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12/22/2022: The Immaculate Reception

PLUS: Big Blizzard; Out Smoking Snoop; and 2022’s Hardest-Working Royal

Dec 22, 2022

Today is Thursday, December 22, 2022.

It is the 356th day of the year.

9 days remain.

PROGRAMMING NOTE

There will be no newsletter the week of December 26-30.

HIT LIST

If you’re still mooching off someone else’s Netflix account, get ready to pay up.

The streaming giant first announced plans to stop sharing across different households in 2019, but paused the project among pandemic lockdowns.

Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that Netflix will start cracking down on the practice next year. The move comes as it rolled out an ad-supported, cheaper tier in recent weeks, though initial reports suggest users aren’t flocking to the cheaper offering.

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A Gallup survey shows that 75% of adult Americans rate their mental health as either good or excellent — marking a 10-point drop from the average since 2001.

The 7% who rate their mental health as “poor” is the highest in the survey’s record.

Much of the decrease in self reported mental health is a result of the pandemic; by November 2020, there was a 9-point drop in the number of people who rated their own mental well-being as “excellent,” from 45 to 36%.

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The National Weather Service is calling the blizzard sweeping the country a “once in a generation event.”

The combination of frigid temperatures and expected snow accumulation have put more than one fourth of the country’s population under weather advisories.

Officials warn caution as high winds threaten to knock out power lines, complicating efforts to stay warm amid the cold temps, especially in the Midwest.

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A study from Aston University in England warns the world might be running out of cloud storage for digital files.

While people around the globe already rely on services like Google Drive and Amazon Web Services to store data and stream content, the amount of storage needed to keep up is expected to increase 300% in the next three years.

The report suggests that powering these data centers alone already accounts for 1.5% of global electricity consumption — meaning the long term sustainable solution can’t just be to build more. Tech companies will have to make their storage more efficient at scale to keep up.

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A coal mine in rural Utah has been on fire for more than two months now.

The single mine accounts for more than a quarter of the state’s coal production, and the blaze has left workers without a job to do.

NBC News reports that, “Even as the U.S. shifts away from coal production, plenty of small towns still rely on the [coal industry], which makes up 21.9% of U.S. energy production.”

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BY THE NUMBERS

📈 The Dow added 526 points (1.6%) to close at 33,376 on Wednesday. The S&P added 56 points (1.49%) to close at 3878 while the Nasdaq added 162 points (1.54%) to close at 10,709.

🛢West Texas Intermediate closed at $76. Brent Crude at $80.

⛽The national average price of a gallon of gas was $3.10 on Wednesday.

₿ Bitcoin slid a bit Wednesday, trading under $16,800.

🛩 There were 5,754 flights delayed within, into, or out of the United States on Wednesday and 473 such cancellations.

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CHARTS

As NFL fans mourn the loss of Pittsburgh Steelers running back Franco Harris, here he is, completing “The Immaculate Reception.”

The 50th anniversary of the iconic play is Friday.

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DEATHS

Hall of Fame Steelers running back, and the man behind “The Immaculate Reception, FRANCO HARRIS has died.

His son told the Associated Press Wednesday morning that he passed away overnight. No cause of death is known.

His passing comes two days before the 50th anniversary of “The Immaculate Reception,” which is considered the most iconic play in NFL history. Also, prior to his death the Pittsburgh Steelers announced plans to retire his No. 32 during a ceremony at halftime of their game against the Las Vegas Raiders on Christmas Eve.

Harris was 72.

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RELATIONSHIPS

Los Angeles Lakers owner JEANIE BUSS, 61, is engaged to comedian JAY MOHR, 52.

The couple started dating in 2017.

Buss was previously engaged to coaching legend PHIL JACKSON, but they split in 2016. Mohr was married to actress NIKKI COX for 10 years before they also called it quits in 2016.

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SICK BAY

Soccer legend PELE’s health has taken a turn for the worse.

His doctors in San Paulo told the Associated Press Wednesday that he is now receiving “elevated care” for kidney and heart issues.

Pele’s daughter told the outlet the whole family will remain with him at the Albert Einstein Hospital for the holiday weekend.

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THE SWAMP

Now that the $1.7 trillion, inflation-growing, progressive-appeasing, foreign-policy-destroying spending bonanza has seen some sunlight before Congress votes on it, some of the particulars are pretty horrifying.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE: The $400 million allocated to border security specifically prevents the government from hiring more border patrol officers or to “acquire, maintain, or extend border security technology and capabilities.”

WORTH ASKING: What?

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LOTTERY

No winner for Tuesday night’s Mega Millions drawing. Friday night’s drawing will be for a $510 million jackpot or a $266.8 million cash payout.

