2023 Current Events Study Guide

[Volante]

Someone's going to ask about this, I'm sure...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64524105

The US has shot down a giant Chinese balloon that it says has been spying on key military sites across America.

[MinnesotaMyron]

New Year's Day saw the release of KALEIDOSCOPE, a crime drama from Netflix whose gimmick is that the 7 main episodes can be watched in any order. (You have to watch the finale last though.) Giancarlo Esposito and Paz Vega star. The episode titles all have colors in them, e.g. "Yellow: 6 Weeks Before The Heist", "Green: 7 Years Before the Heist".

According to Collider, "The story of Kaleidoscope is loosely inspired by real-life events surrounding Hurricane Sandy when $70 billion in bonds went missing from downtown Manhattan."

(Please excuse my cascade of new posts. I'm combing through news sites with an eye toward the new LL season.)

[Volante]

https://www.avclub.com/viola-davis-has- ... 1850076154

With Viola Davis's Grammy win for *checks notes* Best Audiobook, Narration, And Storytelling Recording (for her memoir Finding Me), she becomes the 18th EGOT winner.
(An Oscar for Fences, two Tonys, one for Fences, and an Emmy for How to Get Away With Murder)

[Robert K S]

With his 38,388th career point, James passed multiple-time Celebrity Jeopardy! contestant Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the all-time NBA scoring record in a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder last night.

The game stopped as James’ teammates and family joined him on the floor and the video boards in Crypto.com Arena played a retrospective highlight package of big moments from his NBA career. Abdul-Jabbar also came on the court to embrace James and hand him the ball that broke the record as the crowd — raucous every time James touched the ball — chanted “MVP! MVP!” James teared up as the Lakers’ P.A. announcer told the crowd, “Ladies and gentlemen, the all-time leading scorer, you have witnessed it: LeBron James!”
...
Abdul-Jabbar had held the scoring record for nearly 39 years, passing Wilt Chamberlain in April 1984. He would play for five more seasons and finish his career with 38,387 points. James’ record-setting basket came in his 1,410th career game, 150 fewer than Abdul-Jabbar played during his Hall of Fame career with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Lakers.

James says he hopes to remain in the game long enough to play with his son, Bronny.

James's Lakers lost the game by three points, 130-133.

[Volante]

65th Grammy notes:

Record of the Year - 'About Damn Time', Lizzo
Album of the Year - Harry's House, Harry Styles.
Song of the Year - 'Just Like That', Bonnie Raitt

Best Pop Solo - 'Easy on Me', Adele
Best Pop Duo/Group - 'Unholy', Sam Smith and Kim Petras
Best Dance/Electronic Recording - 'Break My Soul', Beyonce
" " " Album - Renaissance, Beyonce

[Peachbox]

Researchers decipher 57 encoded messages sent by Mary, Queen of Scots during her imprisonment














This message brought to you by Heinz

[cinemaniax7]

The Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Philadelphia Eagles 38—35 in Super Bowl LVII.

RECORD OF NOTE: The Eagles scored more points (35) than any other losing team in a Super Bowl.

[Bamaman]

Former President Jimmy Carter has entered hospice care at his home in Plains.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2023/02/18/poli ... index.html

[MarkBarrett]

Mac McClung

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_McClung

Who?

Spoiler

On February 18, 2023, McClung won the NBA Dunk Contest. He didn’t get an individual score from the judges that was under 49.

[Volante]

For the first time ever, National Weather Station Los Angeles issued a warning for this weather phenomenon for Friday, February 24th to Saturday, February 25th

Spoiler

What is a blizzard?

More of an LL style, J! would have to make it obvious enough to be a top row probably

[MinnesotaMyron]

Headline from The Week's Daily Gossip: "Paris Hilton's son also shares his name with a city." Born in January, his name is Phoenix.

[MarkBarrett]

[Volante]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-64854720

Toblerone is to remove the Matterhorn mountain peak from its packaging after some of the chocolate's production was moved outside Switzerland.
...
Legislation on "Swissness", introduced in 2017, states that national symbols are not allowed to be used to promote milk-based products that are not made exclusively in Switzerland.

The Matterhorn will be replaced by a more generic Alpine summit, the company says.

[mfc248]

Jim Boeheim, Syracuse University men's basketball head coach since 1976, will not return to that role; associate head coach Adrian Autry takes over immediately. From the reports, it is unclear whether the decision was Boeheim's or Syracuse's. (The New York Times) (Syracuse University Athletics)

Boeheim finishes with one national championship (2003), five Final Fours, and 1,015 official victories (101 further wins were vacated), second all-time to Mike Krzyzewski.

[MarkBarrett]

When doing the NYT mini crossword for 3/12 I was reminded that the current Best Picture nominees have sequels with gaps:

(1986) Top Gun -> (2022) Top Gun: Maverick
(2009) Avatar-> (2022) Avatar: The Way of Water

The J! writers love throwing some movie math sometimes.

[teapot37]

Everything Everywhere All At Once (EEAAO) was the big winner at the 95th Academy Awards, taking home Best Picture, Director (Daniel Scheinert and Daniel Kwan, aka "Daniels"), Best Original Screenplay (Daniels), three of the four acting awards (Best Actress for Michelle Yeoh, Supporting Actress for Jamie Lee Curtis, and Supporting Actor for Ke Huy Quan), and Film Editing.

International Feature winner All Quiet on the Western Front also took home the Score, Cinematography, and Production Design awards.

"Naatu Naatu" from the Indian film RRR took home the award for Best Original Song; it is the first Oscar to go to a song from that country. (Slumdog Millionaire was a British production.)

[econgator]

A second #1 (Purdue) has fallen to a #16 (Fairleigh Dickinson) in the NCAA Tournament.

[MarkBarrett]

New national monuments:

Castner Range National Monument in El Paso, Texas

Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada

*************
Massachusetts governor: Maura Healey

************
Peacock show with Natasha Lyonne playing Charlie Cade who can tell when people are lying: Poker Face

**********
Movie about Nike Air Jordan shoes directed by Ben Affleck and starring Matt Damon: Air

[ouachiouat]

Japan won the World Baseball Classic against the USA, 3-2. Shohei Ohtani, pitcher and designated hitter, was MVP. The game ended with Ohtani striking out Mike Trout, his Los Angeles Angels teammate.

Unreal, but very fitting, that it came down to two all-time greats to end an amazing tourney.

[cinemaniax7]

Utah Has a New State Flag