News of the Week: 86 Candies, 50 Years of ‘On the Road,’ and Norman Lloyd at 103
No Zagnut?
It’s four days after Halloween and you probably have some candy left over. I bought Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups and Almond Joys this year, even though trick-or-treaters haven’t come to my place since the late ’90s.
The former just happens to be the No. 1 Halloween candy, according to this list compiled by the website FiveThirtyEight, known for their election polls and political analysis. No. 2 was the miniature version of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup, which seems like a rather unfair advantage for Reese’s. Twix, Kit Kat, and Snickers round out the top five. Junior Mints are at No. 25, Baby Ruth is at No. 27, and a quarter (thrown into the mix just to see if money is more important than candy) beat out Twizzlers and Werther’s Originals. Coming in dead last? Good & Plenty. Kids today just don’t appreciate pill-shaped licorice candy from the 1890s.
Maybe Twix would have won if it had visited Wisconsin and Michigan.
On the Road
No, not the Jack Kerouac novel — the CBS News segment started by Charles Kuralt in 1967. Steve Hartman does it now, and he did this 50th-anniversary tribute to Kuralt and the big van he used to travel around the country.
The Dickinson Pumpkin
Every now and then, a big food controversy arises. We’ve seen the yams vs. sweet potato debate, the Great Green Pea Scandal of 2015, and this year we have CheeseburgerGate. Now comes another one, just in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
It seems that the cans of “100% pumpkin” you see on supermarket shelves may, in fact, include meat from something called a Dickinson pumpkin, which is really a type of squash. That’s right, all these years you’ve probably been making your pumpkin pie with squash. But wait! It might not be as much of a scandal as people think, because the FDA says that it’s actually okay if cans of pumpkin are sometimes made with squash or a mixture of pumpkin and squash.
Which is a relief, because “squash pie” just doesn’t sound as appetizing.
Katie Who?
Everybody knows the lyrics to the baseball song “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” often sung during the seventh-inning stretch, right? But you probably don’t know all the lyrics.
The song, written by Jack Norworth in 1908, was actually about a young woman named Katie who wants to go to a baseball game, even though it was mostly men who went to games back then. There’s actually an opening line from the song that nobody ever sings and most people don’t even know about, but CBS News has all the details.
The next time you go to a ball game you can sing the line and confuse your friends and all the strangers around you. Hey, did you say Katie? Who’s Katie?
Happy 103rd Birthday, Norman Lloyd!
Norman Lloyd is an actor and director you may know from St. Elsewhere (he played Dr. Auschlander) and as the bad guy who falls from the Statue of Liberty in Alfred Hitchcock’s terrific 1942 thriller Saboteur. He’s also a big baseball fan. When he was 11 he saw Babe Ruth play in the 1926 World Series and, amazingly, he also went to this year’s World Series to see the Dodgers play the Astros!
He’s there! Norman Lloyd, who attended World Series Game 1 in 1926, is at Game 2 in 2017! https://t.co/SHbcaKkBHV pic.twitter.com/3kBbUUUBEi
— Keith Olbermann (@KeithOlbermann) October 26, 2017
He turns 103 next Wednesday, and his new TV series, Fly, premieres next year.
Dead Celebrities Make More Money Than You Do
You could probably have guessed that Michael Jackson made a lot of money this past year ($75 million), but I bet you can’t guess who No. 2 on the list is. Come on, guess. Forbes has the 2017 list of the celebrities no longer with us who still make a lot of money, and No. 2 genuinely surprised me.
No, it’s not Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, nor is it Elvis Presley. They come in at No. 3 and 4, respectively. Musician Bob Marley is No. 5, and Tom Petty, who just passed away a few weeks ago, is No. 6.
Seriously, before you click this link to see the whole list, try to guess who No. 2 is. Betcha a Zagnut you can’t.
This Week in History
Stock Market Crashes (October 29, 1929)
It’s referred to as “Black Tuesday,” but it actually started a week before on “Black Thursday.” The financial disaster, of course, led to the Great Depression.
Assassination Attempt on President Truman (November 1, 1950)
Two members of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party tried to shoot Truman at the Blair House, where the Truman family was staying while the White House was being renovated.
This Week in Saturday Evening Post History: Clock Repairman (November 3, 1945)
Maybe this cover by Norman Rockwell can serve as a reminder that you have to turn back your clocks one hour before you go to bed on Saturday night.
Today Is National Sandwich Day
Parade has a list of the sandwich places that have special deals today, including Subway, Capriotti, QuickChek, and Firehouse. I’d like to highlight one particular sandwich. It was the favorite of writer and actress Peg Lynch, the woman who pretty much created the sitcom with shows like Ethel and Albert and The Couple Next Door. I don’t know if it’s something I’d want to try (I’m not a big mayo guy), but I think you should test it and report back to us.
- 2 slices Arnold white bread, toasted and buttered
- iceberg lettuce
- smooth peanut butter
- Miracle Whip
Put sandwich together, cut off crusts, cut into four triangles, and enjoy!
Next Week’s Holidays and Events
Guy Fawkes Day (November 5)
Fawkes is known as one of the biggest villains in British history. You may know his face as the mask many people wear when they’re doing something they don’t to be known for, as seen in the graphic novel and film version of V for Vendetta.
General Election Day (November 7)
Here’s a list of some of the important federal, state, and local elections that are happening on Tuesday.