Alex’s Antics

August 16th is the 228th day of the year. There are 137 days remaining until the end of the year

There are 18 days left until Labor Day

There are 98 days until Thanksgiving

Today is  National Bratwurst Day, National Roller Coaster Day, National Rum Day and National Tell a Joke Day

The Texas State Fair is offering several new food items this year including a fried bacon-wrapped Twinkie. The Twinkie is topped with ice cream, powdered sugar and funnel cake pieces.

Dunkin Donuts will begin selling their pumpkin donut on Wednesday, August 27th. Some stores will get the glazed pumpkin cake donut sooner.

Cinnabon is selling a new ice cream sandwich where both buns are made of churros

Doctors in the U.K. recently removed a small cyst from above a woman’s eye.  And inside the cyst, they found an old contact lens she lost 28 YEARS ago.

A new study out of England looked at whether it’d be possible to watch EVERYTHING that comes out on Netflix. Last year, Netflix released 3,274 hours of new content.  So if you watched for nine hours a day, every day, you could bang all of that out in a year.  That’s doable. Or, if you just wanted to watch “Clockwork Orange” style with your eyes held open and no breaks, you’d have to watch for 136-and-a-half straight days, or about four-and-a-half months. This year they’re planning to spend about 33% more on originals than they did in 2017, so it might take you a little longer to watch everything.

Meghan Markle’s chatty father, Thomas, is reportedly developing his own clothing line.

Lindsay Lohan is earning $40,000 per episode for her new reality show

Simon Cowell is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday, August 22nd

Campbell Soup is honoring the Philadelphia Eagles’ Super Bowl win by releasing limited edition Chunky Soup cans that highlight their victory over the Patriots.

MOVIE NEWS- Steven Spielberg’s 1991 movie Hook is getting a 4K Blu-ray release which will include 11 never-before-seen deleted scenes. The movie stars Robin Williams as a grown-up Peter Pan, Dustin Hoffman as the infamous Captain Hook, and Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell.The Hook 4K Blu-ray will be available for purchase starting October 9, 2018.

New Movies Opening Tonight

Mile 22 (Rated R) … STARRING: Mark Wahlberg, Lauren Cohan, Ronda Rousey, John Malkovich … CIA operative James Silva (Mark Wahlberg) must transport a valuable intelligence asset through 22 miles of dangerous territory.

The Heaven’s Gate lookout in Idaho has views of four different states:  Idaho, obviously . . . plus Oregon, Washington, and Montana.

The Mexican flag has more colors than any other flag in the world . . . it’s got at least 16, thanks to the coat of arms in the center.

The color “orange” was named after the fruit, not the other way around.

Georgia was the first state to lower the voting age from 21 to 18 . . . they did it in 1943.  The Constitutional amendment lowering the age nationwide wasn’t passed until 1971.

The tallest structure in the Western Hemisphere is a TV transmission tower in Blanchard, North Dakota.  It’s 2,063 feet tall.  (The tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere is the CN Tower in Toronto at 1,815 feet. The WAXX tower in Fairchild is the tallest structure east of the Mississippi)

President Trump doesn’t have a pet.  Every single president before him had a pet in the White House except for Andrew Johnson . . . but he DID feed some white mice he found in the bedroom, so maybe that counts?

August 14th is the 226th day of the year. There are 139 days remaining until the end of the year

There are days until Labor Day

There are only two weeks until Starbucks starts selling Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Today is National Creamsicle Day, National Financial Awareness Day and National Wiffle Ball Day

McDonald’s is testing a new French Toast McGriddle at locations in Minnesota that uses French toast instead of mini-pancake buns.  And if it’s popular, they’ll start selling it nationwide.

Oreo cookies celebrated International Left-Handers Day yesterday by releasing left-handed Oreo cookies. A package costs $3 and can be purchased from Oreo’s website. The cookies are supposedly easier to dunk in milk because their tops come off in a counterclockwise motion

Researchers at the University of Maine have created a set of chopsticks that deliver an electric jolt to your tongue.  And they say it can make food taste salty and delicious, even if there’s no salt in it.

A new MIT computer model claims the world is going to end in 2040 because of rising population and pollution levels.

A new study found the blue light from our phones might be affecting the cells in our eyes, and could cause vision problems or even blindness.

Can you learn a foreign language just by listening to a tape in your sleep?  According to a new study, probably not.  Even though your brain can distinguish different sounds while you’re asleep, it can’t really make sense of them

Next time your boss sends you an email at 10 PM, ignore it. Science is on your side. Researchers (Lehigh University, Virginia Tech, Colorado State) have found that checking work emails after hours not only increases employee anxiety and health problems, but it also wreaks havoc on their personal relationships and home lives. The findings calls organizational expectations to be on the clock 24/7 “an insidious stressor”.

