ON THIS DAY
On this date in 1621, Galileo invented the telescope.
On this date in 1828, Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States.
In 1910, the first neon light was turned on in Paris, France.
Brian Bonsall, that cute little kid from "Family Ties," turns 28 today. Katarina Witt turns 44 today. She won Olympic gold in figure skating 25 years ago... which means, of course, her gold medal has triple-lutz'd in value since then.
THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Now, two women are standing by to come forward and claim they've had affairs with Tiger Woods. One insists she has very incriminating phone text messages.
- A new study claims that loneliness may be contagious.
- Lisa Loeb gave birth to a baby girl last Sunday: Lyla Rose Loeb Hershkovitz.
- Little Richard is out of the hospital following hip surgery and is recovering at his home near Nashville.
- Vin Scully will be back broadcasting Dodger games for one more season next year. He's 82 and worked his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers back in 1950.
- An initiative to encourage healthy teen relationships says songs by Jamie Foxx and Lady Gaga are the musical equivalent of junk food. A teen panel working with the Boston Public Health Commission has determined that their songs are among the top 10 with "unhealthy relationship ingredients."
- A huge "Twilight" Convention is happening in Seattle, January 15th through the 17th at the Westin Hotel. I can imagine there will be quite a few side-trips over to Forks.
- Charlize Theron is going to host Friday's draw for next year's World Cup finals.
- ABC says Charles Gibson, 66, will sign off from the "World News" anchor desk on December 18. He will be replaced by "Good Morning America" co-host Diane Sawyer.
- Playboy magazine says men who snore loudly are twice as likely to die early.
- Bill Maher wants us all to stop eating at IHOP because they use eggs laid by hens in "cramped and inhumane" conditions.
- She was the mom on "Family Ties." Now, after three failed marriages to men, Meredith Baxter says she's gay. She started dating women 7 years ago and now has a life-partner.
The number one cause of holiday stress is the lack of money. That's the word from the fifth annual holiday stress survey conducted by FranklinCovey Products that revealed surprising insights on the factors that increase stress during the holidays. Despite the current economic climate, 61% of respondents believe they spend too much money during the holidays.
- Last year, when asked what is most stressful about holiday gift-giving, respondents chose "selecting the right gift." This year, when asked the same question, respondents' top concern is that the number of people on their list is more than they can afford to buy for.
- When asked compared to last year, what changes they would make this year to their holiday spending, 53% intend to spend less on the gifts they buy. Comparing prices/shopping for sales and clipping coupons also ranked high, at 51 and 44%, respectively.
- It's a fact. As compared to men, women feel more stressed approaching this holiday season than they did last year. While the rank order of the top three stressful activities remained identical between men and women, all of the holiday activities noted by the survey cause women more stress than their male counterparts.
- With more than half of the survey's respondents taking time at least once a week to plan, a "to-do list" is perceived as the most helpful tool for dealing with stress, with meditation, and exercise a close second.
(Good Housekeeping) Animals, like humans, may cry in pain, but we're apparently the only creatures who shed emotional tears. When William H. Frey II, Ph.D., a biochemist and neuroscientist in St. Paul, MN, asked 331 people to keep a tear diary for a month, sadness was the number one reason they reported crying at 49%, followed by happiness 21%, anger at 10%, sympathy 7%, anxiety 5%, and fear at 4%.
- 6% of women say they never cry.
- 45% of men say they never cry.
- 2 minutes is the average length of a happy cry.
- 7 minutes is the average length of a sad cry.
Women in the U.S. cry four times more often than men, according to Frrey's research. Girls don't start out as bawling champs boy and girl babies cry equivalent amounts but by the first or second grade, boys are beginning to cry less, probably in response to social pressure. "Being called crybaby is more likely to happen to a boy," says Jonathan Rottenberg, Ph.D., associate professor of psychology at the University of South Florida. Researchers also suspect that hormones play a role, as does menstruation: Women tend to shed more tears in the premenstrual part of their cycle, possibly due to the potent hormones circulating during those days.
