Thursday 6/16/22
Celebrate:
Fresh Veggies Day
National Career Nursing Assistants' Day
National Dump the Pump Day
National Fudge Day
National Vinegar Day
No Orange Clothes Day
Recess at Work Day
Wish Fulfillment Day
World Sea Turtle Day
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Everyone shows up late to parties. The only question is . . . what's the right amount of late?
There is actually an answer. It's called the "38-Minute Rule."
A political reporter in D.C. named Sam Brodey came up with it. He tries to show up exactly 38 minutes late to parties because that's the sweet spot.
It usually means you won't be the first one there . . . but won't come in awkwardly after things are really rolling. At a dinner party, you won't be too late to pick the seat you want. Basically, it just works.
If you want to fine-tune your lateness even more than that, a mathematician named Daniel Biss just worked with "The Atlantic" to come up with an actual formula to determine the exact time you should show up to a party.
And you can try it out on "The Atlantic" website.
It takes seven factors into account to figure out your perfect arrival time, including how punctual your friends normally are . . . how awkward it would be to be too early or too late . . . and how excited you are about the party.
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In a new poll on seasons, people were asked for the BEST season to be outside, and summer was #1 with 38% of the vote. That seems obvious to some people . . . but it isn't all sunshine and gentle breezes.
People were also asked for the WORST season to be outside, and summer was the #1 answer there too, this time with 35% of the vote.
That's mostly because of allergies . . . in the same poll, 44% of people say they experience seasonal allergies, and 76% of them rate those allergies as "severe."
Unfortunately, the survey didn't publish a full ranking of seasons . . . but they did note that spring came in second as the best season to be outside . . . and it came in LAST as the WORST.
It's probably safe to say that winter was the worst season to be outside. Yeah, there's snowmen and ice-skating . . . 1% of the time. But the other 99% is wind-chill, black ice, wet slush, and dry skin.
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For grilling season, Miller Lite came up with a beer-infused CHARCOAL that they're calling "Beercoal." They also added a silly slogan: "Turn Miller Time into Griller Time."
They announced it last-minute and started selling them on their website yesterday for $12 a bag. They immediately sold out, but posted a note that said it'll be "back soon."
It's not clear if they'll sell it in stores or not. But within minutes, someone was already trying to sell a bag on eBay for $250. (Miller's press release said it could be "purchased nationwide," but maybe that just meant online?)
Each briquette is infused with concentrated Miller Lite. So it's supposed to give whatever you grill a slight beer taste. They say the food cooked over it is "safe for all ages" though. So the charcoal itself won't get you drunk.
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Talk about a bad romance. Lady Gaga is in talks to star opposite Joaquin Phoenix in the sequel to Joker, according to The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline. She'd reportedly be playing Harley Quinn, the Joker's love interest whom he falls in love with after she serves as his psychiatrist.
Margot Robbie is currently playing Harley in the DC films, most recently The Suicide Squad, but this would be a separate version in a different universe. Director Todd Phillips announced last week this sequel was moving forward with the working title Joker: Folie à deux. But the Reporter also reveals a jaw-dropping new detail: even though the original Joker was a dark character study, the sequel is apparently ... a musical. Perhaps if the first movie was pretty much Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, this one will pretty much be Scorsese's New York, New York. Tell me something girl: are you happy we live in a society?
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The takeaway from Squid Game was that having people compete for cash in a deadly competition is actually totally cool and good, right? Netflix clearly thought so. The streamer has announced plans to turn the hit Korean series into an actual reality competition show.
Squid Game: The Challenge will see 456 players compete in a series of games for a $4.56 million prize, similar to the plot of the show — except, you know, for the part where a bunch of people die. Netflix proudly boasted Squid Game: The Challenge will feature the "largest cast and lump sum cash prize in reality TV history," and casting is underway. Of course, critics would argue a giant streaming company profiting off a show where people desperate for cash are pitted against each other betrays the entire point of Squid Game, but ... well, there's no but. Maybe Netflix should have actually watched the show before giving this idea the green light.
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Joel Whitburn, one of the pre-eminent chart historians of the last 50-plus years, has died. The news was first shared on Facebook by Whitburn’s protégé, longtime friend and Record Research co-worker Paul Haney, who wrote that the legendary industry figure “passed away peacefully overnight” on Tuesday (June 14). “He had been having some serious health issues recently, but his passing still comes as a shock,” Haney continued. Whitburn was 82.
Whitburn became one of the leading authors of reference books on the Billboard charts, releasing over 100 total entries of series like Top Pop Singles, Top 40 Hits, Top 40 Albums and Top 40 Country Hits. Particularly in the time before the internet made archival chart information widely available, his books proved invaluable in providing the whole industry with reliable chart stats and records, becoming fixtures on the bookshelves for DJs, execs, writers and artists alike.
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Today's Useless Fact of the Day - During AOL's peak in the '90s, half of the CDs being produced in the world were their "Free Trial" discs.
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