Wednesday 1/12/22
Celebrate National Curried Chicken, Feast of Fabulous Wild Men, Marzipan, Pharmacist, International Kiss a Ginger, Hot Tea, Stick to Your New Year's Resolution, and Work Harder Day.
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Adele has been enjoying #1 on the Billboard charts with her latest album 30. I figured that the new Weeknd album would push her out, but she's gone a week early as The Encanto soundtrack hits #1. Disney's latest movie musical has enchanted the streaming world. Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical touch has once again taken him to the top.
According to Billboard, Encanto is just the sixth animated film soundtrack to hit No.1 since the Billboard 200 began regularly publishing on a weekly basis in 1956. Encanto follows Frozen II (one week at No.1, 2019), Frozen (13 weeks, 2014), Jack Johnson’s Curious George (one, 2006), Pocahontas (one, 1995), and The Lion King (10, 1994-95).
Additionally, Encanto’s “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” becomes the first Disney Animation song to hit the top five on the Hot 100 since Frozen’s “Let It Go.”
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Americans say they read an average of 12.6 books during the past year, a smaller number than Gallup has measured in any prior survey dating back to 1990. U.S. adults are reading roughly two or three fewer books per year than they did between 2001 and 2016.
The results are based on a Dec. 1-16 Gallup poll, which updated a trend question on book reading. The question asks Americans to say how many books they "read, either all or part of the way through" in the past year. Interviewers are instructed to include all forms of books, including printed books but also electronic books and audiobooks, when entering the respondent's answer.
The decline in book reading is mostly a function of how many books readers are reading, as opposed to fewer Americans reading any books. The 17% of U.S. adults who say they did not read any books in the past year is similar to the 16% to 18% measured in 2002 to 2016 surveys, though it is higher than in the 1999 to 2001 polls.
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There's a growing global potato shortage - a real problem for a planet addicted to french fries and chips.
In Japan, McDonald's locations stopped offering large and medium-size french fry orders late last month, after pandemic-related supply chain issues and floods in the Port of Vancouver delayed potato shipments.
Days later, South Africa's leading makers of potato chips warned that potatoes were in disturbingly short supply after a bad frost and excessive rains led to low local yields, on top of global sourcing shortages.
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I know it's still a bit early, but tax season is almost here. On Monday, the Treasury Department warned that the agency has had a rough year and taxpayers should expect delays as returns are processed.
According to Treasury officials, budget cuts and pandemic-related staffing shortages have created a towering backlog at the agency, and a “frustrating season” is on the horizon.
What happened?
The pandemic forced many in-person processing centers to close.
Pre-pandemic budget cuts to the IRS led to a roughly 25% reduction in its staff.
Federal Covid relief, like stimulus payments and the expanded Child Tax Credit, added more work to the IRS’s plate.
Resources are so strained that, in the first half of last year, there was one IRS staffer to handle every 16,000 calls to the agency.
What can you do? The Treasury says, Those seeking a speedier turnaround should file early, file online, and request their refund via direct deposit.
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Let the internet settle this. Finally, we can let these debates rest.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - Most car horns are in the key of F.
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