Overnight Briefing & General Reality Check - Jul 26, 2021

The Love Boat, etc: the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Miami has lifted any pandemic restrictions on Florida-based cruise ships. That's a big deal for the cruise ship industry, which hires around 159-thousand Florida residents and brings millions of dollars into the state. Now, the new ruling says the cruise ship industry must use the CDC's policies as "guidelines" for passengers.

Comedian JACKIE MASON has died in Manhattan. He was 93 years old. Jackie began his career as a rabbi, then turned to standup comedy, working everything from the Catskills --where he began in nightclubs-- and then to Broadway, TV and everywhere in between. He even received a special Tony Award for his 1988 one-man show called "The World According to Me."

Lotsa news dropped at Comic Con in San Diego over the weekend:
--Netflix says the sixth and final season of "Lucifer" will debut on September 10th. TOM ELLIS stars as Lucifer Morningstar on the show. The show aired its first three seasons on FOX, before they cancelled it and it was picked up by Netflix.
--“The Walking Dead” will start its 11th and final season on AMC on August 22nd at 9 pm (Eastern), with the first episodes streamed a week earlier on AMC-Plus.
--And season 33 of “The Simpsons” will kick off on September 26th with a musical episode headed up by “Frozen” star KRISTEN BELL. She'll take care of Marge's singing voice in the episode, which executive producer MATT SELMAN claimed is “the most musical episode we’ve ever done --almost wall-to-wall music.”

Olympics: Not too much good news from Tokyo, as the opening ceremony Friday night on NBC was the least-viewed in the last 30 years --around 17 million viewers.

Whoops! When you buy a new gun, you probably should be careful with it until you're completely familiar with it. In Pensacola, Florida, CARLOS TUIFUA pulled out his brand-new weapon to show it to a man and a woman at O’Riley’s Uptown Tavern around 11 pm last Thursday night. WEAR-TV reports he finished showing it off by putting it into an imaginary shoulder holster --and accidentally firing it. The bullet hit him in the body, and fortunately, the wound was not serious enough so that Carlos could check himself into a nearby hospital before the police arrived at the bar to find out what had taken place. But they found him at the hospital. He's being charged with carrying a concealed weapon without a permit and improper exhibition of a weapon.

Fast food: The folks at Pizza Hut in Japan have put together an Olympic pizza for their customers. The “Decathlon Pizza” --called the “King of meat-based pizza,” is topped with ten kinds of meat: regular bacon, Iberico thick-sliced bacon, aged bacon, charcoal-grilled beef ribs, beef bulgogi, teriyaki chicken, pulled pork, pepperoni, rough sliced sausage, and Italian sausage. Sorry --no word on any American restaurants featuring the pizza.

More fast food: How about some Skittles yogurt? Yes, the folks at Yoplait have come up with two new, limited-edition yogurt flavors combined with Skittles candy. There's Original and Wild Berry Skittles --both have Yoplait yogurt, but the Original one mixes it with Skittles Original flavor, while the Wild Berry uses Skittles Wild Berry flavor. Both are in stores for a limited time only and reportedly cost 68-cents for a six-ounce cup.