“A lot of people think that OCD is just about cleanliness — that’s actually so far from the truth.”

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The world is facing unprecedented tragedy thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, with over 60,000 Americans dead and millions suddenly out of work, unsure about their futures. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is apparently still planning on going to space. But that’s not all: According to Deadline, Tesla’s CEO and chairman, who Forbes calculates is currently worth $38.7 billion, is teaming up with Tom Cruise to make a cinema first: a narrative movie filmed in outer space.

There are no details about the movie, beyond it being an action adventure and that it won’t be connected to any Cruise franchise. That means you won’t see Mission: Impossible daredevil Ethan Hunt in space, unless this changes. Nor is any studio currently involved. Deadline claims it’s all in the early stages, so it may not happen until life has been restored to something resembling order — perhaps after the eternally youthful Cruise has crossed the 60-year-old mark, when he may still be willing to put his life at risk to entertain us.

Musk has been working on revolutionizing space transportation with his company SpaceX, which alone is worth $20 billion, and it’s likely that only the rich and powerful will be able to afford cruising between the stars like some jet around the nation or planet. Cruise is definitely someone who could afford a SpaceX flight, but this, of course, would be one better. If so, it would — and this is true — be the first movie Cruise has made not only filmed but also set in outer space.

(Via Deadline)

States across the country are reopening and implementing sweeping changes to their stay-at-home orders this week, despite the fact that the coronavirus hasn’t, you know, gone anywhere. This fact isn’t lost on the states, who are essentially operating in the dark and responding to a problem that no one can really offer definitive answers or guidance on. Governors are balancing communications with hospitals and doctors against the president’s aggressive position and armed protests. It’s no small puzzle.

Clearly, we don’t know for certain what post-lockdown life will look like yet, but our most populous state has given some early indications. California — the first state in the country to implement a statewide lockdown — currently has the lowest number cases and deaths per 100 thousand people when compared to the top eight states by total confirmed COVID-19 cases. That success, in a state with a population of nearly 40 million, is due to a wide number of factors, with the state’s leadership and rapid response being central elements.

On May 4th, California Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled phase two of California’s plan to reopen in a press conference and indicated that by as soon as Friday, people could expect certain businesses to open for the first time since early March. This plan will allow clothing stores, florists, bookstores, and sporting good stores to open their doors this Friday. Offices will remain closed and teleworking will continue, restaurants will still be barred from in-person dining, and shopping malls will remain closed.

Governor Newsom has long said that California’s reopening plan would be determined by science and data and not public pressure, but it appears that he has caved slightly to a certain subset of Southern Californians who were growing increasingly frustrated with the governor after he ordered all Orange County beaches to close after large crowds flocked to the beaches during a particularly hot weekend in SoCal.

Beginning on May 5th, beaches in the Orange County cities of Laguna Beach and San Clemente have been granted permission to reopen on a very limited basis. According to CNN, beaches in the two cities will be open between the hours of 6 am to 10 am (on weekdays only for Laguna). People who want to visit the beach must participate in what is being called “active recreation” — meaning they’ll be able to visit the beach so long as they’re running, swimming, or surfing. Picnicking and beach lounging will remain prohibited, so if you want to work on your tan you’re going to have to do that at home or on the move.

“In the spirit of collaboration and the spirit of modifications I want to really thank the leadership down in Orange County,” said Newsom in a press conference announcing the changes. “They put together an outstanding plan to begin to reopen those beaches and we not only applauded that, we enthusiastically embraced it, and as a consequence, with those modifications… those beaches will be reopened.”

The changes come just three short days after the county attempted — unsuccessfully — to block the Governor’s order to close these same beaches. Governor Newsom also indicated that similar announcements would be made in the coming days regarding other public gathering spaces, while stressing that individual communities will need to remain proactive in what they feel is too much too soon, given the massive size of the state. If things go as smoothly as the state is hoping, we could be looking at a useful model for other states to adopt.

“We are not telling locals that feel it’s too soon, too fast to modify,” Newsom said. “We believe those local communities that have separate timelines should be afforded the capacity to advance those timelines.”

Given that the temperature across Southern California for the next seven days looks likely to hover around 90-degrees, we imagine people aren’t going to be waiting too long to hit those freshly opened beaches. If that means you, just remember to put your pent up quarantine energy to good use and keep moving.

