Category: News

This article originally appeared on 06.23.17

Young kids don’t always pick the best times to have emotional meltdowns.

Just ask any parent.

Grocery stores, malls, and restaurants (or any place with lots of people around) in particular seem to bring out the worst in our little ones, prompting explosive tantrums that can make even the most stoic parent turn red-faced with embarrassment.

But why be embarrassed? It’s just kids being kids, after all.

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Actor Justin Baldoni recently shared a poignant photo with his own daughter and the big lesson he learned from his dad about such moments.

Baldoni, best known for his role on the show “Jane the Virgin,” shared a photo his wife, Emily, took while the family was shopping at the local Whole Foods.

In it, Baldoni, along with his father, stares down at his daughter, Maiya. She’s crying and/or wailing on the floor. Who knows about what. Her body is twisted into classic tantrum pose.

The two men look calm. Almost amused, but not in a mocking way.

They certainly are not embarrassed despite a horde of people around them in the store.

When Baldoni posted the photo to his Facebook, he recalled the way his father used to act during the actor’s own tantrums, and how it helped shape him into the man he is today.

I tried to stay off social media yesterday to connect with my family without distraction so I’m posting this today….
Posted by Justin Baldoni on Monday, June 19, 2017

“My dad always let me feel what I needed to feel, even if it was in public and embarrassing,” he wrote.

The post continued:

“I don’t remember him ever saying ‘You’re embarrassing me!’ or ‘Dont cry!’ It wasn’t until recently that I realized how paramount that was for my own emotional development. Our children are learning and processing so much information and they don’t know what to do with all of these new feelings that come up. I try to remember to make sure my daughter knows it’s OK that she feels deeply. It’s not embarrassing to me when she throw tantrums in the grocery store, or screams on a plane. I’m her dad…not yours.

Let’s not be embarrassed for our children. It doesn’t reflect on you. In fact.. we should probably be a little more kind and patient with ourselves too. If we got out everything we were feeling and allowed ourselves to throw tantrums and cry when we felt the need to then maybe we’d could also let ourselves feel more joy and happiness. And that is something this world could definitely use a little more of.”

The photo, which Baldoni calls one of his favorites ever, shows the advice in action.

There’s a lot of pressure out there on both men and women to be the perfect parents at all times.

But being the perfect parent doesn’t mean your kid never gets angry or frustrated or confused. As Baldoni writes, toddlers are really just beginning to learn and explore the world’s boundaries. There’s naturally going to be a lot of swirling emotions as they encounter things and situations they can’t understand.

What’s important is we don’t teach them to hide those feelings or push them down for fear of ridicule — that kind of emotion-management can come back to haunt us as adults. Working through our feelings, or just having a good cry right there in the middle of the grocery store, is an important skill to learn.

The emotional health of our children is certainly worth a few weird stares from people we’ll never seen again.

This article originally appeared on 08.20.15

You’ve probably been there. You’re out and about and you see something that just feels … off.

“Should I step in? … But it’s not really any of my business. … And I’m not even sure they need my help…”

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Our gut tells us to speak up, to ask questions, to tell someone. But often, we don’t.

This happened to Malyk Bonnet, a 17-year-old from Montreal, on Aug. 1, 2015. But instead of ignoring his instincts, he acted brilliantly. It may have saved a woman’s life.

Bonnet had been having a relatively normal day until he spotted something suspicious on his way home.

He’d been waiting for the bus after a shift at the restaurant where he works when he saw a man and woman arguing. He sensed a red flag.

“The guy was screaming at her, the girl,” Bonnet told CBC News. “He wasn’t really gentle with her, and I started watching, because I thought he would hit her, so I approached them a little bit.”

The pair asked Bonnet if he could lend them bus fares to nearby Laval, a city about 25 miles away from downtown Montreal.

Bonnet felt uneasy about what was happening. But instead of declining, he decided to get more involved. He helped the man and woman with their fares and told them he was also traveling to Laval (which was not the case).

“My plan was to keep them in a public place where he wouldn’t hurt her,” Bonnet told Dateline NBC. “I decided to be friendly with the man and have him think I was his friend. I played my game and he seemed to trust me.”

After arriving in Laval, Bonnet suggested they grab a bite to eat. At the restaurant, he gave the pair $50 for food and excused himself to use the restroom. Finally having the opportunity, he called the police and told them “someone had been kidnapped.” Officers arrived minutes later.

What Bonnet hadn’t known at the time was that police were already looking for the perpetrator and his victim.

