TODAY IS THURSDAY - MAY 21, 2009

THE MORNING SHOW
with
JIM & KAREN
on
SPIRIT FM

TODAY IS:

Armed Forces Day - President Harry S. Truman led the effort to establish a single holiday for citizens to come together and thank our military members for their patriotic service in support of our country. On August 31, 1949, Secretary of Defense Louis Johnson announced the creation of an Armed Forces Day to replace separate Army, Navy, Marine Corps and Air Force Days. The single-day celebration stemmed from the unification of the Armed Forces under one department — the Department of Defense.

American Red Cross established in 1881
Clara Barton organized the American Red Cross on this day in 1881. And since that day, Americans have not had to suffer through a single major disaster without coffee and doughnuts.

National Waitstaff Day
1918: The House of Representatives passes an amendment granting women the right to vote.

1927: Charles Lindbergh became the first person to fly across the Atlantic (from New York to Paris) in his monoplane, The Spirit of St. Louis.

1932: Amelia Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean (from Newfoundland to Ireland).

Sister Maria Hummel was born in Bavaria on this day in 1909. She taught art in kindergarten and drew the delightful pictures that inspired the famous Hummel figurines. She had nothing, and her life is commemorated in expensive art work. We have everything, and our lives are commemorated in huge credit card bills.
English poet Alexander Pope was born on this day in 1688. He was a real wiseacre, wrote things like: "A little learning is a dangerous thing." "To err is human, to forgive divine." "Never put off until tomorrow what you can forget altogether." Things like that.

On this day in 1985 Bobby Ewing died again on the TV show "Dallas." He had already died once before, but came back to life taking a shower. If I’d been dead for awhile, I think I’d want to take a shower, too.


THIS IS LIFE:

Avon Is Calling - As the economy gets ugly, droves of out-of-work Australians, male and female, are finding a career in beauty really pays. Avon, the largest direct selling beauty company in the world, has recruited more than 7,000 door-to-door saleswomen — and men — in February alone, as the global financial crisis deepens and Australia’s economy and jobless rate take a turn for the worse. The company, which has tens of thousands of representatives in Australia, said in addition to the usual stay-at-home mums looking for extra income, new recruits include female executives and financial professionals, as well as a few more men.

Benefits of having an Avon GUY selling to you:

1. all his beauty products are carried in his tool belt for easy access
2. doesn’t have to ask a man to open the jar of facial cream
3. suggests using a paint sprayer as an easier way to apply foundation
4. can apply sports analogies to beauty products at a moment’s notice when necessary



IN THE NEWS:


B of A Stock Sales
Bank of America has sold $13.5 billion worth of stock in the last few weeks, clearly proving that adult illiteracy is a growing problem worldwide.


Mortgage Monitor
The Obama administration is proposing one single government monitor for the mortgage industry. The way the U.S. banks are run, the only acceptable candidate is McGruff the crime dog.


The White House had a private screening of "Star Trek." You don't have to worry about someone talking though the movie at private screenings. That's why they didn’t invite Joe Biden.


Scientists say they have found the missing link. The link between man and monkey. It's a little monkey. It lived on mostly twigs and berries — which makes it the direct ancestor of today's supermodel. Twig and berries and that’s it…that is definitely not where I came from. Scientists have determined that the monkey fossil is 47 million years old. It was verified today by Larry King who was married to the monkey.


NEW YORK — After a plunge in gas prices, Americans are expected to hit the highways in larger numbers this Memorial Day, giving the traditional start of the driving season a boost for the first time since 2005, AAA said Tuesday. An estimated 32.4 million people - roughly 11 percent of the U.S. population - will take some kind of trip over the holiday, most of them on the road. That’s an increase of 1.5 percent from last year’s dismal travel season, when pump prices rose above $4 a gallon and millions of people stayed put. On Tuesday, retail gas prices averaged $2.25 a gallon, about $1.47 a gallon cheaper than a year ago. Visit www.momsminivan.com for a bunch of ideas for car games for young and old. Nowadays kids just bring their PSP’s or watch a DVD. Maybe you can buy a DVD or PSP game that has to do with kids playing car games! The main game we would play was “Don’t Touch Me.” It always transitioned to the classic, “Mom, He Touched Me” Game and the ever popular “Mom, He Hit Me” game.



Which state has the biggest geography whiz? The answer is Texas, as 13-year-old Eric Yang proved Wednesday when he won the National Geographic Bee in Washington. The teen will take a $25,000 college scholarship home to The Colony, a community north of Dallas. Let’s see if you can answer the third question that was asked in the tiebreaker round: Timis County shares its name with a tributary of the Danube and is located in the western part of which European country? Eric gave the correct answer — Romania. His opponent, 14-year-old Arjun Kandaswamy, of Beaverton, Ore., wrote down “Hungary.” I would have said New York. When in doubt ALWAYS say “New York.”



Hilarious idea! - Strict parents have the perfect way of making sure their kids do their homework - a ball and chain has been created that counts down a reasonable study time before unlocking. Parents just put in a desired study time on the “Study Ball” and attach the more than 20 pound ball to their kids’ ankle. A red digital display counts down the time and the chain unlocks and beeps when time is up. The ball can’t be locked on for more than four hours and there is a safety key that lets parents open the chain at anytime. The ball’s designer says he came up with the idea after a friend compared studying to jail.
The item is for sale online for about $90.



