Off The Desk 9/4/26

Good Friday morning and welcome to Off the Desk. I'm Julia O'Keefe. And I'm Chris Bozakis. Happy Friday. Happy Friday. We made it to Friday. Friday before a long weekend. Always exciting for sure. We've already talked about the travel period leading up to Labor Day weekend and of course the weather too. It looks like it's going to be a good weekend for us. Yeah it's nice out there this morning. I mean you walk outside and it's a little humid but the sun is out nice and bright so today will be a nice bright Friday. Kind of more of a summer-like feel this afternoon with temperatures into the 80s and that higher humidity but we will quickly go to a fall-ish feel as we go into this weekend. So yeah today nice and warm. Heading into this weekend we're going to drop the humidity off. It's going to completely go away and temperatures are going to be mostly in the 70s. Tomorrow will be sun and cloud mixed with a chance for a couple late day showers but once those get out of here Sunday and Monday look pretty nice especially Labor Day on Monday. I think out of the three-day weekend Labor Day itself looks to be the nicest out of the three. Nice. So it looks to be a lot of sun. Temperatures in the 70s and nighttime temperatures will be in the 40s and 50s this weekend. The 40s! I think I said at the end of the news today remember those? Yeah literally remember those. It's been a little while. Last time we saw temperatures in the 40s actually was in early June. We had a little weird cool stretch in the beginning of June that we did see one morning that was in the upper 40s but yeah the 40s are going to try to make a return going Sunday into Monday. So Monday morning when you wake up it'll be a little cool and it's the start of many as we go through the month of September and October and get cooler as months go on. Cool. But yeah any outdoor plans this weekend? I think you look good. Just be aware maybe a spot shower tomorrow. Exciting. We talked about the three-county fair this morning so if you're going to that at all today or this weekend looks really nice for that. I know that's a really big fair that goes on across our area so yeah yeah looking good. Yeah there are a lot of weekend events going on. This is kind of the start actually it really started last week with the Cummington Fair but this is the start really of fair and festival season and there are a lot of things happening this weekend. The three-county fair is going on all through Monday. The Blanford Fair is going on through Monday. Festa and Ludlow the Portuguese festival started last night and that goes through Monday. So lots of options really all around the area. There's also the Stone Soul Parade and festival is happening in Springfield on Saturday. That's a fun event. The parade steps off from Rebecca M Johnson Elementary goes to Blunt Park for the festival. Hopefully the weather is good for that. Then Sunday is the St. Mark's Armenian festival. That's just a few I'm sure the many things happening in the area. I'm starting to see Big E commercials on TV. I mean that's only a few weeks away. Yeah the Big E we actually just got our media credentials for that. Oh we did? Yeah so we tend to you know it's the whole process is getting started but it's crazy we're two weeks away from the Big E so of course we'll be talking about that more and we've already talked about the food previews and things like that but yeah so lots of things happening this weekend this Labor Day weekend. We did talk about travel and traffic and gas prices. The most expensive Labor Day weekend we've seen in a while in terms of prices at the pump. Nick was out there with that story yesterday but if you're heading anywhere just you know the best thing to do is is hit the road early. It was funny though for the first time in a while we did not hear record-breaking travel expected. Yeah I didn't hear that usually like the Today Show or something is always saying record-breaking travel this weekend for really any holiday but they haven't said that and I feel like some people might not be traveling because just how expensive it would be for them like just the gas prices and also airline tickets are a lot more expensive because again cost of just oil and gas to get planes going so everything is more expensive so I could see that mitigating the travel rush a little bit. Yeah I think that's definitely playing a factor especially in terms of the driving side of things because Labor Day I mean unless you get more time off realistically you're not going to be flying super far. I'm sure there are exceptions but Labor Day is one of those historical driving holidays you know so but yeah no record-breaking travel headlines this holiday but it is still gonna be busy of course so get out there early look out for each other on the road. Peak travel times are between one and six usually noon and six it's probably best hit the road before noon and then they really said today and Tuesday are gonna be busy which is interesting because the holidays Monday but people taking that extra day and yeah stay safe out there. Do you have any plans for the weekend? We're going camping Maddie and I yeah we're actually leaving later