A new survey asked 1,000 people what the toughest jobs are.  It was done in Australia, but they’re all common jobs here too.  And somehow POLITICIAN made the list.  (???) Obviously there’s a lot of pressure in politics, and roughly half of everyone will hate you no matter what.  But do they really work harder than YOU do?  Anyway, here are the ten toughest jobs according to the survey . . .

1. Police officer or paramedic.
2. Soldier.
3. Doctor or nurse.
4. Social worker or psychologist.
5. Teacher or childcare worker.
6. Farmer.
7. Parent.  (It’s nice that Australians actually ADMIT it’s a job.)
8. Mining jobs.
9. Trade jobs, like plumber or construction worker.
10. Pilot.  CEO just missed the top ten at number 11, followed by politician in 12th place.

Donald Trump’s alleged mistress, Stormy Daniels, is going to compete on the UK version of Celebrity Big Brother. Kirstie Alley and the ‘Human Ken Doll” Rodrigo Alves will also compete.

”Weird” Al Yankovic is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on August 27th.

Beyonce and Jay-Z were performing in Detroit last night where they dedicated their show to Aretha Franklin, who is ill. Beyonce told fans; “This show is dedicated to Aretha Franklin. We love you and thank you.” CNN claims Aretha is receiving hospice care at her home

NEW ON DVD –
• Avengers: Infinity War

The biggest American city is Sitka, Alaska . . . it’s 2,870 square miles, which makes it twice the size of Rhode Island.  But it only has around 9,000 residents.

Only 6.7% of the people in the world have a college degree.

The official name of Mexico is “The United Mexican States.”  

August 13th is the 225th day of the year. There are 140 days remaining until the end of the year

There are 21 days until Labor Day

There are only 3 Football-less weekends until Packers Regular Season Starts!

Today is International Left-Handers Day, National Filet Mignon Day, National Prosecco Day and Victory Day

The U.S. Pizza Museum opened in Chicago on Friday. It features menus, pizza boxes, pizza toys and pizza artwork.

Sour Patch Kids just announced they’re getting into the candy corn game this year . . . they’ll be selling, quote, “sour dusted candy corn.”  So, yeah, basically it looks like they made candy corn and added their sour powder stuff to it.

Gumshoe shoes is selling sneakers made out of recycled chewing gum. The gum is taken from the streets of Amsterdam before going through a rigorous process which allows it to be turned into shoe soles. The shoes cost $228 a piece.

The Cerne Abbas Brewery has created a new beer to boost your libido. Watercress Warrior Beer has vitamins A, B, C and E along with watercress seeds and spring water. The beer has an alcohol by volume of 4.5%. The company says; “Watercress is a fabulous health food packed full of vitamins and nutrients that help boost fertility. The ale itself is delicious, it’s very fruity with a peppery kick.”

Stedji Brewery in Iceland has a beer called Havalur that’s made with a giant WHALE TESTICLE.  Now . . . that alone would be disgusting enough.  But before they brew the whale testicles, they smoke them in SHEEP DUNG. According to one review, the beer tastes, quote, “like a porter with hints of caramel and a smoky, almost meaty aftertaste.”

Another myth shattered — it turns out that men DON’T think about sex every seven seconds. It’s more like once every 28 minutes. Still, that’s twice as much as women who think about it once every 51 minutes.

The dating site Plenty Of Fish analyzed nine million profiles to figure out what genres of music were the most attractive.  And here’s what they found . . .

– For men, the answer is easily COUNTRY.  Men who put country music as one of their interests got 32% more messages and were 65% more likely to find a match.

– For women, the best genre is CLASSIC ROCK.  They were 68% more likely to get a match.  But be careful about getting TOO HARD with that rock . . . women who liked metal only saw a 9% bump.

The study also found women who like classical music and men who like rap are the most likely to be seeking a long-term relationship.

If you thought August was going to be a relief after this insanely hot summer, think again.  It’s bringing in a whole new summer enemy:  DRUNK, ANGRY WASPS. This is the time of year when wasps go out looking for sweet fluids to drink . . . and they usually find some rotting, fermented fruit in garbage cans. Since they’re tiny, even a sip of that is enough to get them HAMMERED.  And then they fly off, all drunk and angry and looking for people to sting. On the bright side, this phase should only last for a few more weeks . . . but until then, if you see any wasps, just know they might be drunk and could have bad intentions.

A theme park in France is now using specially trained crows to pick up litter.

Well this is just plain mean.  People are pranking complete strangers at the airport, by putting stickers on the walls that look like power outlets.

