11/2/2022: Sleeping With Lincoln

PLUS: 178 Hirokazu Tanakas; More Polls Slide Toward GOP; and Bailing Out Kanye

Nov 02, 2022

Today is Wednesday, November 2, 2022.

It is the 306th day of the year.

59 days remain.

HIT LIST

Bloomberg reports that 37% of small businesses struggled to pay rent on their offices or production space as a result of rising inflation in October – up 7 points from September.

More than half of the respondents say their rent is up at least 10% year over year. The hardest hit sectors were restaurants and, most recently, real estate agents who work out of an office. Nearly 50% of respondents who own car repair shops report a drop in business because they can’t get their hands on parts to do the job.

IT GETS WORSE: One in three small businesses say they’ll close up shop if things don’t improve in the next few months.

WORTH NOTING: Small businesses employ about half the American workforce.

WORTH ASKING: How can a president of the country who doesn’t understand that taxing companies increases costs to the consumer – as reported yesterday – possibly be trusted to manage the post-pandemic small business recovery?

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According to public data from the CDC and Walgreens (the pharmacy), people who have not received any vaccination at all against covid are SEVEN TIMES less likely to get infected with the virus.

IT GETS WORSE: People last dosed in the last 3-5 months are the MOST likely to test positive.

WORTH REMEMBERING: People LOST THEIR JOBS because they did not comply with vaccine mandates.

“Covid amnesty” my ass.

(h/t @EthicalSkeptic)

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Do you know anyone named Hirokazu Tanaka?

On Saturday, 178 people with that name gathered in Tokyo and established a record for the most people with the same name gathered in one place.

WORTH ASKING: If there was event registration, how do you suppose that worked?

Participants ranged from 3 to 80 years old.

The gathering broke the last record – when 164 women named Martha Stewart gathered with the woman herself on her talk show.

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A 70-year-old Delaware woman had a really good October.

She won $100,000 on a lottery scratch off ticket. She went to claim the prize money, and on the way home spent $30 on another ticket – when she struck gold again, this time winning $300,000.

She wants to remain anonymous – but says she’s looking forward to using the money for a more comfortable retirement.

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A 16-year-old girl is in serious condition after being mauled by six of her family’s cane corsos (a type of mastiff) at their home in Southern California over the weekend.

A neighbor called in the attack, which left the teen with “several significant lacerations and dog bites to her head, torso and arms,” according to Sheriff's Captain Ron Chips. Her mother was also bit, but not seriously.

The dogs were removed by Los Angeles County Animal Care and Control officers.

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BY THE NUMBERS

📈 The Dow lost 79 points (0.24%) Tuesday to close at 32,653. The S&P lost 15 points (0.41%) to close at 3,856 and the Nasdaq lost 97 points (0.89%) to close at 10,890.

🛢 West Texas Intermediate traded at $88 Tuesday. Brent Crude settled at $94.

⛽ The national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.75 Tuesday.

₿ Bitcoin was negative on the day, losing about $50 and trading around $20,400.

🛩 There were 2,310 flights delayed within, into, or out of the United States and 91 such cancellations.

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CHARTS

Top 5 Fiction & Nonfiction Books Currently on the New York Times Best Sellers List:

FICTION:

“It Starts With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“The Boys From Biloxi,” John Grisham
“It Ends With Us,” Colleen Hoover
“Verity,” Colleen Hoover
“Demon Copperhead,” Barbara Kingsolver

NON-FICTION

“Beyond The Wand,” Tom Felton
“And There Was Light,” Jon Meacham
I’m Glad My Mom Died,” Jennette McCurdy
“The Extraordinary Life Of An Ordinary Man,” Paul Newman
“Madly, Deeply,” Alan Rickman

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DEATHS

TAKEOFF, one third of the rap-group known as Migos, has died.

TMZ reports that the rapper, real name Kirsnik Khari Ball, was shot outside a Houston bowling alley around early Tuesday morning following an altercation over a dice game. His bandmate and uncle, QUAVO, was with him at the time.

He was only 28.

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ADAM ZIMMER, son of former Vikings head coach MIKE ZIMMER, has died.

His sister CORRI ZIMMER announced his passing on Instagram yesterday. No cause of death was shared.

He was 38.

