Off The Desk 11/11/26

Hello, happy Wednesday. Welcome back to Off The Desk. I'm Kaylee Collins. I'm Julia O'Keefe. And I'm Chris Pazakis. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. Weather Wednesday. You actually have some weather to talk about. Yeah, yeah. A very different looking weather Wednesday from last week when I was talking about 70s, 80s. Now we're talking about some 40s and maybe some Some snow in some spots, in the Berkshires especially. Today is a nice day. I know it's Veterans Day, so thank you to all those who have served. I know there's a lot of events going on in some communities today, so nice to be outside. Upper 50s, near 60s, sun and cloud mix as we go through the afternoon, but dry. Tonight, we'll bring in some rain after midnight. On and off rain through much of the day tomorrow. Thank Temperature's a lot cooler, only in the upper 40s for your day on Thursday. And then those temperatures just continue to get colder. Likely only in the upper 30s and low 40s for Friday with a very cold rain up and down the valley. But some of the Berkshires, Berkshire towns, you. could mix with some wet snow or get maybe a little minor snow accumulation like the grassy surfaces and stuff there. But not expecting much of anything here in the valley. And then even the weekend looks chilly. Still in the 40s. So yeah, we're kind of in that stretch of colder weather. It is November at some point. Yeah, it's funny. It does feel like we just kind of flipped really fast, though. The fall weather was more definitely early September, like, honestly. Yeah, we're flipping the switch pretty quickly to those colder temperatures. Yeah. Yeah. Especially Friday. I have 41 on the 7 day, but there's some models that don't even get us out of the 30s on Friday. It looks to be pretty chilly. And I think you're going to see a lot of nighttime temperatures that are around or below freezing coming up. I mean, we've got some 20s for a good chunk of next week at night. So it is going to get quite chilly around here, but we're heading towards the middle or end, yeah, middle of November now. Yeah, which is crazy. Yeah, Thanksgiving's only a couple weeks away. Coming up quick. It is. Holiday season. It is coming up quick. Matt and I were actually looking at our calendar last night. We're trying to plan getting our Christmas tree. And potentially, we're either going to do it the weekend of Thanksgiving. If not, depending on our schedule with everyone, we might even get it like next weekend. Oh, really? Yeah, I don't know. So I'm like, oh, man. Because our weekends coming up are wild. So, yeah, I mean, Thanksgiving's two weeks away. So it's funny. I did yesterday buy a new shower curtain and it is kind of Christmas. Oh, look at that. It's like evergreen trees and some deer. I got it at the dollar store. I wanted something different. It was cheap. I'm like, I'll put this one up. And Bobby came home and I was like, did you notice anything in the bathroom? He goes in there, he's like, a Christmas game. Okay, we're ready. I don't know. We haven't done it yet, but Maddie and I have these like Christmas-themed flannel bedsheets. Nice. Oh, nice. It's nice to get festive. Deer and trees. Yeah. And there's like a sleigh, or like not a sleigh, the red classic Christmas truck. Oh, yeah. Oh, I love the trucks. Love it. Cool. Only amount of time for all that. We're getting close. Yeah, I'm going to slowly start. Taking out some more of my decor. Yeah. See what happens. Well, today is Veterans Day, as we've been talking about. There are several events going on around the area to honor all veterans. Nick Antonakis was out there this morning on the bridge between West Springfield and Agawam. He covered that ceremony that happened. Then there's a parade that takes off from Springfield, along with several others in the area. So today is a day, obviously, to keep veterans in your thoughts and thank them if you see them out there today or maybe go try to attend one of these. ceremonies that are happening as well. Do you guys have any veterans in your family? Yeah, a good amount. I have a good amount as well. My grandfather was a Marine. My uncle was also a Marine, fought in Vietnam. My great-grandfather fought in World War II. Wow. Two of my cousins are active duty right now. Wow. One is a Marine, the other one is in the Navy. So yeah, we have a good amount. Yeah, me too. I have a bunch of uncles that couple were in the army. One was in the Marines. My dad served in the Navy. My papa served in the Navy. Lots of great uncles. One of my great uncles fought in Vietnam as well. And I think somewhere in my family lineage, there were people who also fought in World War II. So yeah, kind of crazy. Yeah, my grandfather and my uncle were, you know, drafted. Obviously, there was the draft back then. That's crazy to think about. They didn't really choose to go. Yeah, they would tell me stories like every night at five o'clock, you'd sit on the couch and you'd watch the TV