Tuesday, 1 December, 2020
Biden loses Major tussle; Japan’s meteor fireball; the Formula One blow-up; and Dance Monkey does it again.
LINKS
Japan’s fireball in the sky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYLhOFotYHw&feature=youtu.be
Dance Monkey video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0hyYWKXF0Q
Deck The Halls Movie Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1obxXopRro
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EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
THE LOWDOWN
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He may have won the biggest election of the year, but in a tussle between US President-elect Joe Biden and his pet dog, Major – the dog has come out on top.
Major is one of Biden’s two German Shepherds – the other one being Champ.
And whilst playing with Major over the weekend, the President-to-be has broken his right foot – which means he’ll be wearing a moon boot for the next few weeks.
Prez in Boots. It’s like Puss in Boots – but for the most powerful man in the world.
Joe Biden and his wife, Dr Jill Biden adopted Major from a dog rescue shelter two years ago. When he moves into the White House in January – he will become the first rescue dog ever to live there. That’s quite a story: from a rescue shelter to the White House. Could be a movie in that…
Outgoing President Donald Trump took to his favourite form of communication – aka Twitter – to tweet that he hopes his election opponent ‘gets well soon’.
Not that the injury appears to have slowed Mr Biden down any … he yesterday announced that all of the senior members of his press office – which is to say, the people who work in his office and communicate with journalists, reporters, newspapers and TV stations – will be women. It will be the first time in the history of US Presidents that the senior press team will be all female.
SPIN THE GLOBE
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Each day we give the world globe a spin and find a news story from wherever it stops … and today, we’ve landed in Osaka in Japan … where residents of a nearby prefecture had their Sunday night sleep interrupted by a massive exploding meteor as it came crashing down to Earth.
The meteor – or bolide, as astronomers call it – lit up the night’s sky in the wee small hours of Monday morning – sending a massive sonic boom across the countryside as it disintegrated in the Earth’s atmosphere.
A bolide is a meteor, or fireball, that explodes before reaching the ground. Scientists reckon there are about 5,000 bolides per year that fall to Earth – but very few of them are seen, and even fewer of them are recorded on video.
Happily for us, one eager star watcher happened to be filming the night’s sky when the fireball broke through the Earth’s atmosphere – and there’s a link in today’s episode notes to that video . You’re welcome.
SPORT TIME
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And so Formula 1 racing we go today, where Aussie driver Daniel Riccardo has expressed his frustration with organisers of the Bahrain Grand Prix where one of his fellow drivers, Frenchman Romain Grosjean, had a lucky escape on Sunday following a horror crash.
Riccardo criticised the broadcast of the graphic accident over and over on TV.
Reminding the Fomula 1 organisers that their sport is not a video game, or a Hollywood film, but real life with real people, Riccardo said it was irresponsible of race organisers to treat race car drivers and accidents like this one as forms of entertainment.
Grosjean was recovering in hospital yesterday with burns to his hand after he lost control of his car at high speed and slammed into a fence – an accident that set off a big fire and broke his car in half.
Waving to fans on Instagram from his hospital bed, Grosjean said he had had a lucky escape – and was saved by the extra safety precautions Formula One had introduced two years ago.
Seat belts kids. Wear them.
POP CULTURE CORNER
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That Dance Monkey just won’t stop dancing. The hit song by Aussie singer, Tones and I, was yesterday named as the most popular and most frequently searched song ever on the music identifying app, Shazam.
The app – which people use to identify songs they want to know the name of – has been used to identify Dance Monkey more than 36 million times since the song’s release in May 2019.
Which is nothing compared to the number of times the Dance Monkey video has been viewed on YouTube – which is well over the billion mark. That’s billion with a B.
Or the number of times I’ve heard it on the radio. Which would be trillions of times…
If you’re in the mood, check out the link to it in today’s episode notes. Because it’s the last few weeks of school … and we all need a brain break …
CHRISTMAS ELF Q+A
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Wowsers .. you guys sure do love your Christmas elves! It’s only been twenty-four hours since we announced an upcoming Squiz Kids Q+A with one of Santa’s elves and the questions have already started flooding in.
Sugarplum Mary – one of Santa’s elves – has kindly agreed to interrupt her busy pre-Christmas work schedule to take the Squiz Kids hotseat and answer your questions! Yes – that’s right. Direct from the North Pole – where she lives and works as part of Santa’s trusted team of elves, Sugarplum Mary is getting ready to let you in on all the Christmas secrets she has the answers too. Except maybe if you’re on the Naughty or Nice list. She helps look after the reindeer, is one of several elves responsible for keeping the sleigh in fine mechanical order – and knows which treats Santa likes best when he comes down chimneys – or through back doors – all over the world.
So many questions – so little time to ask them. You’ve got until tomorrow evening to email your questions to [email protected].
THE S’QUIZ
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This is the part of the podcast where you get to test how well you’ve been listening …
- What’s the name of President-elect Joe Biden’s rescue dog?
- Over which country did a fireball meteor explode on the weekend?
- Which song by Aussie artist ‘Tones and I’ has been named the most popular on the music identifying app, Shazam?
SHOUT OUTS
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It’s December 1 …. National Christmas Lights Day in the United States – where, if you haven’t yet strung up your lights for the festive season – you’re encouraged to get busy. There’s a very funny film about Christmas lights competition called Deck The Halls. I’ve stuck a link in the episode notes.
It’s also only 24 sleeps ‘til Christmas … Santa Claus is coming to town! ….
Plus also a special day for these Squiz Kids celebrating a birthday today… Bridgette from Skye, Lillyanna from Mornington, Harvey from Moorooka, Erin from Bowral, and Zara from Moruya.
And some belated birthday shoutouts to… Milly from Paddington, Bryce from NSW – cool name – Ivy from Melbourne and Lily from Old Bar.
Happy birthday to you all.
Today’s classroom shoutouts… All the kids and teachers at St Pius X Parish School in Warrnambool, class 5/6H from Turvey Park Public School, class 2JD at Kingsville Primary School, class 4Blue with Mrs Mewitt at Good Samaritan Catholic Primary School in Fairy Meadow, class 2W at Burraneer Bay Public School and classes 5C and 6A with Ms Maginnis from Chatswood Public School.
The S’Quiz Answers:
- Major
- Japan
- Dance Monkey