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JULIE POWELL, the woman who inspired the movie “Julie & Julia,” has died.

The bestselling author who wrote about her efforts to prepare every recipe in Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” passed away October 26 at her home in New York, her husband Eric Powell told the New York Post. He stated that her cause of death was cardiac arrest.

She was only 49.

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BABY NEWS

MICHELLE WILLIAMS, 42, and her husband, Broadway director THOMAS KAIL, 44, have welcomed their second child.

News of the birth broke after the actress was spotted by Daily Mail photogs on a family walk with an infant in her arms.

The couple are already parents to son Hart, 2, while Michelle is also mom to daughter Matilda, 17, whom she shared with the late HEATH LEDGER.

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THE SWAMP

One member of the Federal Communications Commission says the government must actively ban TikTok in the United States. He cited concerns that the app is used to shovel information to Beijing, where their government is actively meddling with and spying on Americans.

MEANWHILE: Axios reports that the Department of Justice is actively negotiating a deal that would divest TikTok from its Chinese parent company and allow it to continue operations stateside.

WORTH SPECULATING: Neither party wants to tick off the youths and aspiring influencers addicted to the app, so nothing will change and China will keep spying, because we’ve become just that weak-willed and soft as a society.

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MOMENTUM: The Cook Political Report on Tuesday moved their outlook in ten Congressional races toward Republican candidates, all in districts that were comfortably Democrat – in states like California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, and even Oregon.

MEANWHILE: An Anselm College poll shows only 5% of swing voters in New Hampshire say the country is headed in the right direction.

OVER AT 538: Polling site Five Thirty-Eight, which does its best to get predictions as close as possible but routinely undercounts Republican turnout, says the Senate is a lock for Republicans to pick up at least 51 seats.

BUT NONE OF IT MATTERS IF YOU DON’T VOTE.

EDITOR’S NOTE: NEXT WEEK: We’ll stay up late next Tuesday night so the election results you get when the newsletter goes out at 4:00 am are about as recent as can be. No word on how much late-night ballot counting will be happening, or whether observers will be blocked from doing their jobs.

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HOW QUICKLY WE FORGET: While Democrats and their media bootlickers try to blame former President DONALD TRUMP’s rhetoric for inspiring the man who attacked House Speaker NANCY PELOSI’s husband last weekend, they sure don’t want anyone to remember another recent political assassination attempt.

In July, Republican New York governor candidate LEE ZELDIN was attacked by a man with a stabbing weapon at a campaign event. Fortunately, Zeldin was unharmed and dodged a wound.

Zeldin’s attacker has already reportedly been released from law enforcement custody – contingent only on the requirement he join a 28-day alcohol treatment program.

WORTH ASKING: Why isn’t MAXINE WATERS blamed for this attack, after whipping a crowd into a frenzy before 2020 and telling them to get in the faces of Trump supporters? Where is the media narrative about hateful language inspiring terrorists on the left? Why does the slant of these news stories only ever lean one way? And will people finally do something about it at the ballot box next Tuesday?

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LOTTERY

No winner for Monday night’s Powerball drawing. Tonight’s drawing will be for a $1.2 BILLION jackpot or a $596.7 million cash payout.

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SHOWBIZ NEWS

TAYLOR SWIFT has announced the dates of her upcoming US tour.

“I’m enchanted to announce my next tour: Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour, a journey through the musical eras of my career (past and present!),” she posted on Twitter and Instagram Tuesday.

She will kick off the tour on March 18, 2023 in Glendale, Arizona and wrap on August 5, 2023 in Los Angeles.

International dates will be announced later.

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Model EMILY RATAJKOWSKI doesn’t believe people are straight.

In a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, she said that she thinks everyone is “likely sexually fluid,” explaining that she believes “sexuality is on a sliding scale.”

“I don’t really believe in straight people,” she bluntly added.

WORTH NOTING: She came out as bisexual last month, one month after filing for divorce from her husband SEBASTIAN BEAR-MCCLARD.

RUMOR IS…she is now dating DJ ORAZIO RISPO, though this has not yet been confirmed.

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TOM BRADY says there is no bad blood between him and his ex-wife GISELE BUNDCHEN following their recent divorce.

The QB opened up about the split on his “Let’s Go!” podcast with JIM GRAY.

