Wednesday 12/15/21
Celebrate National Cupcake and for some reason, Lemon Cupcakes get singled out as well), Bill of Rights, Cat Herders, Wear Your Pearls, and International Tea Day.
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Longtime NewsChannel 9 anchor Rod Wood died on Sunday, December 12th, after a brief illness. Rod was surrounded by his five children. Rod, who retired in November 2020 turned 81 on Saturday, December 11th.
Rod was long considered the dean of Central New York broadcast journalists, covering the news in his native Syracuse and surrounding areas for more than 55 years.
This is what a local news legend looks like. If you ever spent any time in Central New York, I'm sure you at least know the name.
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Apple is about to become the world’s first $3 trillion company. Apple shares are set to open today around $177, a few bucks away from the level that will give the iPhone maker a market cap of $3 trillion. It took Apple 42 years to hit the $1 trillion milestone, then just two more to get to $2 trillion. The stock is up about 35% this year on the back of sustained demand for the iPhone 13 and Apple’s recurring revenue streams from services like iCloud and the App Store.
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Organizers of the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have unveiled the venue for the opening ceremony: the River Seine.
In a first-of-its-kind plan, the ceremony will ditch the usual stadium location and will instead take place around the famed river that cuts through the heart of the city – open and free to the public. The Parade of Nations will be on boats, and the closing ceremony will be held at the gardens surrounding the Eiffel Tower. The Paris organizing committee says its planning for the “most accessible” events in the history of the Games, coming after the Tokyo Olympics that were all but cut off to spectators.
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A few years back, KFC took Christmas Yule logs to another level when they introduced a fire log that smells like their fried chicken as it burns. It's called the "11 Herbs & Spices Firelog." Apparently, they've been popular among fans, because they're bringing them back again. They're available exclusively at Walmart.com for $15.88.
The box includes the usual warnings for a flammable item, but it also says, quote, "not actually fried chicken" in big, red letters. Just in case you somehow thought that might be included.
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Even with the COVID-19 variants, experts say it's safe for vaccinated people to attend holiday parties with other vaccinated people, and that means spending money on holiday parties is trending up this year.
According to a study from Lending Tree, 30% of Americans plan to host holiday gatherings and they anticipate spending about $760 on drinks, food, and gifts for their guests. Millennials plan to spend the most at $981, just this month.
But the hosts aren't the only ones who will have to budget for parties.
65% of people who plan to attend gatherings say they'll bring a gift for the host and on average guests will shell out $213 on those. The most popular gift is a nice bottle of wine or some other alcoholic beverage. 39% will bring that.
The next most popular gift for hosts is "baked goods." Other popular gifts include plants or flowers, candles, chocolate, a "heartfelt card or note", and home décor.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - The only real person to be a Pez head was Betsy Ross.
Well No.
Rarely have PEZ dispensers featured real people, however; when humans have been depicted, they have generally been either fictional characters (such as Santa Claus) or generic representations of roles (such as a fireman or pilot). The initial exceptions came in 1976, when PEZ distributed a special series of nine dispensers based on an American history theme to coincide with the bicentennial of the United States.
The Bi-Centennial PEZ dispensers were also primarily generic representations of types (Indian Chief, wounded soldier) and fictional characters (Uncle Sam). But despite what was claimed in a popular trivia item afterwards, the series also included dispensers representing not just one, but three real people: legendary flag-maker Betsy Ross, frontiersman Daniel Boone, and celebrated Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere. (The Paul Revere figure was simply designated “Captain,” so it was often overlooked as one of the few “real person” dispensers):
They have expanded since then including Elvis and the Presidents of the United States.
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