and they would roll through birthdays. And if your birthday came up, you were drafted to go. I can't even imagine what that feels like. And you had to leave almost immediately. Especially during active war. Yeah. Do you know how old they were when that happened? Yeah. Like, just freshly 18? My grandparents actually had to hold off their wedding because my grandfather was 19. My gosh. Wow. And my uncle was in his early 20s. But there's a picture of my great-grandfather. I think he was, like, literally, like, 17, 18 years old when he went to— That's so crazy. —into the Army. Like, there's a picture of him, and he looks like a child. Wow. You are a child at that age. It's so hard to think of. And like, I know that. And that's the age that now you can choose to go into the military too, but it's just used to seem so young at 18. And my other grandfather, my dad's dad, uh, almost got drafted too, but literally, um, like the week before his birthday, technically would have came up and they stopped the draft. That's crazy. Wow. So he never got drafted. A whole different life story. Yeah. Yeah. Well, obviously, you know, it's a, great service that all these veterans do and they give up a lot to be able to go and do that for their country. So again, thank you to everybody who has served. And hopefully if you have the time and availability, you can go and go to one of those local events that are being held today. Yeah, absolutely. Do you have anyone, Julia? Not immediately that I know of, but one of my mom's cousins is actively in the Air Force right now. Awesome. Yeah. Um, there's also some businesses that are closed today too. So if you're planning on going to the store or the post office, obviously, uh, keep that in mind, check to see if things are open before you go there. Um, kids are out of school, so it's a good time to, to, to observe the day and go to a ceremony if you can. Yeah, absolutely. All right. We'll take a quick break and come back in a couple of minutes. All right, welcome back to Off the Desk on this Wednesday morning. Something else on the national calendar today, kind of a fun one. It's National Sunday Day, Ice Cream Sunday Day. Sunday Day. Sunday Day. Kind of funny that it's on a Wednesday. But I guess maybe, you know, when this day falls on a Sunday, look at that. It works out even better. Um... But yeah, what are your guys' Sunday orders? What are your favorite ice cream toppings? I haven't had like a sundae in a long time. I used to love the one at Friendly's when I was a kid. It's kind of a classic with the little monster one. Yeah, that was good. As far as just my ice cream order, I feel like I like coffee ice cream and I will get like hot fudge on that. Thank Maybe sometimes like a homemade whipped cream. Okay. Yeah. But I'm not huge into sprinkles. Like if there's like a, maybe if it's soft serve, you like a vanilla chocolate twist, maybe I'll put sprinkles on it. for But I don't know. I don't need the extra crunch on my ice cream. Okay. But. Every now and again, maybe like a cookie dough that has like that. a little something in it, you know, but like I'm not huge on toppings other than maybe like hot fudge or caramel sauce or something. I like caramel sauce. Yeah. Caramel sauce is good. When I used to work at an ice cream place, people would order the earthworm sundae. Okay. And it was in a banana boat, so like a banana split. Yeah. It's Oreo. Well, you put hot fudge on the bottom. That's the key. Then three scoops of Oreo ice cream, then more hot fudge, whipped cream, Oreo topping, and then gummy worms on it. That was the earthworm sundae. That sounds good. Yeah. Except the gummy worms freeze. Oh. So those are not as great to eat, but it looked cool. I like Oreo ice cream. Oreos are good. That was a fun one to make. I think I'm a classic. Well, now I just am a good old hot fudge sundae guy with like a twist ice cream. Yeah, love twist. When I was a kid, there was this place in our town that my grandparents would take us to get ice cream sometimes after school. And I would always get, it was like a cookie dough ice cream. And then it was hot fudge, like crushed up Oreo cookie with like whipped cream. Nice. That sounds good. I think I had like M&M's on it every now and then. Like, I don't know. Bunch of good candy and stuff. Yeah. So good. Yum. Love ice cream. Yeah, it's obviously chilly now, but I think every day is an ice cream day. You can't have ice cream all year long. Yeah. Really can't. Anytime. I actually had ice cream last night. I hadn't had it in a long time. It was one of those ice cream sandwiches, but it was the, I think it was like the Nestle. I can't tell you the last time I had ice cream. Yeah, it was before then. I couldn't, I don't know, but it was good. We have ice from my freezer. I don't eat it. Kind of it. Uh, it's like the split of the chocolate and vanilla. Make yourself a sundae. Maddie, Maddie eats it. I don't know. I was telling, I think I was telling you Julia once, like, I don't, I