RANDOM RICK-NESS

I’m counting on YOU! I need 177 of you to donate 5 bucks to my Salvation Army kettle. The Salvation Army entrusted ME with raising 963 dollars for them and I am WOEFULLY short! I only raised 75 bucks so far and TIME IS RUNNING OUT! Maybe it’s because I don’t have a Facebook page to spread the word. If you do, would you post this on it, or a link to my kettle? For each 5 dollar donation, you are automatically entered for a drawing to win a trip for two to Cancun. Money raised feeds people in St. Louis. It gives housing to the homeless. It gives gifts to kids for Christmas. It helps people who are living in a crisis mode RIGHT NOW.

P-l-e-a-s-e don’t let THEM down. Be one of the 177. Just be one! Can you do it now? Right now? www.khits.com/kettle

MORNING MUSINGS

Morning Show Musings for Thursday, December 23rd

Are you hunting for some good entertainment (or anything, really, to get you out of the house for a coupla hours)?

If you'd like to see a review of "Cirque Dreams Holidaze," which runs through December 29th at the Fabulous Fox, check out "Drama Queen" on our Morning Show page.

Or, if movies are more your style, reviews for "the King's Speech" (which opens Christmas day) and for "True Grit" and "All Good Things" (which opened earlier this week), as well as lots of other films, can be found at "Mac at the Movies" on the Morning Show page. (Just a hint. I LOVED two of these three flicks.)

Lots of people love those Rams! 59% of respondents to a national poll in "USA Today" think the Rams will clinch the NFC West. 26% have faith in the 49ers, and 15% still hold out hope for the Seahawks.

And we're favored (by 2 points, but, still...) to win this weekend against the 49ers. Tickets are still available for the noon game, and it's Fan Appreciation Day, so, get appreciated and go! Click HERE

This date in 1972, one of the most famous plays in sports history occurred. The Steelers turned around a 7 - 6 deficit with a last second "Immaculate Reception" touchdown from Terry Bradshaw to Franco Harris. The TD gave the Steelers the 13 - 7 playoff game win over the Oakland Raiders. Click HERE

Do you know your metric system measurements? Back in 1975 on this date, the Metric Conversion Act was passed by Congress in an effort to change the U.S. over to the metric system. How did that go?

The U.S. Metric Association has been trying to get us to go metric since 1916. They're still trying reeaallly hard. Here's their site: Click HERE

Will you be sitting in front of the TV beginning at 8pm Christmas Eve, as TBS does their "Christmas Story" marathon?

Rick is the god of "Christmas Story" trivia, and he shared these tidbits with us:

- Jack Nicholson was interested in playing Ralphie's dad, but paying Jack-o would have meant doubling the film's entire budget. (But I LOVE Darrin McGavin as the dad!)

- Ralphie says he wants that blasted Red Ryder BB Gun 28 times during the movie. That's once every 3 minutes and 20 seconds. (It sounds like a drinking game is in the works.)

- Peter Billingsley, who played Ralphie, has been good pals with Vince Vaughn ever since they both appeared in a "CBS Schoolbreak Special" in the early 90s. Billingsley spends most of his time behind the camera nowadays. He was the executive producer for "Iron Man" and "Four Christmases."

- "Mythbusters" tested whether or not it was possible to get your tongue stuck on a piece of cold metal. Be careful. It is.

- Scott Schwartz, the actor who played Flick, the kid who stuck his tongue to the frozen flagpole, used his tongue in other films, too. He entered the adult film industry for a number of years. Recently, though, he's tried to become a mainstream actor again.

If you're a Heart fan AND an ice skating fan, your ship has come in. Don't miss this Sunday's "Brian Boitano Skating Spectacular" at 3:00 Central on NBC, with a special appearance by Heart. Boitano says of Heart, quote, "I just love it when they sound like their albums, and they sound better than ever...It was great to skate to them."

Boitano is a busy boy. Just lookee here:

My husband was born the day after Christmas. That's bad enough. But being born ON Christmas can get to ya. Former Eurythmics lead singer Annie Lennox was a Christmas baby, and she says, quote, "The question growing up, obviously, was, 'Did I get two sets of presents?' and yes I did. I felt like I was very patient to wait all that time. But now at my age [56 this Saturday], Christmas just eclipses my birthday."

Other Christmas birthdays include Jimmy Buffett and Karl Rove.

Joe Perry is still pouting about Steven Tyler's stint with "American Idol." Four of the five members of Aerosmith say they can record an album this winter and spring, while Tyler is Idoling, but Perry says they have no plans to do so. Perry says he'll be spending some time at his Florida home and possibly in the Caribbean before getting back to work in the spring, including a date in April with Paul Rodgers at London's Royal Albert Hall.

Perry says his favorite Christmas song is "Run Rudolph Run." Hear his remix here: Click HERE

El Monstero performs at the Pageant through December 26th. If you're a Floyd fan, you don't want to miss this! But shows are selling out quickly, so get those tix today at Ticketmaster or The Pageant Box office. Click HERE

If you bought a ticket for this year's "Guns 'N Hoses" event, you did an amazing thing!!! Officials of the St. Louis Guns ‘N Hoses Boxing Association presented a check for $302,864.33 to BackStoppers on Tuesday, Dec. 22nd. Thank you for being one of about 16 thousand people to enjoy the event and support BackStoppers!

The annual "New Year for the Strays Trivia Night" is January 8th at the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark! The event benefits Stray Rescue of St. Louis, along with several spay/neuter programs that are such an important part of contributing the animal rescue efforts in the city of St. Louis. Event hosts expect another sellout for the second-largest trivia night in all of St. Louis, so they recommend that you register early.

Tables of 10 are $300, and corporate table for $500 includes 2 valet parking passes, a VIP gift bag and a personal runner/server for your table. And, thanks to the St. Louis Cardinals, the first 150 people who donate a bag of Purina dog food will receive a voucher good for 2 tickets to a 2011 Cardinals regular season home game – vouchers are limited so be sure to arrive early!

To register a table or as an individual, please go to: Click HERE

This is our last week for online Salvation Army kettles and our faboo auction items. (This week it's $500 worth of yummy restaurant gift certificates!) If you'd like to donate to the Salvation Army here on our website, then you can walk confidently past the real live kettles while you're doing your last-minute shopping and feel good knowing that if you don't stop and hunt up some change to toss in, you've still done something very good for a very good organization! (And a chance at a Funjet vacation doesn't hurt a bit! For every $5 you donate to our online kettles, you get one entry into the Funjet vacation contest!) Thank you so very much to all of the kind, generous people who have donated this year! We all know what a challenge it is right now for everyone to come up with a few extra dollars to give to charity, and we thank you so much for your selflessness!!!

We're taking a few days off, but we will see you again on Wednesday, December 29th. Have a wonderful holiday, and thanks for listening to KHITS!!!

Mac