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SHOWBIZ NEWS

JUSTIN BIEBER is reportedly in talks with Hipgnosis Songs Capital to sell the rights to his entire catalog for around $200 million.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the music deal could be the largest music-rights acquisition in the company’s history.

The potential deal would cover Bieber’s entire catalog of recorded music, which includes six albums and a bunch of singles and collaborations.

WORTH REMEMBERING: Hipgnosis bought the rights to JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE’s catalog earlier this year for $100 million.

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BRITNEY SPEARS is alive and well -- so she says!

Fans have been concerned about the singer over the past few weeks, with some believing she may be dead.

After keeping a close eye on her social media posts, some fans think that what is being posted is old content that is being shared by someone who is not Brit, but she says that isn’t the case.

Fans also were on high alert after her estranged parents JAMIE and LYNNE SPEARS were spotted arriving in Los Angeles. Turns out they were there to watch their granddaughter perform in a Christmas play.

The theory continues to circulate as more bizarre posts are shared on Brit’s Instagram page, including one this week of her showering in Mexico.

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JOHN MAYER confessed on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast that he likes to play guitar naked after being intimate.

When asked if he ever serenades the ladies to get them into bed, he replied, “No, you should never play guitar to have sex with someone, but a little naked guitar playing after is very memorable.”

As for his dating life, Mayer says that as he focuses more on his sobriety he doesn’t have time for a significant other.

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SNOOP DOGG says the highest he has ever been was when he partied with country singer WILLIE NELSON, 89.

He shared the story during a recent appearance on the “Let’s Go Podcast” after hosts TOM BRADY, LARRY FITZGERALD and JIM GRAY asked him, “What was the most stoned you’ve ever been in your whole life?”

The smoking session went down on 4/20 in Amsterdam, in Willie’s hotel room, Snoop explained. “Me and him were playing dominoes one-on-one [...] and I’m just getting higher and higher and higher.”

“He just keeps passing it to me, and I’m like ‘This old mother[effer] is outsmoking me,’” he quipped.

At one point during the interview Snoop admitted that he wanted to call it a night, but didn’t speak up because he didn’t want to “show signs of weakness” in front of Willie.

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ELIZABETH HURLEY was stranded in Antigua after her flight home was delayed by more than twenty hours.

Taking to Twitter, the actress wrote about her experience with British Airways, calling it “pretty dodgy service.”

According to Bloomberg, thousands were left stranded by the airline across England, the United States and Canada this week due to issues with the aircraft’s flight planning software.

SPEAKING OF FLYING: The TSA said they anticipate pre-pandemic levels of fliers today and tomorrow.

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LEONARDO DICAPRIO, 48, was spotted on a date with actress VICTORIA LAMAS, 23.

He was previously linked to model GIGI HADID, who was the first woman over the age of 25 he has ever dated and also the first woman he has dated who is a mom. Prior to that, Leo dated model CAMILLA MORRONE for four years.

WORTH NOTING: Lamas was born two years AFTER Leo appeared in “Titanic.”

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CASTING CALL

HARRISON FORD says he tried on a bunch of different hats before settling on the one he would wear in “Yellowstone” prequel series “1923.”

Ford, who plays Jacob Dutton, told Variety that after trying on 75 different variations, he and series creator TAYLOR SHERIDAN agreed upon a light tan cowboy hat for his character.

The hat has now been named “The Jacob.”

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The “Addams Family” spinoff series, “Wednesday,” is proving to be a huge success for Netflix.

The series landed at the top of Nielsen’s streaming charts with over 5.9 BILLION minutes viewed.

That is the second highest weekly viewing total for a streaming series since the beginning of 2020 -- falling behind “Stranger Things” with 7 BILLION minutes.

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JERRY BRUCKHEIMER told The Hollywood Reporter this week that he would “love” to have JOHNNY DEPP return to the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise.

“He’s a friend, a terrific actor and it’s unfortunate that personal lives creep into everything we do,” the producer added, referring to Depp’s highly-publicized legal battle with his ex-wife, actress AMBER HEARD.

BRING BACK JACK: After being given the boot, Depp said he would “never again” work with Disney on future “Pirates” films.

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MARIO LOPEZ and ANA GASTEYER will co-host the 134th Rose Parade on NBC.

The annual event will air live on Monday, January 2 from Pasadena, California.

Former Arizona congresswoman GABBY GIFFORDS will serve as the 2023 Grand Marshal.

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THE DAILY KARDASHOPUS

Adidas is set to release a new line of Yeezy-designed sneakers, minus the branding from Kanye West -- who now goes by YE.