today and then come back on Sunday so it'll be a nice little getaway. What are you up to? I'm gonna be bouncing around a few places I'm heading up to New Hampshire for that'll be home base for most of it but I'm helping my sister move into her new apartment in Boston tomorrow and yeah I'll probably stick around and see some friends in the city and then yeah bounce back between there and the beach hopefully hoping to to get at least one beach day in depending on the weather I think it's the forecast out there isn't as great as it is here so okay we'll see some sun but maybe some scattered showers although I don't know that it's September I'm kind of ready for the sweatpants and sweatshirt and I don't mind the water might be a little chilly yeah yeah I think it might be but I like that early fall feel up there oh yeah it'll be nice it will be good to maybe get one day beach in one last beach day and I'm just all over the place with my words this morning you can tell we've been talking for a while but uh but yeah excited for that in terms of the national day calendar we talked about it on the news this morning that was kind of fun it's national college colors day so we're all representing our alma maters um I'm wearing blue for Villanova University we our colors were pretty much all the blues and white and then they they started going a lot towards the the Carolina blue too that made its way into local logos and merch more but I went with the royal blue because I felt like it was in between all the blues you know yeah yeah I'm wearing yellow and black and white well technically it was yellow black and green but you can't white was part of their colors but I can't wear green anywhere so yellow and black were the two major ones our mascot was a hornet and hornets are black and yellow so yeah I went to Linden state is when I went when I went there that was the name now it's Vermont State University they changed the but I was mentioned this morning Adam Strumko also went there and also former anchor Nick Oresko also went there as well so there's been some history here of uh some Linden state alums but um yeah they're good colors and I like yellow so and I know Nick was wearing purple for Emerson yeah yeah yeah which there's also multiple Emerson grads here too Claire and Ciara that's they all went to Emerson um so yeah that was fun that was fun I always not that I picked my school because of the colors but blue is my favorite color so I I liked my school colors I was very fortunate in that regard to uh to have what I think was the colors looked good together but yeah there's some school colors that I'm not gonna you know there's some combinations out there that are like it's so iconic because it's Clemson but I have to say the purple and the orange uh not the best combination but it's Clemson so it's iconic yeah um another one is like Miami the orange green white but also like iconic iconic yeah it works um yeah there's there's some ones out there that are bland and then like uh like if you think of like Gonzaga like they're just gray it's a gray and blue yeah yeah I I don't like the color orange so I would I don't know that would that would be that would be tough but fortunately I lucked out with colors my high school is good too it was dark green and black like that was it looked good yeah we were green and white green and white okay yeah yeah same so cool and then we had Robbie our production assistant yeah he was repping UMass uh which was fun to have him kind of come in front of the camera he's usually behind the camera most of the time so he's the guy that waves at the end of the show if you see him yeah we did get a call a few weeks ago and um our assignment manager Tony picked up the phone and he asked me he was like who waved at the end of the newscast today and I was like oh that's Robbie he always gives a great wave and someone had called into the station to say I love the kid who waves at the end of the newscast tell him to keep it up it makes me smile so we love that and yeah it was good to get him to get him in there too so yeah it was fun if you have the chance today rep your college colors we love to see it also follows at a good time just back to school season and everything so it tied into that well as uh students are moving into Springfield College today and they moved into UMass they moved into AIC last week too so yeah everyone's getting back on campus and uh I don't know if you want to talk about this now or after the break but we can continue our talk about UMass yeah if you want we can do that we can do like a little sports block seven blocks so we'll save that but yeah some good football news for UMass um two more quick national days before we wrap this segment up it's also National Wildlife Day nice love the animals of course do you have a favorite animal I really love all animals um I'd have to say one of my favorites I like bears okay growing up for some reason I always loved koala bears oh yeah I don't know they were always really cool and I had a stuffed koala bear oh in my room when I was a kid but I'd say bears I don't know I think bears are really cool oh yeah bears are cool I did see one like literally five feet away