The abusive man Bonnet reported had abducted his ex-girlfriend just hours beforehand.

“We were looking for a 29-year-old woman who was kidnapped by her former boyfriend earlier that day,” Laval police Lt. Daniel Guérin told CBC News. “We believed that man was very dangerous.”

Previously, the abuser spent time behind bars for assaulting his ex and sending her death threats.

Bonnet told Dateline NBC that while he didn’t speak with the woman after police arrived, he could see how relieved she was. “We made eye contact and she had tears in her eyes. She was really happy.”

Unfortunately, this type of tragic experience isn’t all that rare.

While this particular story unfolded in Canada — where roughly half of women have experienced at least one incident of sexual or physical violence since the age of 16 — you’ll find similarly alarming statistics in the U.S.

1 out of 4 American women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime. What’s more, female victims of homicide are far more likely than male victims to be killed by a current or former partner.

Although it may seem easy to simply leave an abusive relationship in the dust, take it from some women who’ve been there — it’s much more difficult than it seems from the outside looking in.

Instead of passing judgment, you can learn more about how you can help friends and family members who may be experiencing domestic abuse.

Bonnet has become a local hero for his selflessness.

“His quick actions may have saved this young woman’s life,” Guérin said. The officers made sure to collect money so Bonnet could be reimbursed for the bus fares and food he purchased while trying to save the victim. “He now has 500 new friends in our department.”

Thank you, Malyk, for reminding me that sometimes the bravest thing I can do is simply listen to that voice when it’s trying to get my attention.

It seems as though everyone knows who Prince was. His music crossed generations and had most of the world belting out tunes like “Raspberry Beret” and “1999,” but it turns out there was one celebrity that had to keep their hands off of his songs.

“Weird Al” Yankovic explained on “The Drew Barrymore Show” that there was only one musician that turned him down on making a parody of his songs. It was Prince. The man was serious about his music and even after his death there were supposedly more than 8,000 songs that were in his vault never having been released.

But one would think after the musician’s death in 2016 that Yankovic would simply ask his estate permission to parody one of the songs. It’s obvious that most of the songs are timeless gems that are easily recognizable and people still listen to fairly regularly. So why didn’t he? The answer may take you by surprise.

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Yankovic made a career out of doing parodies of popular songs, with his first big hit being a play on Madonna’s “Like a Virgin” except his was titled “Like a Surgeon.” The video questionably had a lion in the operating room of a surgeon, played by Yankovic, hoping not to get sued for malpractice. Yankovic famously did a parody of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It,” but his version was called “Eat It” and he stuffed his face with all kinds of sweets while he sang funny new lyrics.

The parody king could hit the top of the charts all over again with a Prince song but don’t hold your breath. “I had a lot of what I thought were good ideas and he never was into it,” Yankovic told Barrymore. When talking about asking the estate for permission, he said, “I don’t want to do that because I’ve always respected the artist’s wishes and Prince made his wishes pretty clear. I still respect that.”

What a cool thing for Yankovic to do when plenty of people likely would’ve taken the opportunity. Watch the exchange below.

Back in January, Babyface Ray unveiled a new album called Face. The singer took those songs to the road in May and June on a 21-date tour with Peezy, Baby Money, GT, LOS, and Natty. It looks like instead of riding the high of that release, he’s been grinding: He just announced another LP, this time called Mob, arriving next month.

Mob contains his previously released tracks “Nice Guy” as well as “Spend It,” his collaboration with Blxst and Nija. To prepare fans, he unleashed a trailer in which early listeners describe their feelings about the album. “Oh, this is a banger. This is a banger,” one person blurts. “It makes me lit. It makes me wanna get some money,” a kid explains.

Meanwhile, Babyface Ray has also been keeping in touch with the culture on TikTok, participating in the trend involving Soulja Boy’s “Pretty Boy Swag.” He was also featured on Nav’s new album Demons Protected By Angels earlier this year alongside Bryson Tiller, Don Toliver, Future, Lil Baby, Lil Durk, Lil Uzi Vert, RealestK, and Travis Scott. Along with that, he was a guest on Maxo Kream’s Weight Of The World, for the song “Mixin Juices.”

Watch the trailer above. Check out the album artwork below.

Even a stopped clock is still right twice a day. Ted Cruz is funny far less often than that. Maybe once a year, if that, does Texas’ most notorious senator crack a good one. (Although he’s a goldmine for jokes about him.) And so props, alas, where it’s due, because on Tuesday he actually made a joke that hit.