The release comes after the company terminated their contract with Ye following his anti-Semitc rants, and social media attacks of the brand.

Adidas CFO told the Daily Mail that they own “all of the design rights related to existing products” and could “make use of them as early as 2023.”

SPEAKING OF SNEAKERS: After KHLOE KARDASHIAN was spotted wearing a pair of Air Jordan 1 Retro High OG sneakers, sales skyrocketed on the resale market. According to digital marketing company Walk Like Us, the $130 shoes are now reselling for up to $600 a pair.

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WE’LL NEVER BE ROYALS

PRINCESS ANNE is holding onto the title of hardest-working royal.

According to a tally by Reboot SEO Company, the only daughter of QUEEN ELIZABETH attended the most royal engagements of any member of the Royal Family in 2022.

In total, she attended 214 engagements.

KING CHARLES snagged the second spot with 181 royal engagements.

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SPORTS

AARON JUDGE made history again this week after being named the New York Yankees sixteenth team captain.

Of course, the news comes after he signed a nine-year contract extension with the team worth $360 million earlier this month. And after the sale of his record-breaking home run ball, which sold for $1.5 million.

IN OTHER MLB NEWS: Fans were shocked when shortstop CARLOS CORREA agreed to a 12-year contract with the New York Mets for $315 million, just one week after agreeing to a bigger contract with the San Francisco Giants. Per ESPN, there were “concerns” during his physical that caused the deal to fall through.

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DAY OF THE YEAR

Mathematics Day

National Cookie Exchange Day

National Short Person Day

Forefathers’ Day

National Date Nut Bread Day

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ON THIS DATE

1666 - Seven French mathematicians and seven physicists meet to form the French Academy of Sciences. Before the end of the century, King Louis XIV decreed that the organization would have official royal protection.

At first the French monarch would oversee and control the group -- but eventually it was allowed to vote in members by election.

Even prolific scientists were denied membership because they were women -- among them, Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize -- twice.

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1894 -French military officer Alfred Dreyfus is found guilty of treason by a court martial.

He was sentenced to life in prison for allegedly spying on behalf of the Germans.

A prominent French novelist named Emile Zola published a letter that appeared on the front page of a French newspaper, titled "J'Accuse" -- it was the first time the phrase was publicly used in such a visible forum. The letter blamed French judges for treating Dreyfus unfairly in the court-martial.

Today the phrase can be used to accuse someone of hypocrisy.

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1900 - The first Mercedes car is delivered to Austria racer Emil Jelinik.

Exactly one month earlier it famously made its first road test.

Jelinik was so confident in the car's potential for success he was afraid other racers would buy it too -- so he purchased all 36 of the first-run models. With Jelinik spending so much money, the company named the automobiles after his daughter -- Mercedes.

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1939 - A train collision in Germany kills 132 people. It is assumed the accident occurred because all the trained railroad engineers had been enlisted to fight in the war.

One train was sitting still at a station. Another express train was barreling in from behind it. After it ignored a stop signal, it was too late.

The rear three cars of the train at the platform were completely demolished.

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1989 – After 23 years, Romania outs Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

The anti-communist front ended 42 years of dictatorial rule. The uprising began when Ceausescu ordered demonstrators to be shot three days earlier.

The Army defected. The dictator and his wife tried to flee by helicopter, but were stopped. Within 4 days, both he and his wife were found guilty of mass murder, and promptly executed.

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2010 – President Obama repeals the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy.

The 17-year policy prohibited any homosexual or bisexual person from disclosing their sexual orientation or from speaking about any homosexual relationships, including marriage.

The act was issued in December 1993, under the Clinton Administration.

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2019 - Receiver Michael Thomas sets an NFL record for most catches in a season with 144.

The catch was made as his New Orleans Saints beat the Tennessee Titans 38-28.

The 17-year-old record was held by Marvin Harrison.

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BIRTHDAYS

Madeleine McGraw - actress, “American Sniper” - 14

Joshua Bassett - actor, “Stuck in the Middle” - 22

Genevieve Hannelius - actress, “Dog with a Blog” - 24

Latto - rapper - 24

Meghan Trainor - pop singer - 29

DaBaby - rapper - 31

Jordan Sparks - pop singer - 33

Ted Cruz - politician - 52

Ralph Fiennes - actor, “Schindler’s List” & “Red Dragon” - 60

Rick Nielsen - singer, Cheap Trick - 74

Diane Sawyer - journalist - 77

Born On This Date

Joe Adonis - Italian-American crime boss - 1902 (d. 1971)

Frank Kellogg - US Secretary of State, tried to outlaw war - 1856 (d. 1937)

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