Liv Johnson Is America's Next Great Local TV Broadcaster, Xichigan-Ohio State Week & Augusta Extension Is Done
Inflation & tipping might be on my brain a little too much
Disclosure: I had a dream last night that I took the family out to Pizza Hut (my group text was talking about vintage Pizza Hut last week so it's on my brain) and the final bill came to $947 and change. I specifically remember in this dream that for some reason I had three lemonades and was charged something like $300 in drinks. There were also all these weird charges on the bills for things like employee health and welfare or something like that.
It was pure nightmare fuel. There I was contemplating dining and dashing because of this ridiculous bill.
What does it all mean?
I'm no researcher in this field, but it clearly means I was thinking way too long and hard about tipping --- there have been 500 emails on the subject --- and the golden days of Pizza Hut when it was considered fine dining for a family of four.
But the lemonade thing has me stumped. I haven't ordered lemonade at a restaurant in at least a decade or more unless it has a double shot of vodka mixed in.
Reader request: Need help with the perfect, unique, and out-of-the-ordinary experience to present to my daughters for Christmas
Now this one should trigger some reaction from the community, especially because so many of you have free time this week because you're barely working or not working at all.
• John from PA writes:
Hey Joe. Haven’t emailed in a while. It’s John of the slip-n-slide Wiffle ball backyard. Have a question I figured would be perfect for the SC community. Every year for Christmas I get my girls (now 15,18, and 22) a “surprise” present which is a unique trip somewhere we’ve never been for all of us to experience for the first time.
In the past we’ve done the junior college World Series, a 3-day country music festival in rural Ohio, an Indiana college basketball trip including Hinkle Fieldhouse for a Butler game, the Hoosier Dome, and the original “Hoosiers” gym, and a trip to rural Mississippi for the Poplarville blueberry jubilee.
I pride myself on being able to think of off-the-wall experiences that we would all really enjoy that fit within the budget that ol JB has decimated, but I’m struggling this year.
So I’m asking the Screencaps community to give me ideas on unique, out-of-the-ordinary experiences for a family that loves America, each other, and visiting all the places and events that make our country great. Any input would be greatly appreciated!
Now, this is my kind of email because it gets the juices flowing, especially because there are multiple options since John has done music, sports and a blueberry jubilee.
Off the top of my head, the Savannah Bananas are doing a tour in 2023. They'll be all over the northeast. It's something for all of us to keep in mind. In fact, I already have a hotel room reserved for the July 3 Bananas game in Akron.
Help John!
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com
Get woke, go broke or go woke, go broke
• John H. writes:
We need the internet librarians on this one. Do we credit Clay Travis with the first widely recorded use of the phrase “go woke go broke”?
The phrase has now grown to being headlined by the international media.
According to Know Your Meme, the origin of "get woke, go broke" comes from a 2018 article where sci-fi author John Ringo used the phrase to describe organizations who caved to social justice warriors.
Now, Clay has certainly used the phrase so many times on mainstream media sources that he can certainly pat himself on the back for making this meme worthy of European tabloid headlines.
The Battery Daddy movement grows -- #notsponsored
As always, I have to be completely honest with you guys, Battery Daddy isn't paying me a dime for marketing these toolboxes. They should, but they aren't.
D. in Georgia sent the following emails over the weekend:
Couldn’t wait until Christmas, I bought one for myself! Gonna load it up while watching your Buckeyes battle the turtles.
Sunday, I received a follow-up email:
It’s ready!
This is cheaper than going to therapy and at the end of your calming battery organization session, you have a battery toolbox ready to go at a moment's notice. Kids have those plastic Pop Its that become addicting toys. Adults have Battery Daddy.
Let's face it, we've all barely grown up.
OutKick favorites (ranked)
• Adam in Sidney, Nebraska is back with some weekend thoughts on OutKick and snowblowing:
Midnight SC update fueled by Bud Light ™️
I tried quitting Twitter. I started twittering to go all in with the TNML. I couldn’t take Husker Twitter after non-stop gut-wrenching losses from my fav team in the Big Ten west. But now I’m back on Twitter, perhaps to keep up on the Battery Daddy ?