Amazing, beautiful story - (CNN) — For years, Candace Eloph searched for her half-brother, who was given up for adoption in 1977. She found him — living across the street. “I never thought it would happen like this. Never. Ever,” Eloph of Shreveport said. Three decades ago, Eloph’s mother gave birth to a boy at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. She was 16 and gave him up for adoption. “They took him from me,” said Eloph’s mother, Joellen Cottrell. “I only got to hold him for a split second.” Cottrell searched for her son over the years, without success. She eventually left Louisiana and had other children. But she did not keep her son a secret. “My girls always knew they had a brother,” she told KTBS. “I always told them. They knew it from the very beginning. And I’ve always looked for him.” Fast forward three decades.

Eloph moved into a house in Shreveport

Across the street lived a 32-year-old man named Jamie Wheat.

“We were sitting one day, talking, and she said, ‘You know what? I had a
brother born January 27, 1977, that was adopted,’” Wheat said. “I was like,
I’m adopted.
”
Surprised, Eloph mentioned that her mother was 16 at the time. His mother
was 16, too, Wheat replied.

All the details fit, and Cottrell and Wheat decided to take a DNA test.

The results: There’s a 99.995 percent probability that the two are related.
Wheat’s adoptive parents are excited about this new stage in their son’s
life.

“It just almost knocked me out for the joy,” Wheat’s adoptive mother, Ann,
told KTBS.

Added his adoptive father, Ted Wheat: “It was just surprising that they lived across the street from us for two-and-a-half years. When they told us, we said, ‘This is the greatest news it could be.’” Reunited with his birth mother, Jamie Wheat plans to make up for lost time. ”I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me,” he said. “I can move forward. Like a new beginning.”




JERUSALEM - Archaeologists digging on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives have discovered a nearly 3,000-year-old jar handle bearing ancient Hebrew script, a find significantly older than most inscribed artifacts unearthed in the
ancient city, an archaeologist said. The Iron Age handle is inscribed with the Hebrew name Menachem, which was the name of an Israelite king and is still common among Jews. The inscription also includes a partly intact letter, the Hebrew character “lamed,” meaning “to.” That suggests the jar was a gift to someone named Menachem, said Ron Beeri, who directed the excavation for the Israel Antiquities Authority.



Ducks Like Water - Oxford University defends three-year research into the animals’ behaviour. Two scientists from the University of Oxford gave a lucky group of farm ducks access to a pond, a water trough and a shower. They discovered that the ducks spent an awful lot of time under the shower, sometimes just standing there, others drinking from it.

Perhaps inevitably, the revelation that ducks seem to enjoy water washing over them has not impressed everyone. Susie Squire of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, called the research a ” waste of money”. The cost? Over $400,000! Marian Stamp Dawkins, professor of animal behaviour at Oxford, said many would have expected the ducks to spend most of their time swimming in the pond. In fact, they seemed to prefer the shower to the pond, suggesting they were not very bothered about swimming. She said it was unfair to portray the study as finding out simply that ducks liked water. It had been carried out to find the best way of providing water to farmed ducks because ponds quickly became dirty, unhygienic and took up a lot of water, making them environmentally questionable. Next they’ll study if fish like water and if the Pope goes to church.



I Love Irony - How much packaging does it take to promote energy conservation? Lots, evidently, if you’re Toronto’s Better Buildings Partnership. The partnership, which provides incentives for energy conservation in new and existing large buildings, issued a one-page press release yesterday. But it wasn’t the release that was eye-catching.

It arrived in a large brown paper envelope, padded with plastic bubble wrap.
Inside the envelope was a cardboard box.

Inside the box, stuffed with tissue paper, was a green Lego toy, representing a building, with the Better Buildings Partnership logo on it.

Also in the box was a color picture of the Lego toy; a piece of paper with the Better Buildings Partnership logo; and a one-page release about the Better Buildings Partnership. One project manager said, “I’ll have to go back to the team and talk about how the packaging was put together,” she said. “That’s a valid point, and I’ll definitely talk to them about that.”



Where’s The Best Pizza in the U.S.? - GQ Magazine food writer Alan Richman singles out Mortadella Pie from Great Lake pizzeria at 1477 West Balmoral Avenue as having the best he’s tasted after traveling 20,000 miles searching for the perfect pie.

Richman writes that the pizza “represents everything irresistible about the new American style of pizza-making.” Second on the list was the Plain Pie from Lucali pizzeria in Brooklyn, and third place was awarded to the Panna Pie at Pizzeria Delfina in San Francisco. Best pizza I had was in Wichita, KS. They baked it over an open flame and you could add anything to it! Mine was an oyster and spinach pizza with Alfredo sauce. It was awesome. They’re out of business now. What’s the hot spot in your town and why?



Four in ten adults recall their school bus driver’s name - fun little tidbit from First Student, Inc., the nation’s biggest provider of school bus transportation.

They had a research firm survey 1,000 people to ask them what they remembered about their experiences riding a school bus. Forty-two percent of women and 35 percent of men who rode a bus to school said they remembered the name of their school bus drivers. I remember my 7th grade bus driver - Jenny Bean. Short, stocky lady who fell in love with another bus driver for our school. All the kids found out about the budding love affair and always hooted and hollared and Jenny and her bus driving boyfriend when they would meet in front of the school.