Wednesday 12/18/24
Celebrate:
Answer the Phone Like Buddy the Elf Day - "Buddy the Elf, what's your favorite color?"
Arabic Language Day
Bake Cookies Day
Flake Appreciation Day
National "I Love Honey" Day
National Ham Salad Day
National Roast Suckling Pig Day
National Twin Day
National Wear a Plunger on Your Head Day
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Beware of Brushing Scam!
A "brushing" scam is when someone receives an unexpected gift or item not ordered in the mail from a place like Amazon or other company. Examples of gifts include rings, bracelets, necklaces, Bluetooth speaker, etc. The gift will have the recipient’s address, but not include the sender's information or be from a known retailer. When the recipient opens the package to see what it is and possibly who sent it, there is a QR code to scan to find out who sent the gift.
Once the code is scanned, all the information from that phone will be sent to scammers. They receive all access to the phone. All personal and financial information is accessible to the scammers and often the victim's bank accounts are drained.
The gift can be kept or thrown away, but the QR code should NOT be scanned for any reason. QR code scams are nothing new. These scams show up in all places, including parking meters.
Avoid scanning any unknown QR codes included in the package.
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"Red One" had a pretty mediocre box office run . . . and critics HATED it. But it's been a huge hit so far on Amazon. It attracted 50 million viewers worldwide in its first weekend, which was the biggest debut for an Amazon MGM Studios movie on Prime.
Amazon has said from the beginning that box office wasn't the most important thing for "Red One". The plan was to put it out in theaters with a huge marketing push . . . which was ultimately paid for with box office receipts.
So by the time it hit Amazon, it already had a ton of basically free advertising. Which obviously worked, given the weekend streaming numbers.
FYI, "Red One" is STILL in theaters, so it's still making a few bucks.
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Taylor Swift can add ANOTHER accomplishment for 2024. She finished the year with the top TWO albums on Billboard's year-end chart.
"The Tortured Poets Department" is the #1 album of the year, followed by "1989 (Taylor's Version)". It's the first time since 1967 that the same artist took the top two spots . . . back then it was The Monkees.
Taylor is also the first artist to have the year's top album four times. "Reputation" in 2018 . . . "1989" in 2015 . . . and "Fearless" in 2009. And she has two more albums in this year's Top 10, for a total of FOUR.
Here are Billboard's Top 15 albums of 2024:
1. "The Tortured Poets Department", Taylor Swift
2. "1989 (Taylor's Version)", Taylor Swift
3. "One Thing at a Time", Morgan Wallen
4. "Stick Season", Noah Kahan
5. "For All the Dogs", Drake
6. "SOS", SZA
7. "Zach Bryan", Zach Bryan
8. "Dangerous: The Double Album", Morgan Wallen
9. "Lover", Taylor Swift
10. "Midnights", Taylor Swift
11. "Hit Me Hard and Soft", Billie Eilish
12. "Guts", Olivia Rodrigo
13. "American Heartbreak", Zach Bryan
14. "Folklore", Taylor Swift
15. "We Don't Trust You", Future & Metro Boomin
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"Ultimate Class Rock" ranked the Top 30 Sad Christmas Songs.
1. "Blue Christmas", Elvis Presley
2. "Last Christmas", Wham!
3. "Please Come Home for Christmas", Eagles
4. "Same Old Lang Syne", Dan Fogelberg
5. "I Want to Come Home for Christmas", Marvin Gaye
See their full list here.
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A poll this month found 42% of us never eat candy canes. So their answer to this is just DON'T. But for the rest of us . . .
What's the RIGHT way to eat a candy cane? A new survey by the National Confectioners Association found America is divided.
54% of us start with the straight end . . . 30% start with the curved end . . . and 16% break them apart and eat them piece by piece.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - The Guinness World Record for "Most Lights on a Residential Property" is 601,736. A family from Lagrangeville, New York got that record a decade ago with an EPIC display spread across two acres.
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