only eat ice cream like really in the summer, but like, I remember that. Well, I'll always have ice cream and stuff in my freezer. I'll never touch it. I used to be like that. And then, I don't know. I feel like when I was pregnant, I started to enjoy sweets more again. And like, now I feel like, yeah, like if we have ice cream, I'll eat it. But I was never really into it that much. I love ice cream. I could eat it every day. That's how my father-in-law is. He will eat ice cream every day if he could. Love ice cream. Well, have a Sunday. Today's a good day for that. So, National Sunday Day. Yeah. And other pop culture, I guess, lighter news. Well, actually, I don't know. Because there was a tough elimination last night on Dancing with the Stars. So, I don't know if this is even considered lighter news. But we're getting down to the semifinals. Last night was Grammy night. So, everyone was dancing to Grammy. Award-winning artists and songs, and it was a good selection of music, tough dances, and it ended up being a really shocking, I guess, bottom two, although they always say not necessarily the bottom two, but it's the wow factor of the two people where production puts them there on purpose, thinking like, oh, maybe one of them's going to go home, but it's the other one. Okay. Anyway, so it came down to the final two. And one of them was Tatiana Ali, who I really want to go far. She's doing so great. I think she's embodying what the competition is all about. And then the other person in the bottom two was Jenna Dewan, who is a known trained dancer. Yeah. Doing fantastic on the show. But immediately you're like, oh, no, is Tatiana going to go? I did vote for Tatiana and only Tatiana. That's that's only been where my votes have gone. Yeah. Yeah, but... It ended up coming down to the two of them, and Jenna Dewan got sent home. Really? So Tatiana stuck it out, but it's always shocking to see the trained dancer who is giving undeniable, jaw-dropping performances. She totally should have gotten a perfect score last night. I think she got two nines and a ten when someone like that goes home. And it shows, like, I think what the audience of Dancing with the Stars has changed a lot. Towards kind of rooting for the people who come in with little to no dancing experience versus the couples who are the couple of them who do come in with dancing experience, because people like that story, that progression of of your learning to dance. You're working so hard at something that's unfamiliar to you and then doing really well. So I don't know. I think there is something to be said about that. I don't really watch Dancing with the Stars, even though I should. I just see like the clips online. But yeah, for somebody who. doesn't have any experience and then you see them improve so much and to a point where you're kind of like, oh, they could be at the level almost of this professional dancer or somebody with a dance background. I can see why people enjoy that and want to see how far they can continue going. But yeah, I don't know. It's also interesting with Dancing with the Stars. So they They get the people who are competing. Have a judge or judges give them scores, but then everyday people can also vote. Yeah. So how is the elimination determined on the like popular vote or from the judges or is it combined? It's combined, but not by a percentage. It's literally just added. Like it's just thrown on. So and the scores, I mean, you could probably imagine, obviously the popular vote is not necessarily going to be. representative of the judges scores and the judges scores they only have they can only be given one through ten and they're all pretty much within one or two points of each other every every week um the judges and then that translates to the couples really only being i don't know five to six points off necessarily when there are big gaps and right now everyone's getting pretty much only nines and tens like last night no one got an eight so you can imagine how The popular vote is going to be. Way more spread out than the judges' scores. Yeah. So they're just tacked on there. Interesting. Yeah. Sometimes I wish that the judges' scores weighed a little bit more than the popular vote. So, um... But I don't know. It's been fun to watch and going in now. To the semifinals, it's going to be interesting to see what happens. Obviously, I think I mentioned this before, too, but social media is playing a very, very large part in the voting and kind of the audience of it this year. You have people who aren't even watching the show, but they'll see someone on TikTok and then go to vote. Yeah, see, like me, I only see highlights and clips. I don't vote on the actual show, but I only know some of the people that are even competing on there through TikTok, you know? Yeah. So I did, I wonder what your thoughts are on this. Cause I've heard people on different podcasts talking about dancing with the stars and how it's changed over the years and making