Could the Air Force help put out forest fires by dropping BOMBS on the flames?  The answer is . . . maybe. Earlier this summer the Swedish Air Force tried it. The idea here is to snuff out fires the way you’d blow out birthday candles at the base. In Sweden, the shockwave from a single bomb snuffed out flames within a 100-yard radius of the impact point.

Davidson College and professor Melissa Gonzalez are offering a literature class where students will be able to pick their own grade. ‘Contract Grading’ allows students to pick their grade ahead of time. They then receive the workload needed to earn that grade. Critics say Contract Grading coddles students while supporters say it gives students control of their education.

Reports claim Aretha Franklin is allegedly gravely ill

Fox is developing a sequel to The Simpsons Movie and a live-action / animation Family Guy film.

Ruby Rose quit Twitter after people trashed her casting as Batwoman. Her final tweet read; “When women and minorities join forces we are unstoppable. If you need me, I’ll be on my Bat Phone.”

Prada is selling $1,200 bowling shirts that feature flames mixed in with other designs. Jeff Goldblum has been seen wearing the shirts

The Bear Grylls Adventure Park in London is going to allow guests to swim with live black tip reef sharks. The sharks are known to be timid, but will bite legs and ankles

The shark thriller The Meg opened well above expectations with $44.5 million in ticket sales. After two weeks at no. 1, Mission: Impossible – Fallout slid to second place with $20 million.

Here are this past weekend’s box office results.

1. The Meg — $44.5 million (…earned $96.8 million internationally cost$150 million to produce.)
2. Mission: Impossible — Fallout — $20 million
3. Christopher Robin — $12.4 million

The reason humans are the only animals with a CHIN is . . . cooking.  We figured out how to cook food to make it soft, so we evolved away from big teeth and strong jaws . . . and developed chins.

The TSA makes almost $1 million a year just from the loose change people leave behind at security.

A cup of maple syrup has more calcium than a cup of milk . . . although it would be awfully hard to drink a cup of syrup.

August 10th is the 222nd day of the year. There are 143 days remaining until the end of the year

There are 24 days until Labor Day

There are 4 weekends without Regular Season Football

Today is National Duran Duran Appreciation Day, National Kool-Aid Day, National Lazy Day, National S’mores Day, National Spoil Your Dog Day and World Lion Day

Starbucks is going to sell Pumpkin Spice Cookie Straws next week. The toasted white chocolate wafers have pumpkin spice sprinkled on them and will be available in Starbucks shops and select grocery stores

Captain Morgan is coming out with a pumpkin spiced rum in a bottle that looks like a pumpkin. Jack O Blast Pumpkin Spiced Rum is being brought back for a limited time and has an alcohol by volume of 30%

Remember Hubba Bubba gum?  A company in England just turned it into GIN.  Their “Bubba Hubba Bubblegum Gin” is pink, it tastes like gum, and apparently, it’s not terrible.  Unfortunately for now, they’re only shipping it in the U.K.

Update:  The case of the mysterious odor at a Dairy Queen in Calgary has been solved.  They offered a year’s worth of free Blizzards to anyone who could find the source.  Turns out it was a gas leak in the ceiling, and the gas company found it.  So it’s not clear if anyone’s getting free Blizzards or not now.

No one can explain why empty jars of Vaseline keep showing up on 68th Street in northeast Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It’s been going on for at least five years.

Believe it or not, a new study found it’s BAD for your career if you work too hard.  The researchers found that when people were too intense at their job and put in extra long hours, they wound up more stressed and more fatigued . . . and their work suffered as a result.

What’s the most enjoyable decade in a person’s life?  According to a new survey, the most popular answer is ages 21 to 30 . . . 31 to 40 came in second . . . and 11 to 20 came in third.

A new survey by Smart About Money reveals that couples, who combine their incomes, have a 42% rate of financial infidelity. Most common types of financial infidelity … secret bank account followed by secret purchase and a secret credit card

The number of times men shave in a month has gone from 3.7 times to 3.2 times over the last decade . . . and it’s KILLING the razor industry.  In just the past year, razor sales have dropped 5% . . . and they think their best hope is just waiting until beards aren’t trendy anymore.

Ashley Horner flew to Haiti Thursday morning to embark on a feat no other woman has accomplished. The Virginia woman plans to complete 50 Ironman races in 50 days. That’s a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile marathon — one a a day for 50 straight days. The 40-year-old mother of three boys (ages 11, 9 and 4 months) is attempting the feat to raise at least $100,000 for an orphanage in Haiti (Maison Fortuné Orphanage).

Miami Dolphins receivers Kenny Stills and Albert Wilson knelt during the playing of the National Anthem last night before their game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Julia Louis-Dreyfus returned to the set of ”Veep” yesterday after beating breast cancer.