from me that's right last weekend so wild wild stuff I would say my favorite I like ocean animals a lot I like whales whales um also otters I think otters are really cute and of course dogs dogs are good yeah yeah if you want to consider the dog in that category yeah dog's my favorite I can't I can't pick out of a wild animal yeah yeah yeah there's so many I like birds too I feel like I'm getting to that point in my life I sit in my backyard and I watch birds yeah okay I used to roast my dad growing up about it all three of us would be like oh there's dad again watching those birds he just sat on the deck and watched the bird feeder and now I almost do the same thing you're gonna have to learn the different types so you know what to watch out for yeah um I have to get one but my dad ended up buying a book really that shows all these different birds and so when we're home I'll be like oh dad he'll know what it is and I'm like all right yeah and it gives you all the facts I'm like all right whatever kind of cool happy yeah I guess and they're all right there yeah yeah all right and last but not least it's also national food bank day so that encourages people to get out there and donate to a food bank if you can or if there's one close to you of course um also just a good time you know we talked about gas prices are up but really everything's up right now so it's a time to to pitch in and donate to a food bank if you can so yeah that's the national day calendar for us today on this uh friday of labor day weekend if you're hitting the road stay safe out there and we're going to take a short break and come back with that UMass news stick with us all right welcome back to off the desk on this friday thanks for being with us we're going to talk sports now because there was some exciting UMass news and this also falls on college color days you did a good job tying that in when you brought when you brought Ravi in yeah the news yeah yeah so they won last night they did win and it was um kind of I mean it was amazing for them but it was also kind of comical because ruckers paid UMass over a million dollars to come play them like 1.5 million floor yeah gosh to come down and play them 1.5 million dollars yeah it was over a million I believe when I read this morning because I was reading about it when I was still laying in bed but yeah they they paid UMass like it was like 1.5 million to come down there and play ruckers for their season opener wow at home at ruckers and UMass went down there and and and won which I think ruckers kind of did that as like I don't know I'm thinking it was going to be like an easy win almost start off our season hot well you know steamroll UMass because UMass has been obviously known for not being a great team they are they didn't win one game last season so a 16 game losing 16 game winning losing streak yeah um and then ruckers is not a bad team like they're for their conference that they're in they're pretty good and so obviously a lot of people I think were like yeah UMass is is is done for going down there but no they didn't just win they like actually stomped them pretty good and so it's pretty comical that not only did UMass get a win but they also made some money so wow yeah I mean good for the program and it's last season was tough just to see towards the end there yeah and it was you know a new coach obviously there's rebuilding periods but you never want to see that and at some point it's you're waiting for it all to click and work and you know the coaching staff has said leading up to the start of the season that they know what to work on they're working on it they're hoping to bounce back and and turn things around this season so this is a good and exciting start it's a huge star for them and it's a definitely a big momentum like vibe but it's gonna make them all I don't know pumped up now it's good team chemistry going into the season like they they started off beating ruckers away so yeah it's a really great start to their season hopefully there's more wins to come yeah for sure yeah the college football energy is always super fun especially you know up there at the UMass campus it's it's electric so a good way to start the season and hopefully they can carry that energy out um switching gears a bit to the NFL we're now less than a week from the Patriots regular season opener rematch of Super Bowl 60 against on a Wednesday but you know we'll take it right I'm gonna stay up and watch it my plan is to go home sleep for a bit and then yeah stay up and watch that game starts at eight o'clock on Wednesday night uh I know Nick Antonakis is probably doing the same thing probably I cannot say if the Patriots are getting you know destroyed I'll probably turn it off but uh I don't know we'll have to see I feel like the Patriots are gonna be out for revenge obviously on the Seahawks after beating them in the Super Bowl yeah so I think so too do you think I mean I guess it's gonna be too early to tell but how much of an indication it would be to to beat the reigning champs but you know that's a reason I mean last year we lost to the Raiders week one and we were like one of the Raiders only wins all season long and so I remember