Tuesday, November 22, was the 59th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy Jr., who was almost certainly killed by deranged veteran Lee Harvey Oswald. (Sorry, Oliver Stone and a large army of conspiracy theorists.) There’s an old, ridiculous claim — unearthed by Donald Trump during the 2016 race — that Cruz’s father, Rafael, was photographed alongside Oswald. So when someone on the anniversary casually asked if anyone has any memories of that fateful day, Cruz decided to have some fun with it.

“Only passed down through the family,” Cruz quipped on his Twitter feed.

It was a good joke! Even Cruz’s many critics thought so.

But was it actually funny? This is Ted Cruz, so of course it’s not so simple. Again, Trump is someone who spread that line, and indeed gave it new legs when he used it during the 2016 race. He kept saying it even after Cruz suspended his campaign. And what did Cruz do? Eventually come around to Trump’s side and become one of his biggest cheerleaders. He even voted to overturn the 2020 election results. This was after he falsely linked his dad with JFK’s killer and called his wife ugly. Once one realizes this, it’s clear this is a joke from the same guy whose yuks usually backfire creatively.

In short, even a Ted Cruz win is a loss. What a poor goof.

Since 2010, The Walking Dead has brought PG-13-level zombie mayhem to AMC. But although all things come to an end eventually, in today’s age nothing really dies, not even shows about the undead. This past Sunday, after 11 seasons, the main original show aired its final episode. But is that the end? Well, yes and no.

As per the fansite Undead Walking, The Walking Dead may have bid farewell with a long goodbye of 24 episodes in one season, but that doesn’t mean the end of its world. There are still five spinoffs that are either already deep into their run or are soon for this world. For the record, they are:

• Fear the Walking Dead, which premiered in 2015. Over the summer it wrapped its seventh season, and has recently begun filming its eighth
• Tales of the Walking Dead, which kicked off its first batch of episodes in late summer. As the title promises, each episode follows either new or established character. For instance, one delves into the backstory of Samantha Morton’s Alpha, leader of the Whispers, who wear walker skin to mask their humanity.
• The Walking Dead: Dead City, which is due in April of next year. Once known as Isle of the Dead, it follows Lauren Cohan and Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s Maggie and Negan as they head to good ol’ New York City…whose streets have been taken over by walkers, forcing residents to take up residence in tall buildings and zipline between them.
• The as-yet-untitled Daryl spinoff, which is due next year. This one obviously follows the show’s most iconic character, played by Norman Reedus.
• And the as-yet-untitled Rick and Michonne spinoff, which will begin filming early next year, and follows two other beloved characters, played by Andrew Lincoln and Danai Gurira.

In other words, there’s a chance that The Walking Dead will never die, at least as a franchise.

SZA is back and better than ever. After saying her album would come out during the summer — and then letting the months pass — she finally announced that S.O.S., as it’s called, is arriving next month. Now she’s taking to social media to respond to a fan about a less expected matter.

A fan on Instagram posted a screenshot of a tweet from @ThePopTingz that stated there’s a rumor of SZA having recorded a remix for The Weeknd’s “Die For You.” The caption of the picture read: “Sza I know you don’t like rumors, can you clarify this for us?? #sza #theweeknd.” The singer replied in the comments, writing, “Lmao it’s super old but it does exist . I should re record it.”

To top it off, The Weeknd himself quote-tweeted @PopCrave’s tweet about the interaction, writing, “yes please.”

So far, SZA has released the single “Shirt” along with a music video featuring Atlanta actor Lakieth Stanfield. There are also rumors of a SZA remix of Lizzo’s “Special” after SZA made a surprise appearance at Lizzo’s show at Los Angeles’ Kia Forum on November 19. Lizzo also got more people talking about it by posting a TikTok with SZA of them lip-syncing to what sounds like the remix. The video was captioned, “Guess what B*TCH?!”

For the last few weeks, the already beleaguered crypto world has suffered yet another hit: the once-prosperous, Larry David- and Tom Brady-approved exchange FTX has collapsed in spectacular fashion. All crypto eyes are on its young, schlubby head honcho, Sam Bankman-Fried, who may be responsible for substantial missing assets, and has been doing wild things like giving perhaps overly frank interviews. (At least Jim Cramer still believes in him.) If you thought this has all the makings of a movie or a limited series, well, looks like you were right.

As the news of the FTX debacle broke, so did word that bestselling (and absurdly lucky) journalist Michael Lewis (Moneyball, The Blind Side, The Big Short) had been trailing Bankman-Fried for the last six months. Sounds like he has another hit on his hands, as well as another Hollywood payday: As per Deadline, streamers have been duking it out for the as-yet-unwritten book’s rights. And it sounds like the winner is Apple.

