Britain.
She made permanent the Protestant Church of England.
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1777 - The ragtags trying to run the budding American government establish the Articles of Confederation.
It took 16 months to finalize the document, which was designed to give power to the states individually, with a small federal government.
Much of that would change with the passage of the US Constitution 11 years later.
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1869 - The first boats pass through the newly-completed Suez Canal.
The small passage connected the Mediterranean and Red Seas.
The project took 10 years, with much of the work done with picks and shovels.
Workers were even plagued by cholera outbreaks along the way.
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1973 - President Nixon utters his famous words, that he is "not a crook."
The phrase came when talking to AP editors in a live TV Q&A.
He did take the blame for not adequately supervising some elements of his campaign.
He would resign the presidency in August of the following year.
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2003 - A court convicts John Muhammad of killing random people in the Washington DC area with a sniper rifle.
He was dubbed the "Beltway sniper." The attacks caused extra-cautious behavior in the area for the time -- school recesses were held inside, teams practiced indoors, and families avoided outdoor activities.
Muhammad was known for leaving odd clues at the murder scenes -- one was a Tarot card.
His trial lasted six weeks, but it only took 10 hours for the jury to convict him. He was sentenced to death, and executed in November of that year.
ON THE SAME DAY:
Arnold Schwarzenegger becomes the governor of California.
He'd be the 38th executive of that state, succeeding recalled governor Gray Davis. He was later re-elected to a full term in November 2006.
Of course, the other famous actor/politician to run California was Ronald Reagan.
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2015 - Charlie Sheen confirms that he is HIV-positive.
After revealing his diagnosis, Sheen said that he’s been extorted for “millions” of dollars by a select few who he thought he could trust with his secret.
He also stated that he is unsure how he contracted the virus.
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2021 - The CDC reports that over 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses from April 2020 to April 2021 in the thick of pandemic-ear lockdowns.
That number set a new record.
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BIRTHDAYS
Dallas Skye - actress, “You” - 12
Heavenly Joy - pop singer - 14
Devin Gordon - pop singer, The Bomb Digz - 23
Devin Haney - boxer - 25
Sada Baby - rapper - 31
Eric Nam - pop singer - 35
Tom Ellis - actor, “Lucifer” - 45
Rachel McAdams - actress, “Mean Girls” & “The Notebook” - 45
RuPaul - TV show host, “RuPaul’s Drag Race” - 63
Jonathan Ross - TV show host, “The Jonathan Ross Show” - 63
Ramona Singer - reality star, “Real Housewives” - 67
Danny DeVito - actor, “Twins” & “Taxi” - 79
Martin Scorsese - director - 81
Born On This Date
Sarah Harding - pop singer, Girls Aloud - 1981 (d. 2021)
Jeff Buckley - rock singer - 1966 (d. 1997)
Yolanda King - civil rights leader & daughter of MLK - 1955 (d. 2007)
Gordon Lightfoot - pop singer - 1938 (d. 2023)
Rock Hudson - actor, “Magnificent Obsession” - 1925 (d. 1985)
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