Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Mar 23, 2021

Fast food: Gotta love the folks at Krispy Kreme, who are giving away free doughnuts to anyone who shows their COVID-19 vaccine card. FOR THE NEXT YEAR. The giveaway began yesterday, and all you need to do is show up, present that COVID-19 vaccination card you got and you'll receive one free original glazed doughnut (Limit one per customer per day).

PS: Apparently you only have to have gotten your first dose, if you went for a Pfizer or Moderna two-dose vaccine. The giveaway runs through the end of 2021.

And PPS: Krispy Kreme is also giving their employees up to four hours of paid time off to get both vaccine doses.

While we're on the COVID-19 subject, a new study from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows that in the past year of the pandemic, 42-percent of people report gaining more weight than intended, while just 18-percent said they lost more weight than they wanted. The average amount of weight gained by that 42 percent was 29 pounds. Poll your listeners...

And the final report about the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid vaccine trials here in the US are out and the vaccine was 79-percent effective at stopping symptomatic Covid disease and 100-percent effective at preventing people from falling seriously ill. And as far as that report about people who took the vaccine getting blood clots --there were no blood clots in the study's patients.

Get well: Actress PORTIA de ROSSI underwent surgery on Friday for appendicitis. People magazine reports the 48-year-old is now home recovering with her wife, ELLEN DeGENERES and is "doing well."

Movie news: Variety reports JAMIE FOXX will play MIKE TYSON in a new limited series about the boxing great, which will reportedly span the whole of Tyson’s life.

TV Talk: TED DANSON’s political comedy “Mr. Mayor” has been renewed for a second season on NBC.

And from the REAL outback --Reuters reports there's a place in China which calls itself the world’s first “polar bear hotel” --where you can view the bears from all 21 guest rooms around the clock. The hotel borders on the Harbin Polarland theme park in Harbin, China, and it'll cost you a mere $290.10 to $351.56 a night to stay there. Plus travel expenses, of course. Animal rights groups are (of course) more than a bit upset at the hotel, since they believe the bears should not be removed from their home in the Arctic. Harbin Polarland, which was established in 2005, calls itself "the world’s first polar performing arts amusement park."