Tim Phillips Show, 10/6/26

WalletHub’s ranking of the Best Small Cities in America has just come out for 2026.

They compared over 13-hundred cities (1,318) with populations between 25-thousand and 100-thousand, rating them on 45 key indicators of livability, in areas of affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life and safety.

Cities were rated on everything from housing costs to quality of school systems to the unemployment rate and the number of restaurants per capita.

Based on all this and more, Lexington, Massachusetts, is this year’s best small city to live in. It has low rates of violent crime and property crime, as well as a low number of car crash deaths and drunk driving fatalities. Lexington also has one of the highest median annual household incomes, at more than $238-thousand, plus Massachusetts is the state with the best school systems in the country.
Granger, Indiana, is number one for affordability, while Apex, North Carolina, is first for economic health, and Arlington, Massachusetts, is tops for education & health. Coming in first for quality of life is Sarasota, Florida, and Sterling, Virginia, tops the list for safety.

The Top 10 Best Small Cities in America

Lexington, Massachusetts
Brookfield, Wisconsin
Carmel, Indiana
Apex, North Carolina
Saratoga Springs, New York
Westfield, Indiana
Milton, Massachusetts
Arlington, Massachusetts
Franklin, Tennessee
Fishers, Indiana
Source: WalletHub

Two For Tuesday

Reynolds Market invites you to stop in today for the Deal of the Day! It might be a household item, a beverage, some food to stock up the pantry with, or something for dinner tonight! Today’s Deal of the Day: And the savings – always a big discount, and sometimes well more than 50% off! So come on in, shop and save, with the Reynolds Market Deal of the Day – today, at Reynolds Market in Glasgow!

Tuesday: 80% Ground Beef $3.99 per pound

Whether you dip into the bags you buy to pass out to trick-or-treaters, or wait to raid your kids’ candy haul, we all have our favorite Halloween candies, but a new report reveals the most popular ones in the country. Instacart’s Sweet Tooth Report has just come out, highlighting what’s filling treat bowls across the U.S.

The team at Instacart analyzed 2025 orders to find out the top Halloween trends in candy and costumes.

It reveals that Reese’s still runs the country, as Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups hold onto the title of number one candy by ounces sold. They’re also the top seller in 40 states.

Landing at number two is Peanut M&M’s, both for ounces sold and number of states it was the top seller in.

Rhode Island is the only state where a different candy takes the top spot. Sour Patch Kids beat both Reese’s and Peanut M&M’s there.

A few Western states tend to go big with candy buying, with Utah, Idaho and Alaska buying the most candy compared to the rest of the country.

The sugar rush research also looks at which candy each state buys way more than any other state. It finds that Montana buys Hi-Chew 616% more than the national average, Louisiana is totally devoted to Tootsie Pops (141% above national average) and Rhode Island’s Sour Patch Kids top the rest of the country (109% over the national average).

The top-selling costumes on Instacart are skeleton and witch for adults, and Ghostface and witch for kids. The number one food-themed adult costume is banana, followed by hot dog and peanut butter and jelly.

