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Morning Buzz: 5 things to know for November 8

Posted at 10:27 AM, Nov 08, 2017
and last updated 2017-11-08 10:27:56-05

1. Before getting caught up in all of the family meal prep for Thanksgiving, take a few minutes to take part in Mel Trotter's Annual Turkey Drop.

Just drop off a frozen turkey or other non-perishable foods to one of their three locations: Celebration Cinema North on the Beltline, Celebration Cinema South on Eastport Drive, and Mel Trotter's downtown Grand Rapids location on Commerce Avenue.

The food will be given to those in need throughout the holiday season.

Organizers are hoping for 1,500 turkeys.

The drive is going on from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. They are always accepting donation online; giving just $15 will cover the cost of one turkey.

2. There's no need to leave the house to get ready for the holidays, because Meijer just announced that it'll deliver toys and more to homes all over Michigan.

It's an expansion of their partnership with Shipt, which already delivers groceries to the front door. In fact, Meijer says it now offers more than 70,000 items for home delivery, and officials expect to make one million deliveries by the end of this year.

The company hopes the move will help it compete with online retailers like Amazon during the holiday season.

3. Here's some exciting news for baseball fans, former Detroit Tigers catcher Lance Parrish will be the next manager of the West Michigan Whitecaps.

Parrish comes to WEst Michigan following four years as manager of the Tigers' AA Erie Seawolves.

Parrish was drafted to the Tigers as the 16th overall pick back in 1974. He played in Detroit for a decade during which time he was named an all-star six times. When the Tigers won the World Series in 1984, he had 33 home runs.

The Whitecaps' first game of the 2018 season is scheduled for April 5 versus the South Bend Cubs at Fifth Third Ballpark.

4. They shined on the ice, now they have something sparkly for their fingers. The Grand Rapids Griffins will have some new rings to show off at their annual Matinee Game.

Monday night, the team got their Calder Cup Championship rings. Last season was their second championship win, after beating the Syracuse Crunch in a six-game series.

The game is at 11 a.m. at Van Andel Arena against the San Antonio Rampage.

5. Twitter is officially wordier, expanding its character limit to 280 characters.

The character limit has been 140 since the social network launched in 2006, but by Tuesday night most tweets started fitting 280 characters.

The new limit will roll out to Twitter users in almost all 40 languages twitter supports, but it won't apply to Japanese, Korean, or Chinese language tweets because those languages can express more thought with fewer characters.