Tonight, in the With Spandex WWE Raw open discussion thread:

The Viking Raiders said they want the smoke. They’ll get it this Monday on Raw when they face Raw Tag Team Champions The Street Profits.

Erik & Ivar have been quick to point out that Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins have yet to defeat them, which set off the champions, leading them to accept The Viking Raiders’ challenge.

Who will emerge victorious in this battle between two of the red brand’s hottest teams? Find out this Monday on Raw at 8/7 C on USA Network! (via WWE.com)

Also on this week’s show there’s a “Last Chance Gauntlet Match” to name Apollo Crews’ replacement for the men’s Money in the Bank match at … I can’t remember the name of the pay-per-view, as well as Drew McIntyre squashing Buddy Murphy to send a message to Seth Rollins. And hopefully the Viking Raiders drive home after the show chanting in their car.

As always, +1 your favorite comments from tonight’s open thread and give them a thumbs up and we’ll include 10 of the best in tomorrow’s Best and Worst of Raw column. Make sure to flip your comments to “newest” in the drop down menu under “discussion,” and enjoy the show!

After flashing star potential on debut album True 2 Myself last year and building on his buzz with a steady stream of solid singles including Pop Smoke homage “Forever Pop,” the melodic love letter “Sex Sounds,” and the harder-hitting “Ice Cold,” Tjay has shared the release date of his new full-length effort: A mixtape titled State Of Emergency. Playing off current events, the title was revealed in teaser trailer on Instagram featuring Tjay wearing a mask intercut with file footage taken from news broadcasts.

Tjay previously teased the mixtape in another video captioning the post with a declaration that he is the new “King Of New York.” The caption also seemingly popped off at fellow New York standard bearers A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and Tekashi 69, both of whom had been tabbed as the successors to the city’s weighty hip-hop legacy, but ran into some speed bumps on the road to greatness that either slowed them up (A Boogie) or took them out of the picture (Tekashi).

Tjay apologized for taking the shots and “losing compsore” on his Instagram Stories, but not before he’d made himself a trending topic by posing several videos with fellow rapper Rubi Rose claiming that had flown her to New York for a romantic encounter and then refused to pay her way back.

State Of Emergency is due May 8 on Columbia Records.

Star Wars Day, aka May 4th, is a day to remember and honor its namesake franchise, even if, on this SWD, in 2020, it also serves as a stark reminder that the franchise isn’t in the best shape, with the slightly underperforming — and quite controversial — Rise of Skywalker only a few months in the past. Still, the day did bring some good news. And we learned something about one piece of Star Wars content that’s done very well: Remember Baby Yoda, the breat-out puppet star of The Mandalorian? The one whose toy supply was threatened by this rampaging pandemic? Well, he was almost, if anything, even cuter.

This comes from Vanity Fair, who dug up some new dirt on the genesis of the one known as The Child, though which has become colloquially known (and loved) as “Baby Yoda.” The idea for a Yoda-like character came from show creator Jon Favreau, who thought all he needed for a popular program was “a guy in a mask” and “a puppet.” But he told VF he didn’t want it to be too cute.

“I was worried about what we called ‘Bleep Syndrome,’” Favreau said — a term he coined that was inspired by cute animated sidekicks, as seen on shows like Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, and which he repeatedly used during the design phase. He didn’t want it to be a mere “comic relief,” instead being more in the spirit of Star Wars creator George Lucas, who, Favreau said, had a knack for making creatures “just cute enough.”

But nailing that balance wasn’t easy. “All the drawings originally were very cute,” Favreau said. “Even with the merchandising, they were always trying to soften the rough edges on him. We really tried to look at how much we could ugly up all the different individual features.” Favreau and co-writer Dave Filoni insisted it have “weird little hairs growing out of him,” and they rejected designs that made him look remotely human baby-like. His teeth, for instance, were sharp and jagged, while the sound design was to make him animal-like, using creature noises rather than human toddler coos.

As per VF:

The frog-swallowing in season one may only be the beginning of the “gross things” the show will let the Child do in order to underline the idea that in the end, he’s still an animal. “It’s like a stray dog or having a little baby alligator or something,” Favreau said. Then again, a baby alligator probably never sold this many toys.