watching that game and I was like oh we're cooked for this season like my friends and I were all mad but no we went on to the Super Bowl yeah like the first game of the season it's the first game like same thing with the Sox like it's a long season all it takes is for a team to get hot and they can go so far yeah clearly April was no indication of what the Red Sox were going to become so we really just have to ride it out and see what's going to happen yeah but um so I guess other in other NFL news this is something that we were talking about in the newsroom this morning I think it's so cool Disney and the NFL have partnered for the NFL collection and basically they took Disney characters and kind of morphed it with the NFL team's logo to make a new design they're really cool check them out if you if you can we're not going to show the actual website but we can go through and talk about some of the characters some of them are a little creative but there's not really Disney characters that match up with all these logos super well but I think they're so fun some notable ones the 49ers they have prospect Pete from Toy Story 2 it's a good idea that's awesome I think that's a yeah if I was 49ers fan that's a good one um the New York Jets have Buzz Lightyear another good one love Buzz Lightyear the Seahawks have the the Finding Nemo seagulls you know when they're like mine mine mine yeah anyway that one um what else do we have oh this is a good one New York Giants wreck-it Ralph yeah that's a good one and then the Browns they're at Pluto yep yep there's prospect Pete again what else do we have here um the Ravens so this is a bird but I saw one with Maleficent that's cool Ravens that looked really cool the Packers have Chewbacca I think that's kind of funny we mentioned the Patriots yep yeah Patriots have uh Captain America Captain America yep the Bears have Baloo from the Jungle Book the Dallas Cowboys of course they got Woody because you know the cowboy um the Broncos it's Maximus from Tangled that's exciting because the live action Tangled is coming out too yeah um oh I liked this one the the Saints have the um alligator from the Princess and the Frog Louie he plays the trumpet yeah that was fun too and then the Vikings have Thor yeah I think is that Thor no it says Thor oh Thor okay yeah I don't know Vikings either way really cool they're all they're really creative and they're fun oops yeah it's something different than you know the traditional logos I mean the Lions oh I just threw my pen the Lions have Simba Simba that makes sense oh you can leave that I don't need it thank you um but yeah they're cool so check them out if you want I most of them are sold out though unfortunately the Raiders have Darth Vader yeah the Raiders Vader we were saying that one this morning that was kind of funny oh the Commanders have Ham from Toy Story okay I don't know how that mixes in but I don't really know but yeah they're cool they're cool so check them out oh the Bills have the Beast that's cool I like that one the Rams have Sully from Monsters Inc that's cute yeah and that's a kid's a kid's t-shirt too so yeah they're cool check them out if you want but um yeah that's some kind of football news maybe we have one more topic that could pair with football but let's save it for a pop culture block we'll take another break and come back starting with that and then we're going to look at the Dancing with the Stars cast list because that was announced earlier this week on Wednesday but it didn't make Off the Desk yet so stick with us and we'll be right back all right welcome back to these last few minutes of Off the Desk on this Friday morning thanks for being with us we talked about some NFL news and Chris you brought up another NFL headline-ish kind of that yeah something else too yeah Travis Kelsey so far in the fantasy football world has actually had one of the lowest rankings when it comes to being drafted for fantasy football it's definitely his the lowest he's ever been in fantasy football history so I and I and I do see a few things that could be you know not helping him I mean he is getting kind of old in in the eyes of football yeah um he didn't have that great of a season last year I mean the Chiefs were just not good last year and and yeah Kelsey didn't have the best season so I think that's kind of hurting him people are like he's kind of one of the more veteran guys now like I don't know people are trying to pick some of the younger dudes um I feel like sorry to the Swifties but I feel like him just with Taylor Swift has kind of hurt his is is looking with some men I guess people are tired of the of the whole Swifty thing and and and that I feel like people might think it's going to impact him for the season I don't know I I think that is what people are thinking um is that fair to think I don't know necessarily I'm not saying I have that thought but it does make sense yeah I mean I remember when you know there was all the backlash when they panned to her at the games yeah people you know that people were getting tired of that and that was not but they're they were not being nice and that's just you know eliminate no put the camera on her every single