The Top 10 Halloween Candies Sold on Instacart in October

Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups

Peanut M&M’s

Hershey’s Milk Chocolate

M&M’s

Snickers

KitKat

Sour Patch Kids

HARIBO Goldbears

Skittles

Twix

Source: Instacart

Tim's News You Can't Use 

Fun Facts About Tacos ... Today is National Taco Day
The largest taco ever made weighed 1,654 pounds and was nearly 36 feet long. It contained more than 1,180 pounds of grilled steak.
There is a Guinness World Record for the largest display of different taco varieties. It currently stands at 186 varieties.
The longest line of tacos ever assembled contained 11,400 tacos. It was created at a barbacoa festival in Mexico in 2025.
The word “taco” may have started out referring to little paper-wrapped charges of gunpowder used by Mexican silver miners. The food and the explosive apparently eventually shared a name.
The first known mention of tacos in the United States appeared in a newspaper in 1905.
A taco shell wasn't a Taco Bell invention. Mexican restaurateurs had already received U.S. patents for making pre-fried taco shells in the 1940s, before Taco Bell founder Glen Bell claimed to have invented the technique in the 1950s
A survey by Ortega reveals that 2% of people have never eaten a taco. Other findings:
- 53% of people prefer soft shell tacos to hard shell ones.
- 10% of people have eaten six or more tacos at one meal.
- top taco topping... cheese
- least favorite taco topping... onions
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If you’re buying pumpkins for Halloween, there’s no need to wait until the last minute. Farmers’ Almanac recommends shopping in early to mid-October, since a healthy uncarved pumpkin can last much longer than one that’s already been cut open. For a fresh-looking jack-o’-lantern on Halloween, aim to carve around October 28th through 30th, or even Halloween day if the weather is especially warm and humid. The biggest keys are choosing a firm, undamaged pumpkin and keeping it cool, dry and out of prolonged sun until you’re ready to carve.
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Yahoo Entertainment says Peanut M&M's have been named the “healthiest” Halloween candy. Registered dietitian Rose Britt says, “It's not a whole balance, but it will give us a little more sense of fullness compared to our more traditional, straight-sugar type candies.” Britt also likes Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and Snickers as more complex choices, and Smarties as a relatively low-calorie sugary option. Dietitians recommend looking for Halloween treats with protein or fiber and chocolate with 70 to 85% cocoa. Dark chocolate typically has less sugar than milk chocolate.
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Baller Alert says some singles are continuing to use LinkedIn to meet romantic partners, even though the platform is built for professional networking.  22% of workers have sent or answered a LinkedIn message with romantic intentions while 12% have entered a relationship that began there. 48% of people consider LinkedIn profile information more trustworthy than information in a dating-app bio.
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Nestlé Toll House is marking the holidays with its first-ever advent calendar in the brand’s 88-year history. The house-shaped calendar includes 12 baking products, mixing familiar favorites with two new seasonal releases: Snowflake Morsels and Snowflake Cookie Dough. Behind the other doors, you’ll find more treats, including the brand’s Santa’s Cookie Dough and Holiday Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. The $29.99 calendar will be sold exclusively through the Toll House website in three limited drops starting at 2 p.m. this Friday, followed by drops on November 6th and on National Cookie Day, December 4th. The new snowflake products will also be heading to stores for the holiday season.
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C4 Energy has released a new non-alcoholic energy drink called "All Hopped Up" that's designed to taste just like a light, citrusy beer. The drink is designed for the "sober-curious" crowd and clocks in at 200 milligrams of caffeine — with a vitamin B12 boost. There's zero alcohol and no artificial colors. Be on the lookout as C4 is rolling this stuff out at college tailgate parties in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin in the coming weeks.
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The tech company Neurable has launched its new $500 "Neurable One" headphones, which track your brain activity while you work so you can stay sharp and avoid mental burnout. Instead of just tracking physical steps or heart rate like a smartwatch, these over-ear headphones monitor your brain waves to spot when you are locked in and working at your best. When your focus starts to slip or your brain gets tired, the headphones prompt you to step away and take a breather so you don't waste your mental energy. By giving people real-time data on their focus, stress, and processing speed — and even showing how a bad night of sleep hurts your brain power the next day — these headphones are designed to help workers and students boost their daily output without crashing.
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United Press International says Brazil's João Neto and Australia's Ken Weeks turned 114 and 113 yesterday.  Born exactly one year apart, they exchanged photos of themselves holding cards celebrating each other's birthdays. Guinness World Records confirmed Neto as the world's oldest living man and Weeks as the second-oldest.
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A banner hanging on a train overpass for almost a month in Roselle, New Jersey is now being taken down, after it misspelled the word "visiting" as “V-I-S-I-V-T-I-N-G.” Drivers and people walking by may have gotten a laugh out of it for weeks, but Mayor Donald Shaw says the mistake was only brought to the borough's attention on Tuesday, when former mayor and Assemblyman Jamel Holley took to social media to shade Shaw saying “To those visiting the Borough of Roselle or just passing through: on behalf of our residents, who are by and large remarkable people, please know that the incompetence of borough government is not a reflection of this community. Note: if anyone knows the Borough Administrator, please have them take down and replace the sign. ‘Visiting’ is spelled incorrectly.” Mayor Shaw says the banner will be replaced by the weekend.
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As gas and diesel prices climb, so do the instances of fuel thievery. Not all of those thieves are competent, however. In Seattle, two would-be gas heisters accidentally lit themselves aflame while trying to snatch gas from box trucks in their neighborhood. Multiple 911 calls were made at around 1:30 am on Friday reporting several trucks on fire. One of the suspects was apprehended near the fire, and the other is still at large…and police believe he “may have a possible heat injury or singed hair and eyebrows.”