The piece also details how they were reluctant to bring anything Yoda-like to the project, with those working on the franchise nowadays hoping to honor Lucas, who is no longer in control of his pet series but who they still tend to seek out for advice:

They were hardly likely to embark on something that Lucas might disapprove of: “[We’re] always keeping an open door to George because this is a character that’s very beloved to him,” Filoni said. “He comes by the set whenever he wants to know what’s going on. We fill him in and we want to hear his perspective.” Years of collaboration allow him to anticipate how Lucas will react to any twists in the Mandalorian’s journey: “We understand how to collaborate with him in a way where it never gets too far afield from something he would be comfortable with.”

So there you have it. Not only might you have almost never have gotten a Baby Yoda, but the one you did get could have been insufferably adorable. Instead, you may agree, they got it just right.

(Via Vanity Fair)

While the 245-year old U.S. postal service battles for its survival, a story of the power of a personal letter is showing us why we cannot let it fail. Not only does USPS provide mail services to rural areas that otherwise wouldn’t have anyone to deliver mail or packages, but it serves the public with diligence and heart.

A story shared by a dad of a daughter who loves to write and send letters has tugged at people’s heartstrings on social media. Graphic designer Hugh Weber wrote on Twitter:

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“Emerson, my 11 year old, is on a bit of a wild ride with the @USPS and our local mail carrier, Doug.

And, I think there’s a deeper message to it all.

First, the backstory…

Em has a serious letter writing habit. She maintains active correspondence with over a dozen of her favorite people. And, if you’ve been the lucky recipient of one of Em’s hand decorated letters and envelopes, then you have a pretty good idea of the joy they bring.

A letter from Emerson is likely to include some art, a joke or two, a mention of her younger brother, confessions of her love for Taylor Swift and enough questions to guarantee a response.

So, when she decided to thank our mail carrier for the service he provides us, she left nothing out. In went Taylor Swift, in went the little brother, in went the jokes.

Q: Why do you never see elephants hiding in trees?
A: Because they’re really good at it.

Em wrote, “I’m Emerson. You may know me as the person that lives here that writes a lot of letters & decorated the envelopes. Well, I wanted to thank you for taking my letters and delivering them. You are very important to me. I make people happy with my letters, but you do too.”

She continued, “The reason you are very important in my life is because I don’t have a phone so how else am I supposed to stay in touch with my friends? You make it possible!”

She put it in the box, smiled when he took it & that was enough.

The next day a package arrived with some stamps & two letters. Doug had shared Em’s letter with his supervisor, Sara, and they both wanted to share how touched they were by her note.

Sara said that, as an essential worker, Doug might not be able to maintain regular correspondence, but she sure could. Em started writing that very afternoon.

This is when things get interesting. The next week, we got a letter address to ‘Mr and Mrs Weber.’ It seems that Sara had shared Em’s note as a ‘Token of Thanks’ in the internal newsletter for the Western US and there were some postal folks that wanted to thank her.

Today, we saw Doug getting out of the truck with two BOXES of letters from around the country. We snapped a quick photo through the door as he and Emerson met for the first time. It was a beautiful moment on silent reciprocity.

These letters are so deeply human. They are filled with family, pets, hobbies, community and an overwhelming sense of kindness.

Because Em was fully vulnerable, they were too.

Em shared jokes, so they shared jokes.

Em share her brother, so every gift that was sent came in duplicate.

Em shared @taylorswift13 and it turns out that the US Postal service is filled with lots of undercover Swifties.

One maintenance manager from Minnesota wanted to inspire her to start collecting stamps so he sent along two stamps of his own from the bulletin board in his office to start her collection.

And, they sent stamps to be used as well. Stamps for her to write back. Stamps for her to write others. Stamps, stamps, stamps. (218 by Em’s count.)

But, there was something more in these letters. People felt seen – some for the first time in a long time.

“I work alone in a small rural post office…”
“My kids all live far away…”
“Not a lot of people think about how hard we work…”

One wrote,
“I can’t tell you how much it means to read your letter…”

Another,
“I have a son in Kuwait and if you have a second to send him a letter he would love it.”

And another,
“I know you can’t write back to all of us, but maybe I can drop you a line from time to time?”

