Thursday 12/29/22
Celebrate:
International Jewish Book Day
National Pepper Pot Day
Still Need to Do Day
Tick Tock Day
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New Year's Eve is coming and if you're staying in to watch the ball drop, here are your choices.
NBC/Peacock - Miley's New year's Eve. This year she is hosting with Dolly Parton.
CBS/Paramount+ - New Year's Eve Live: Nashville's Big Bash. Hosted by Jimmie Allen, Elle King, and Rachel Smith.
ABC - Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest (the reincarnated Dick Clark.)
It's his 19th year hosting.
CNN - New Year's Eve Live with Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen showing baby pictures.
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People have used "Dry January" as a way to feel better about over-indulging in alcohol during the holiday season. The only problem with Dry January is . . . it's not as fun.
So there's a new thing called "DRY-ISH JANUARY."
A survey found that 86% of drinkers would be more likely to participate in "Dry January" if the focus was more about "drinking in moderation" as opposed to not drinking at all.
On one hand, it makes some sense: Cutting back on alcohol is easier than abstaining altogether. And a single month of not drinking is probably not THAT much better for you than consuming low-to-moderate amounts.
But the problem is "moderation" is so vague that it doesn't force you to make a notable change. It's like saying you're going to go on a DIET-ISH.
Still, 90% of the people in the survey say they're drinking less booze than they have at other points in their lives, to prioritize: Health . . . work productivity . . . parenting . . . and alertness / sleep.
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Google released its annual "Year in Search" stats . . . and in 2022, it was dominated by: Wordle, elections, and celebrity deaths.
Here's a rundown of the top searches in the U.S. . . .
1. The top news topics we googled were: Mid-term election results . . . Queen Elizabeth's passing . . . Ukraine . . . Powerball numbers . . . and Hurricane Ian.
2. The top words we wanted defined were: Rupee . . . Oligarch . . . Cacao . . . Homer . . . and Recession. (wordle influnced)
3. The top "how to help others" searches were: "How to help Ukraine" . . . "How to help Ukrainian refugees" . . . "How to help abortion rights" . . . "How to help Ukraine army" . . . and "How to help Uvalde." (The town in Texas that suffered a tragic elementary school shooting in May.)
4. The top "how to pronounce" searches were: "How to pronounce Qatar" . . . "How to pronounce Kyiv" . . . "How to pronounce puzzle" . . . "How to pronounce Omicron" . . . and "How to pronounce 'Encanto'."
5. The top "near me" searches were: "Gas prices near me" . . . "At-home Covid testing near me" . . . "Voting near me" . . . "Early voting near me" . . . and "PCR test near me."
6. The most-searched games were: Wordle . . . Quordle . . . Elden Ring . . . Heardle . . . and Worldle. ("WORLDLE" is probably the frequent misspelling of Wordle . . . I do it too . . . but there is a geography game called Worldle.)
7. The top recipes we searched for were: Sugo . . . Cincinnati Chili . . . Marry Me Chicken . . . Quick Pancake . . . and Mango Pie.
(Sugo is an Italian red sauce . . . Marry Me Chicken is a viral one-pot dish involving chicken, cream, and parmesan . . . and "Quick Pancake" is like a regular pancake. But quicker.)
8. The top SHORTAGES we searched for were: Diesel shortage . . . baby formula shortage . . . tampon shortage . . . Adderall shortage . . . and Sriracha shortage.
9. The top "Who Is?" we searched for were: "Who is Andrew Tate?" . . . "Who is winning the election?" . . . "Who is the king of England?" . . . "Who is 'the watcher'?" . . . and "Who is Alex Jones?" ("The Watcher" is a Netflix show.)
10. The Top Five searches overall this year were: Wordle . . . election results . . . Betty White, who passed on December 31st of last year . . . Queen Elizabeth, who passed in September . . . and Bob Saget, who passed in January.
https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2022/US/
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They SAY everyone loves getting a compliment . . . but do we REALLY love super generic, low-effort compliments like, "You look nice today" or "I like your shoes"?
Here are the three steps you should follow to give someone a compliment they'll actually appreciate . . .
1. Use their name. This seems basic . . . but when you use someone's name in a compliment, it sends a signal you're tailoring the compliment to them and not just blurting something out.
2. Make your compliment specific. Like, instead of saying, "You look nice today" . . . say, "That color is great on you, you should wear it more often."
3. Don't "praise and run." When you give a compliment, stick around and ask a follow-up question . . . then listen to the answer. That shows the person you're sincere in what you said and might even want to learn from them.
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A celebrity news site called CelebTattler calculated the most Googled artists of 2022. Using Google search data, they calculated how often these artists were being searched per month.
Of course, it's no surprise Taylor Swift came in at #1.
Here are the Top 10:
1. Taylor Swift: 2.1 million
2. Harry Styles: 2.099 million
3. Kanye West: 2.05 million
4. Travis Scott: 1.96 million
5. Rihanna: 1.8 million
6. Billie Eilish: 1.77 million
7. Ariana Grande: 1.7 million
8. Selena Gomez: 1.5 million
9. Justin Bieber: 1.49 million
10. Dua Lipa: 1.44 million
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - A court case in 1985 decided Long Island, New York is not actually an island. That's because the East River, which separates it from the mainland, was naturally too shallow for ships to make it through safely.
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