While he didn’t mention Gisele by name, Brady did call their current situation “amicable.”

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Mom-of-seven, HILARIA BALDWIN, 38, says the door may not be completely shut on her and husband ALEC BALDWIN, 64, adding to their brood.

“I would have said before [that I’m] definitely done. Seven kids in, I feel like I am. But it's Alec and me. So time will tell,” she told US Weekly .

The couple welcomed their youngest, daughter Ilaria Catalina Irena, last month.

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Rock band HUEY LEWIS AND THE NEWS have sold their entire musical catalog to Primary Wave Music.

The deal, which includes all their songs from inception through 1994, was made for around $20 million, according to Variety.

WORTH NOTING: Lewis, who retired in 2020 after announcing he suffers from a rare hearing disorder, is reportedly working on a documentary about the band.

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New footage of soccer star HOPE SOLO’s March arrest has surfaced.

Many may recall that Solo was found asleep behind the wheel of her running car, parked in a North Carolina Walmart parking lot, with her kids inside, when officers arrived on scene.

After smelling alcohol coming from the vehicle, Solo was asked if she had been drinking, which she denied. She was then asked to step out of the vehicle repeatedly, which she refused, leading to her being pulled out by one of the officers.

During all of this, her kids can be heard screaming in the background.

Solo was charged with driving while impaired, resisting a public officer and misdemeanor child abuse. After pleading guilty to DWI, the latter two were dropped. She was given a 24-month suspended sentence and ordered to pay an undisclosed amount of fines.

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BONO once fell asleep in Abraham Lincoln’s bedroom after drinking with then-President BARACK OBAMA.

During a recent interview with BBC Radio 2, the U2 frontman detailed how he “suffers from an allergic reaction to salicylates,” which is found in things such as red wine, and it causes him to “fall asleep somewhere.”

Concerned about his absence during their night of drinking, Obama asked Bono’s wife where he was and if he was okay, to which she said “He’s just gone for a sleep [...] he’ll be back in 10 minutes.”

From there, the two went to find the singer, who said “And there I was in Lincoln’s bedroom, asleep, fallen asleep in the bosom of Abraham himself.”

Bono said that the incident is something Obama still razzes him about.

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CASTING CALL

“Don’t Worry Darling” -- the movie at the center of so much drama over the summer -- will debut on HBO Max on November 7.

The flick tells the story of Alice, played by FLORENCE PUGH and Jack, played by HARRY STYLES, who live in the community of Victory, the experimental company town housing men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. CHRIS PINE also stars in the movie as CEO of Victory Project, who controls the tight-knit desert utopia.

The movie has been plagued by scandal, from rumors of on-set conflict between Pugh and director OLIVIA WILDE to discrepancy over why SHIA LABEOUF exited, leaving his role to Styles, who is currently dating Wilde. Then there was spitgate during the Venice Film Festival when Styles appeared to spit on Pine.

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“Glee” creator RYAN MURPHY revealed that he had someone else in mind to star as choir director William Schuester on the hit show.

Appearing on the first episode of “And That’s What You REALLY Missed” podcast, Murphy said that he initially wanted JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE for the role that ultimately went to MATTHEW MORRISON.

No word on why JT didn’t land the role.

BY THE WAY: Morrison earned an Emmy nomination for the role in 2010.

“And That’s What You REALLY Missed” is co-hosted by former “Glee” stars KEVIN MCHALE and JENNA USHKOWTIZ, who starred as Artie Abrams and Tina Cohen-Chang, respectively.

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The Season 2 premiere of HBO Max’s “White Lotus” saw a 63% increase from its Season 1 debut, landing 1.5 million viewers on Sunday night.

The increase bumped the show into the streamer’s Top 5 most-viewed series.

For those unfamiliar, “White Lotus” follows the guests and employees of the fictional White Lotus resort chain. The first season was set in Hawaii and the second season takes place in Sicily.

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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS

KANYE WEST fans have started a GoFundMe campaign to make the rapper a billionaire again.

Several pages have been created with the same goal in mind -- “Make Kanye West a Billionaire Again” -- with a goal of $1 billion dollars.

The fundraising comes amid Ye’s net worth taking a hit after Adidas dropped him last week.