the point of like, it's not really dancing with the stars anymore. It's like dancing with the C-list celebrities or like dancing with the influencers, because there's a lot of people who go on as dancers that like. I had to look them up, you know what I mean? Or maybe you're familiar with from going online, but otherwise you wouldn't really know them. A lot of reality TV stars. And I thought that was kind of interesting because when did Dancing with the Stars get its start? And back in the day, was it? really well-known celebrities or was it always kind of people who were in some realm of the public eye, but maybe not like A-list celebrities? Yeah, I think, I mean, going back, I'm trying to think like Kim Kardashian was on it. Tons of athletes, like you can, there are some that could definitely be considered A-list. And yeah, back in the day, I think now that we have a whole new. Kind of category of celebrities as influencers or like Maura Higgins. Yes, she was on Love Island, but now she's known famously on TikTok. Sam Connor Wood got a start on TikTok. So it's like that's a whole new category. Yeah, I don't know Maura Higgins, but I know Connor Wood. Yeah. Just from being online. So I don't know. It's interesting. Also, I think with it has become. increasingly popular because of this new generation of TikTok fame really that I think Dancing with the Stars is becoming so mainstream that it's tough for A-list celebrities nowadays to do it. Yeah like I can't even I'm trying to think of an example of someone like like okay for example this is an extreme example Taylor Swift could never do Dancing with the Stars because it's just too mainstream like it's just too you're so much in the eye. Yeah. I'm trying to think who else, but that was a very extreme example. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. I don't know. Social media really is changing so many industries. So just like our way of life. Yeah, it's just kind of crazy. No, totally. Yeah, but it is though. Yeah, Chris, that's what Jackson Olsen got on Dancing with the Stars basically because of TikTok and the Savannah Bananas, but he's a TikToker. Yeah, I think his social media presence is what has actually made him famous. I mean, that's what got him anywhere. I mean, that's what got him on the Savannah Bananas pretty much. That's what got him on Dancing with the Stars. As far as... I think you're going to see a lot of that in the future. A lot of these like Social media influencer kind of famous people. Yeah. Because you're not going to see like, like you said, Taylor Swift or like, I don't know, some big TV actor like Mark Wahlberg or some huge name dancing on Dancing with the Stars. Yeah. It's almost, it's also interesting. You could have a whole conversation on how like social media and influencer culture and everything has really impacted. Like the television movie industry and music industry, because I think it was maybe Jennifer Aniston. This was a few years ago who was talking about it and she was being interviewed and she was talking about how it feels like Hollywood has like lost its glamour. Because if you do think about it at what like red carpet events used to be. Solely for movie stars, people who worked hard to become like an actor, actress, musician or whatever. Maybe not red carpets for musicians, but and like those types of events. And now you see influencers at all of these. Influencers are the ones that are maybe doing interviews with these celebrities who are attending these events. And it's like when you really think about it, how do these people, what is it that they're known for and it's it's just presenting their you know personality on social media yeah so it kind of just changes versus before it was like oh these people are are known and people are interested in their lives because they saw them acting on a tv screen or a movie screen and now it's just different right you know i also think uh Maybe you can disagree, but I feel like if you're so big of a name, like you had, like you said, Taylor Swift on it, you have such a following that you're going to get so many votes and like, I don't know, we're just going to rig the whole thing almost. I don't know. Yeah, that also definitely plays a part in that. This year too, though, and I think this is something that's changed in the era of streaming and Disney Plus and Hulu, which are all Disney, ABC companies, because Dance with the Stars is on ABC, Hulu, Disney, all those things. A lot of the celebrities that they choose kind of have those network ties. Which has gotten some criticism this year. Oh, you did say that. Yeah, because there's only a few that don't necessarily have a super strong network connection. Thank But, you know, of course, the network is doing what they can. Maybe it's because they're so accessible to them, like through the network or, you know, there's lots of partnerships there. So it's interesting to see kind of in this whole era of streaming and those ties, how