4.7 million people watched the CMA Fest on ABC on Wednesday night. That’s down from 5.7 million viewers last year

Melania Trump’s parents, Viktor and Amalija Knavs, were sworn in as U.S. citizens yesterday. They came from Slovenia and had been living in the U.S. on green cards

The giant shark movie The Meg is expected to open with $20 million to $25 in ticket sales and push Mission: Impossible – Fallout to second place.
… Opening this weekend: The Meg (PG-13); Dog Days (PG); Slender Man (R); BlacKkKlansman (R, limited); Blindspotting (R, opening wider)

The shortest international commercial flight is between the two Caribbean islands St. Martin and Anguilla.  It’s just under 12 miles and lasts 10 minutes.

During America Online’s peak in the ’90s, half of the CDs being produced in the world were their “Free Trial” discs.

The animal with the longest lifespan is a species of clam called the ocean quahog.  (Some people say it kwa-hog, other say co-hog).  They live to around 400 years old. The second-longest lifespan is the bowhead whale . . . they live to about 211. The clam is about five inches long, and the whale is about 65 feet.

August 9th is the 221st day of the year. There are 144 days remaining until the end of the year

There are 25 days until Labor Day

There is just ONE MONTH until regular season Packers Football begins

Today is Book Lovers Day, National Hand Holding Day, National Polka Day and National Rice Pudding Day

Oreo has announced the winner of their “My Oreo Creation Contest.” Eden F., of Winnetka, California, will receive a $500,000 grand prize for her “Cherry Cola Oreo” creation.

A vendor at the Iowa State Fair is serving cookie dough spaghetti. The cookie dough looks like spaghetti and is topped with various fruit drizzles, hazelnut sauce and white chocolate sauce. Some people also top their cookie dough spaghetti with whipped cream

The Arizona Cardinals just announced a new promotion this year called the Gridiron Burger Challenge. It’s a GIANT $75 BURGER on a 10-inch bun stuffed with five third-pound patties . . . five hot dogs . . . five bratwursts . . . 20 slices of American cheese . . . eight slices of bacon . . . eight chicken tenders . . . 12 ounces of fries . . . and lettuce, tomatoes, and sauce. It weighs a total of seven pounds.  But if you can finish it in under an hour, you’ll win a Cardinals jersey AND get your picture on the Jumbotron. Someone on Reddit calculated that the burger has approximately 8,000 calories.  So if you beat the challenge, make sure to order your free jersey one size bigger than when you started.

Dollar Tree Playskool crayons recently tested positive for asbestosis. Government agencies are calling for the crayon’s manufacturer to make them safe and chemical-free. Asbestos can lead to lung cancer and other diseases

The Academy Awards are adding a new award for ‘Achievement in Popular Film.’ This will allow them to honor popular movies like Star Wars and Black Panther.

Guinness World Records has named a 108-year-old man and his 100-year-old wife as the world’s oldest living couple. They’ve been married 80 years.

A Dairy Queen in Canada is offering free ice cream for a year to anyone who can solve the mystery of the horrible gas smell inside the store.  They know there’s no gas leak because they’ve had the place tested multiple times.  And yet they can’t get rid of the smell.

People are using their vacation days again.  According to a new study, Americans used an average of 17.2 vacation days last year.  That’s the most since 2010.

A new study found more evidence that eating unhealthy food after a big night of drinking is expanding our waistline.  And the researchers coined a “new” term.  Instead of “drunk munchies,” they’re calling it “drunchies.”

Margot Kidder’s death has been ruled a suicide. She died of a drug and alcohol overdose at her home in Montana

Denise Richards tells People magazine that she is joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. “I am looking forward to spending time with all the ladies… and hopefully meeting Boy George!!”

Richard Gere’s 35 year-old wife Alejandra is allegedly pregnant. The couple got married in a civil ceremony in April in Spain. He is 69

A new study by the University of Michigan reveals that 25% of online daters seek out partners, who are 25% better looking than themselves. 21% of these people never get a reply from those they are courting

Maude Mack, of Houston, Texas, recently had 80,000 bees removed from the inside of her walls. The 76 year-old has had a bee problem for 40 years. A honey bee protection agency removed the pests. The honey from inside Mack’s walls is going to be sold at local stores

The Daytona Beach, Florida, police department is looking for the owner of a lost ATM. The machine was found on some railroad tracks. It was found empty and police have no idea where it came from.

New Movies Opening Tonight

The Meg (Rated PG-13) … STARRING: Jason Statham … A prehistoric shark, called Megalodon, rises from the depths of the ocean before attacking a research submarine. The movie was shot in New Zealand and cost $150 million to produce.