The wild story of Bankman-Friend — as well as his equally out-there associates, some of whom shared a Bahamas home and even dated each other — has the makings of one of those truth-is-stranger-than-fiction Hulu shows, like The Dropout or Pam & Tommy. But Deadline is reporting that it will probably be a movie. If so, that will follow the trajectory of Lewis’ previous books, three of which became money- and award-gobbling films.

In the meantime, the latest wacko revelation out of the Bankman-Fried story? As per Insider, the fallen CEO allegedly owns a $100 million stake in another dodgy tech empire: Twitter dot com.

(Via Deadline)

Ben Simmons missed the entire 2021-22 season with injury and, while he was off the floor, the Philadelphia 76ers traded him to the Brooklyn Nets in a deal centered on James Harden. With that in mind, Simmons has not played a game at Wells Fargo Center since June 2021 when the Sixers fell to the Atlanta Hawks in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. On Tuesday, that changed with Simmons returning to Philadelphia in an opposing uniform for the first time, and he was greeted with boos from the crowd.

Simmons seemed to be in good spirits before the game, telling TNT’s Stephanie Ready that he “had the same feelings toward the crowd” when he was with the Sixers. Philadelphia will also be without several key pieces, including Harden and Joel Embiid due to injury. There was an uptick in police presence, though, with the local officials taking no chances in what could’ve been an antagonistic atmosphere.

On the floor, Simmons is off to a slow start this season, though he has shown strides in the last handful of games. That includes three straight games with double figures in scoring, headlined by 22 points, eight rebounds, and five assists on Sunday against the Memphis Grizzlies. It will be interesting to see how he responds to the return to Philadelphia but, after the first time, perhaps it will become more “normal” in time given the close proximity between Atlantic Division rivals.

If there’s one thing people around the world associate with Māori culture, it’s the haka. We’ve seen the traditional dancing and chanting before international sports matchups and in viral videos from wedding parties to tiny toddlers.

Haka originated as a way to prepare warriors for battle, but it has also been performed as a custom when groups came together in peace. Today, in addition to symbolizing a challenge to a sports opponent, haka is used to honor people and show the importance of an occasion.

In New Zealand, it’s not uncommon to see haka performed at airports, as people send off or welcome home loved ones. But one airport haka has people feeling particularly moved.

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In a video shared by @curlyheadnikau on TikTok, a young man who is heading off to the U.S. for school, having received a basketball scholarship to Utah, stands opposite a group of young men who honor him with the haka. “Send off for the big cuzzy,” reads the caption.

What’s particularly notable in this haka video is that all of the participants appear to be youth—no obvious elders among them—which sends a strong signal of a culture being successfully passed down from one generation to the next.

Watch:

@curlyheadnikau

send off for the big cuzzy good luck over in the us 💯 @tuhi2x #fyp #nz #haka #foryou #us #foryou

Upworthy posted the video on our Instagram page, and people are sharing how moved they are by it.

“I love how they transform from modern teens to timeless warriors, in spirit with their ancestors. So incredibly moving and significant,” wrote one person.

“The release of emotion in Haka makes me cry!” wrote another. “So beautiful, healthy and moving.”

“It’s so moving to see non-toxic demonstrations of strong masculinity. This is how it’s done,” shared a third.

Several people shared this sentiment:

“I can never watch this incredible ritual without tearing up. This is pure magic!!!!”

Seeing these guys in their T-shirts and Nikes put their all into the haka is so powerful. Knowing how many indigenous cultures have had their traditions stripped away, with many being lost altogether, makes this video all the more moving.

The New Zealand tourism website shares a bit about the origins of the haka:

“The Māori legend describing the origin of the haka paints it as a celebration of life. The story goes that Tama-nui-te-ra, the sun god, and his wife Hine-Raumati, who embodies summer, had a son named Tane-rore. On hot summer days, Tane-rore would dance for his mother, causing the air to quiver. This light, rapid movement was the foundation of all haka.”

The Māori people have inhabited the islands of New Zealand for more than 700 years, their ancestors having arrived by boat from Polynesia around 1300 A.D. The population declined following British colonization and hit a low point in the early 20th century, but thanks to the influence of key Māori leaders, the country changed. Today, the Māori people play a significant role in New Zealand society and government.

With young people like this carrying on the traditions of their ancestors, this beautiful nation’s cultural diversity will be preserved for generations to come.