celebrities get picked that way too, maybe. you. Right. I don't know. That's a lot of speculation there. Yeah. There was a meteorologist on Dancing with the Stars. Look at that. Oh, that's right. That's right. A long time ago. Ginger Z. But she's for ABC News. Yeah. Ah, okay. Good morning, America. I think I met Ginger Z. Did you? Really? Now I'm like, was she there? I think she was there. I went in college, like a bunch of my classmates and I, who were involved in one of our broadcast classes, were able to go to a live recording of the Today Show. And I think she was there. I can't remember. Yeah, it was years ago. It was when I was a junior or senior in college. But it was a really fun day. It was, it went. This was when Michael Strahan was there a couple of years ago. Good morning, America. Good morning, America. Not the Today Show. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he handed out cookies. He gave us chocolate chip cookies. Oh, nice. Look at that. Yeah, it was cool. Awesome. Cool. So, yeah. Take another short break and come back with something else. All right, welcome back to these last few minutes of Off the Desk. We're going to talk about something a little bit silly. You may have seen this on social media, and I thought it was fake at first, but it wasn't. Um, the News Nation headline is hundreds gather at Chicago's bean to push it seven inches to the left. And yes, a crowd of people, a massive crowd of people gathered this weekend and pushed the bean. They moved it. That's so crazy. I, yeah. What's the reason? Well, so they, there were flyers posted around the city that read, we need to move the bean seven inches to the left. Okay. Straight to the point. I guess so many people got behind this. So, well, spoiler alert, they didn't actually, it didn't move, but they pushed it. They tried. Um, and And someone said, this is a quote that News Nation has from someone who was right there during the pushing. This is more than just the beam. This is about America. This is about Chicago. Look at that. Some inspiration right there. Thank Yeah, there's some people that think that there's someone living inside the bean, which is why they were going to push it and the guy would come out. The guy would come out. But it's also people are saying, you know, it's a prank and it's a viral joke about that man trapped in the bean. you. With attendees saying the push could help free the man. So that was the first gathering. They're calling it the first great push. So who knows if this will happen again and see if, you know. Where did that legend start that there's a guy in the bean? I don't know. I don't know. But that's just something. Social media. This is what happens. We're talking about it. Different challenges and things that people do get on board with. Yeah. Yeah, I visited Chicago when I was in college and didn't really realize that the Bean was like such a tourist attraction. So I saw it and I was like, cool. Cool. Like didn't take a picture or anything. I've never been to Chicago, but definitely a place that I'd want to go visit. It's cool. It's a cool city. Yeah. But I don't know. I just realized that today is 11-11. 11-11-Make-A-Wish. Tony says that every single day. Whenever the clock hits 11-11, yeah, he's always like, 11-11-Make-A-Wish. I wonder where that comes from, too. It's like angel numbers. It's an angel number or something like that, yeah. Wow. Look at that. So, add 11-11-Make-A-Wish today, because it'll be extra special. Yeah. True. Yeah, for sure. What else do we have here for these last two minutes or so? Did you guys see that Patrick Mahomes, Patrick and... Brittany Mahomes are expecting their fourth child. Yeah. So Brittany's pregnant again. How old is her oldest? Kid. That's a good question. Sure. Okay. Four young kids. That's a lot. A lot of kids. I don't know. Are they all girls too? Also a good question. I don't know. I wonder if the fourth will be a boy. Maybe. Or if they're going to have four girls. Four girls. That'd be a lot. Yeah. But yeah, not yesterday. Yesterday was the trade deadline in the NFL. Oh, really? Yep. Those were pretty big moves. Anything that's going to impact the Patriots? Help the Patriots. The Patriots didn't do anything. No. Bummer. The biggest move yesterday was Kirk Cousins. Oh. He was going back to the Vikings. No way. Really? Yeah. I didn't see that. That's kind of crazy. So Fernando Mendoza is now the starting quarterback for the Raiders. I love him. Wow. I love him. I just thought when, at the draft, when he stayed home to watch it with his mom who couldn't travel because of an illness, I just thought that was sweet. So nice. Huge pick up for the Vikings. They need a quarterback badly. That could hurt the Patriots' chances of playing the Vikings later down the season because we do play them. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. Thanks for being here for Weather Wednesday episode of Off the Desk. We'll be back here tomorrow. We'll see you then. Bye.