WORTH NOTING: This isn’t the first time fans have tried to raise money for Ye. In 2016, a fan named Jeremy Piatt crowdsourced $57,398 for the rapper who, at the time, was in debt for $53 million. Ye ultimately declined the funds, donating them to music charity Notes for Notes.

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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS

Royal expert ANGELA LEVIN says MEGHAN MARKLE would not have given PRINCE HARRY a chance if he wasn’t a prince.

In a recent essay for Sky News, Levin writes that while Meg wouldn’t have “given [Harry] a second look,” he is “besotted” with her.

This fits with a previous Newsweek report that cited several body language experts who all agree Meg seems to be controlling Harry.

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SPORTS

STEVE NASH is out as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets.

His leaving comes after some called to question whether he had “control” of his players, from KEVIN DURANT openly calling for his removal to KYRIE IRVING’s recent anti-Semitic tweets. The team’s losing record was also likely a factor in his exit.

Assistant coach JACQUE VAUGHN will serve as interim coach.

WORTH NOTING: ESPN reports Nash’s exit was “mutually agreed upon” between himself and the team.

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DAY OF THE YEAR

National Stress Awareness Day

Dynamic Harmlessness Day

Eating Healthy Day

Wobbly Wednesday

National Deviled Egg Day

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ON THIS DATE

1889 – North and South Dakota are the 39th and 40th states admitted to the union.

The Dakotas became populated by Americans after railroads were laid and transportation of goods became easier and cheaper, in the late 19th century.

The Enabling Act of 1889 built the framework to admit these states, as well as Montana and Washington. Following Benjamin Harrison's election, he officially admitted North and South Dakota to the Union.

Since then, there's been animosity over which was actually admitted first. President Harrison wanted the official signed documents to declare the states pulled at random. No one knows which was officially first -- but since N comes before S alphabetically, North Dakota usually gets credit for being Number 39.

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1947 – Howard Hughes' "Spruce Goose" takes flight.

It was the largest aircraft ever built. Hughes designed the project, and was at the helm for the maiden flight.

It had been commissioned in 1941, at the outset of America's entrance into World War II. $23 million and 5 years later, it was finished, after fighting ended.

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1948 – President Truman holds the presidency, after defeating Thomas Dewey.

Truman won by just more than two million votes.

It was a squeaker election, but many had thought the win was a lock for Dewey. The Chicago Tribune infamously pulled the trigger on the wrong headline before the results were in: Dewey Defeats Truman.

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1959 – Charles Van Doren admits to Congress that the game show "Twenty One" was rigged, and that he had been given the questions and their answers before appearing on the show.

“Twenty One” celebrated great ratings and regular captive audiences, but it turned out the progression of contestants through the ranks was entirely rigged.

Van Doren would go on to be a well-published academic and writer, who actively edited the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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2000 – The first short-term residents of the International Space Station enter the orbiting capsule.

One American and two Russians began the four-month mission. They were running on limited power and living out of only two rooms. In December, Shuttle Endeavor would arrive carrying full solar panels, in order to allow expansion and full power.

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2016 – The Chicago Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians 8-7 in Game 7 of the World Series.

The win marked the Cubs’ first title in 108 years.

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2020 - “Baby Shark” by Pinkfong becomes the most-watched video on YouTube with over 7.04 billion views.

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BIRTHDAYS

Sunny Sandler - daughter of Adam - 14

Chase Goehring - pop singer - 27

Jimmy Graoppolo - football player - 31

Kendall Schmidt - actor, “Big Time Rush” - 32

Katelyn Tarver - pop singer - 33

JP Cooper - soul singer - 39

Karamo Brown - TV show host, “Queer Eye” - 42

Jason Cerbone - actor, “The Sopranos” - 45

Nelly - rapper - 48

Stevie J. - R&B singer - 49

Marisol Nichols - actress, “24” & “Riverdale” - 49

Scott Walker - former WI governor - 55

David Schwimmer - actor, Ross on “Friends” - 56

Dave Stockton - golfer - 81

Born On This Date

Warren G. Harding - 29th POTUS - 1865 (d. 1923)

James K. Polk - 11th POTUS - 1795 (d. 1849)

Marie Antoinette - French Queen - 1755 (d. 1793)

Daniel Boone - explorer - 1734 (d. 1820)

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