My 3rd fav Outkick writer Hookstead will keep me clicking on every Big 10 article. 2nd place to the NASCAR Monday morning pit stop.
I was blessed to grow up using a snow blower. I’m sure there is a TNML guy or two firing up the snowblower this morning. Unlike the lawnmower, the snow blower wakes up early. The ultimate way to establish neighborhood superiority is with a 530 am mission on the dual or triple-stage snowblower. SEC country is prob so confused by now.
My old John Deere snowblower waits in the shed. When it’s number gets called I will send glorious 10 Horsepower 91-octane fueled vids of its mission.
The fall harvest must be over. The Instagram farm girls must have shut it down for the winter.
Thanks for all of your hard work posting content every morning.
OutKick executives are going to enjoy the feedback on Monday Morning Pit Stop and Hookstead's constant barrage of Big Ten West content for those who are completely forgotten by the national web sites.
It's no secret that NASCAR is in the OutKick wheelhouse and Zach Dean has the patience and love for NASCAR to write about it beyond Daytona week. The guy used to be a sports reporter for the Daytona Beach News-Journal, so he's been in the belly of the NASCAR beast over the years.
And did I mention Zach Dean is a big Busch Light guy? I don't know if he mows on Thursdays, but I do know he has his beer priorities in check.
TCL TVs (yes, the Chinese are most likely spying through these TVs, but they're already spying through your phone & they have your voice and videos to create AI bots)
• Indy Daryl writes:
You couldn’t have made a better choice in my humble opinion with the tv you just bought. I bought my first TCL 4 years ago and when we finished out basement we went TCL again, 55” just like what you bought (picture below). The Roku interface is awesome and I couldn’t be happier. I would also highly recommend the TCL-specific sound bar. Great sound and just a Bluetooth connection!
Anywho, spent the night watching The Force awakens with my son!! Have a great night!!
Wendy's chili analysis
Last week we received an email from some Screencaps reader who was out of his mind telling us (and the Texans reading) how much he enjoys Wendy's chili. I have a friend who swears they use leftover burgers to add volume to that chili.
• John L. writes:
Joe, I can absolutely confirm that at least in the past Wendy's would use cooked, unsold burgers in their chile. This was a factoid in a cost accounting case study I had in MBA school back in the 1980's. I remember it so clearly because Dave Thomas (Wendy's founder) actually visited our school shortly thereafter. We tried to question him about their accounting for by products--which went completely over his head. He also kept pronouncing it "bidness" school.
• Bill in Chicago writes:
I just happened to watch a documentary on Wendy's and its founder Dave Thomas a couple of weeks ago. "The Food that Built America" or something like that. In that show, it said Dave Thomas came up with the chili idea as a way to use fresh beef that was not fresh enough for Wendy's to serve as burgers but still fine for making chili. So while it's not leftover burgers it is, per that documentary, beef that is a couple of days older than the beef Wendy's uses for their burgers.
• Tommy in Texarkana, Texas writes:
I'll be brief, just like the time Jizzele spent by herself before hopping back on the wiener wagon.
In a former life, I was a pharmaceutical rep. Hated it, but that's an email for another day. Long story short, it never surprised me that the menu at meeting always went from burgers, to tacos the next day, to meatloaf the next. Hell yes Wendy's recycles that meat.
And quickly, let's head to Spain where Mike T. has been sending me all sorts of photos
As always, you can keep up with the T. adventure here:
http://traftonseuropeanadventure202223.code.blog/2022/11/16/11-17-22-malaga-spain/
BBQ fish on the beach:
And with that, let's have an amazing Tuesday as we prepare for Thanksgiving Eve. Guys, the holidays are here. Give 115% at the job and get home for some MACtion and house prep for the big Thanksgiving feast.
You don't want to be doing that job on Thanksgiving Eve when there's so much bourbon to consume.
Have a great day.
Email: joekinsey@gmail.com