time you're just asking for people yeah to have a problem with it I don't think it's just Travis Kelsey I think also Patrick Mahomes plays a role in that too Patrick Mahomes coming off of a major injury that's right towards ACL last year um and was out for almost the whole season or a good chunk of the season and he's coming back but um there's been a lot of skepticism of him and in the preseason workouts and stuff he's been a little messy doesn't look himself people are saying that his leg and I've seen it the leg that he hurt is like so much more skinnier than the other leg like it's it's noticeable that he's got to build back some muscle yeah so I think that's hurting him too like if Mahomes isn't going to play well then Travis Kelsey isn't probably going to play too well so I think the Chiefs are kind of being looked at as maybe another I don't know not great no one wants them on their fantasy team well we're continuing Travis Kelsey yeah I mean he might not be uh getting picked for fantasy football teams but he is picking out homes in Ohio apparently Taylor Swift and Travis Kelsey purchased a 5.3 million dollar home in Ohio which is not the location one would think they would go to but I guess it's Travis is from Ohio okay that makes sense that makes sense um yeah so they uh they bought a 5.3 million dollar house there's not much there's a picture of it that's being their neighbor right like it's close to other homes it's not like it's in the middle of nowhere but it looks like it's on the water it might be right on the lakefront on the great lake there outside of Cleveland 3.5 acre property sits right on the lake roughly 21,000 square foot home has eight bedrooms and 11 bathrooms I'll just take the bathroom the bathroom's probably big enough I could make it my room right exactly um the lower level has been turned into a private playground with billiards poker a bar with a wine cellar and a fitness area with a sauna nice nice so happy for them that's awesome love that um few minutes left I gotta talk about dancing with the stars because it's been you know something that I've been looking forward to for a while but the cast list officially came out on Wednesday there are some highlights a lot of them were speculated and uh they actually pretty much all the rumored cast members were on they've been announcing really every couple weeks so we already knew that Jackson Olsen from the savannah bananas was announced earlier this year um Tyler Cameron from the bachelor he's just he's a general contractor now he's just kind of a normal dude who got famous from the bachelor and he's he's rolling with it Maura Higgins from the traders love her she was on love island then was on the traders last season lost at the end to Rob Rauch who I was hoping was going to be on dancing with the stars but he did not uh get cast this time or did not decide to do this time Amber Glenn do you remember her theater we're excited and then uh the guy from Jimmy Falun is on too yes um Guillermo Rodriguez yeah yep he's on there Connor Wood's a podcaster my friend really likes him he's funny there's also only the second time in history that there is a same-sex couple there's two females dancing together that is Sarah Jane Nader and she's it's her first season as a ballroom pro so that's cool um and then who else do we have on here of notable I mean they're all obviously notable Connor Leavitt his wife was on it last year Whitney Leavitt um made it I think she got fifth place but she she was so good she then was on Broadway and is now going to be on Broadway again and cool her husband uh he does magic he does tiktok okay he's a magician now he's gonna be on it so yeah there's I mean a ton of Jackson get paired up with Emma Slater yeah that'll be exciting she's the past couple seasons she's been paired with um people who got out relatively early so maybe this is the one that she can take that she can take fun who do you think will win oh I don't know it's so early to tell like a hope Amber Amber Glenn I I would like to see her go far um Harry Shum Jr. also from Glee he's with Jenna Johnson um I could see them going far I don't know it would be cool to see Jackson going far more Higgins I was telling Maddie last night because Maddie was bringing up some of the cast and I was like could you imagine if Jackson wins dance with the stars I grew up with the kid like I I know him from him him just being a normal guy in high school playing baseball with him he played football and flag football in my front yard of my house with all my friends like and now he's uh on dancing with the stars and I'm like this kid I don't know like it's just it's wild yeah that is that's that's that is wild but yeah we're excited the premiere is uh the 15th so we'll have to talk about I'm gonna make Chris and Nick talk about it almost every I'll talk about it because like I'll keep an eye on Jackson yeah but it's fun it's always fun it's fun to see the success stories of people who aren't dancers you know so yeah it'll be good it'll be good all right well stay safe this Labor Day weekend enjoy it enjoy the weather and yeah we'll be back not Monday but we'll be back in Wednesday of next week all right bye