Five random facts for Friday and posted on Saturday this time around:
The most popular baby names in the United States in 1966 were Lisa and Michael. Celeste, my wife’s name, was 356th most popular. Why do I bring this up? Well, it’s a certain someone’s birthday next week and she was born in 1966. – Source: BabyCenter.com (for the baby name ranking, not my wife’s birthday).
The daily US movie box office sales for March 19, 2020 (day 79 of the year and last day the movie theaters were open during COVID-19 crisis) were $143,641. On day 79 in 2019, March 20 (a Wednesday) sales were $8,995,950. – Source: BoxOfficeMojo
William Shakespeare was born on April 23, 1564. 402 years later Celeste Lowder was born on April 23, 1966. – Source FamousBirthdays.com
On April 18, 2020 the average price of regular gas in the United States was $1.821/gallon, down from $2.836 on the same date in 2019. The highest average price ever recorded in the US was $4.114 on July 17, 2008. – Source: AAA
Five random facts for Friday and posted on Saturday this time around:
Alcohol sales were up 55% the week ending March 21. – Source Axios via my mom.
Thanks in part to the cancellation of March Madness there is a glut of chicken wings. The price has tanked from $2/lb during the Super Bowl to $1.09 in April, 2020. – Source Marketplace
In 2017, according to the National Confectioners Association, 16 billion jelly beans were bought and consumed by the American people. – Source HelloGiggles
According to the US Census Bureau, in 2016 there were 5.6 million employer firms and 99.7% employed fewer than 500 people, 98.2% employed fewer than 100 people and 89% employed fewer than 20 people. – Source Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council
Roughly 281 billion email messages were sent each day in 2018. That number is expected to increase to over 347 billion daily mails in 2022. – Source: statista
On March 23, 2020 Zoom was downloaded 2.13 million times worldwide, up from 2.04 million the day before, according to app tracking firm Apptopia. Two months prior, the app had just under56,000 global downloads in a day. – Source: KYMA.com
There are 6,146 hospitals in the United States. – Source: AHA.org
The country with the lowest population (799) in the world is Vatican City. The country with the highest population (1.43 billion) is China. – Source: WorldPopulationReview.com
In 1985 a first class stamp was 22 cents, which is the equivalent of 54 cents today (currently a first class stamp costs 50 cents). – Source: Kiplinger.com
As of 2017 there were approximately 500 zoos and aquariums in America (no mention on whether or not the US Congress was included in that count) – Source: WhyAnimalsDoTheThing.com
There are 195 countries in the world. 193 are member states of the United Nations and two, The Holy See and the State of Palestine, that are non-member observer states – Source: Worldometer
Thanks to everyone who has been participating in Piedmont Triad Apartment Association’s (my employer) 2019 Summer Food Drive, PTAA has raised more than 415,000 meals for Second Harvest Food Bank, and we’re on track to pass the total we raised last year.
PTAA’s goal for 2019 is to raise half a million meals, and they’re looking for that last boost to get us to the goal by July 31 – a mere 8 days from the time I’m posting this.
It’s time for me to see what I can do to help get us there! PTAA is offering me up for auction to help them reach their goal. The winner of the auction will have me all to yourself at your corporate office or chosen property for one day! I have (limited) maintenance skills, salesmanship skills, and a wealth of industry knowledge and experience, and we’re happy to share him with you for a day. (I didn’t write that, our Communications Director did, but I’m running with it). Please feel free to donate even if you can’t make the minimum bid – $1 can provide seven meals so every little bit helps!
The Details
You can place your bid by donating to the team “Jon Lowder” on our donation site (click the link below). Just click “Donate Now,” then make your donation.
The MINIMUM bid is a donation of $500 (that minimum bid will provide 3,500 meals!)
The donation must be made between today and July 31
ALL DONATIONS will go to the food bank and are NONREFUNDABLE – regardless of whether or not you win the auction
Whichever company has made the highest donation by 11:59pm on July 31 will win the grand prize: Jon Lowder for a day!
The company with the second-highest donation will win 2nd prize: Jon Lowder for half a day (half the day, all the awesome)
Once the auction is over, Jon will follow up to arrange a day to spend on your property, and PTAA will be sure it is well covered in our social media and other publicity!
Questions? Contact Jon with any questions you have before you donate.
Every dollar raised for the food bank can be used to provide at least seven meals to kids in need. How does that work? Through their partnerships with grocery retailers and the USDA, the food bank is able to source nutritious food, including fresh meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables. The food bank’s culinary program uses some of the ingredients to prepare hot meals, and they are distributed along with fresh food to local pantries, summer feeding locations and soup kitchens across 18 counties.
We started the day with a bang in Louisville: toured Churchill Downs, then visited a few distillers (Angels Envy, Evan Williams and Michters) and grabbed a photo op at Louisville Slugger. Then we headed towards Frankfort and visited the Taj Mahal of Bourbon – Buffalo Trace. All we can say about that place is…whoa!After that we drove over to Lexington to have dinner, then checked out the University of Kentucky (where Celeste’s dad was in school when she was born) and then we found the hospital where she was born.A very full and fun day.
We started the day in Champaign, IL with a great breakfast at a great restaurant called the Farmhouse which is located in a grocery called Harvest Market. Then we found a statue of Roger Ebert for a photo op before hitting the road to Louisville. Once there we hit a distillery called Rabbit Hole and grabbed a BBQ dinner at a joint called Feast. A great day!
We started day three in Omaha and visited three sites: the giant fork and pasta sculpture, the Chef Boyardee statue on the Conagra corporate campus and Joselyn Castle. Then we visited the tiny town of Elk Horn, IA to see their Danish Windmill and had the bonus of finding a tiny chapel and an example of a viking structure. One thing we saw a lot of in Iowa and Illinois? Windmills…lots and lots of windmills.
The rest of the day featured a lot of driving. We crossed the Mississippi River on I-74 from Davenport, IA to Moline, IL and grabbed a room in Champaign, IL.
We didn’t start the day planning to spend it all in Nebraska, but after doing laundry in the morning we got a bit of a late start. Then we found out that Seward, the town where I spent my freshman year of college at Concordia Teachers College (now University), now has a brewery and it was going to open at 3:00 so we decided to take our time to enjoy ourselves. The day featured a stop in York, NE so Celeste could take a pic of a water tower painted to look like a hot air balloon, a tour around Seward and the Concordia U campus, a walk around the state capitol in Lincoln and we ended up getting a room in Omaha for the night.
Befuddled 