With dozens of new pen pals, Em did what she does best.

She wrote the dad.
She wrote his son.
She assured the secret swifties not to be embarrassed because her dad likes TSwift, too.
She acknowledged that there WERE a lot of letter but that she had time.
She sees them all.

I’m not sharing this because I’m a proud dad. I’m sharing it because it is relatively easy, if we take the time, to give others the one thing they need to be well – human connection.

I have a friend that says we all just want to be seen, known and loved.

Em does this boldly.

It’s #MentalHealthAwareness month and I want to be bold and brave like Em.

We’re all in a moment of physical isolation that is amplifying a real epidemic of loneliness, anxiety and depression. I’ve been feeling it personally since long before we locked our front door.

In the second week of quarantine, I responded to hundreds of DMs from creatives who are feeling this disconnect in a significant way. I heard from college students to senior executives who personally and professionally are stressed, worried and/or afraid.

Two weeks ago, I personally started working with a @talkspace therapist for the 1st time.

For years I’ve travelled the country talking about relationships of influence, but I’ve used that travel as an excuse not to seek the support I know I need. This pause gave me time to act.

I have incredible family & friends, but the truth is that I needed more. And, sending texts via an app has been the small step I needed.

Moral of the story: it’s the small things that matter most, friends.

Send a letter.
Make a call.
Practice self care.
Take a step of boldness.
For yourself or for others.

And, thank your mail carrier (from an appropriate distance.) They are working extremely hard to keep us all connected.

And, if any of you are feeling isolated, anxious, scared or depressed, those feelings are valid. I’m feeling them, too.

And, I’m here if you need me.”

What a beautiful example of humans reaching out and touching other human hearts in simple yet profound ways. In a time when we are more physically isolated than ever, seeing these sincere efforts to connect are truly hopeful. And at a time when the postal service needs support, what a lovely illustration of why it’s worth saving.

To support USPS, you can buy stamps on their website. (“Forever” stamps will always work for sending a letter, even if stamp prices go up. Stock up and send grandma or an old friend a card or letter in the mail. You know they’ll love it.)

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ACH‘s career changed dramatically in November 2019. After WWE released a T-shirt for him that resembled blackface imagery, the 32-year-old-wrestler, who had been working in NXT under the ring name Jordan Myles, spoke out on Twitter about the design. Things escalated from there, and he soon quit WWE, then spent days on social media responding to fans and critics and commenting on the wrestling industry. After being released from WWE, ACH worked a handful of matches on the independent scene but has been on hiatus since February.

In the most recent episode of the podcast “Submission Squad Presents: Dollar Menu Midcarders” (hosted by tag team Evan Gelistico and Pierre Abernathy, who are longtime friends of ACH), the Texan wrester spoke in-depth about his career from his indie beginnings to his time in WWE, and addressed the T-shirt incident and its aftermath.

ACH says he was initially having a good time in WWE, but when the shirt incident occurred, it brought up issues not just with WWE, but how he feels he was perceived earlier in his career. “When the released this shirt of the minstrel show [imagery], it was like, ‘Is that what I am? Am I just a joke? Am I just like something that no one takes serious? Is that what I am?’”

ACH also addressed how smiling becoming part of his NXT persona:

I was told to smile because that’s a Vince thing. Vince likes that. Now, when I got there I wasn’t smiling at all, I would come out and I’d have a straight face and I would wrestle. That was my thing. And I was told ‘you should smile more.’ And I went, ‘Okay, you want me to smile more? You got it.’ And I smiled, and I smiled a fucking lot. And I’m one of those people if you tell me to do something and if I’m not feeling it, I’m going to do it because it’s my job, but I’m going turn that motherfucker up to a 10, and that’s exactly what I did.

Despite the character change, ACH said he was still having a good time in NXT until the T-shirt incident.

Then they released that shirt and I got angry. And I made a lot of comments that I’m not going to take back because that’s just how I feel. Now, could I have said them a lot better? Absolutely. Absolutely. I said a lot of things out of anger. If I had said those things a little bit more intelligently and calmly and came from a real place and not an angry place, it would have been okay. But I was just so angry and mad and disrespected and I just feel like a joke.

He says he talked to management about the shirt before addressing it on social media because “mistakes can happen,” but never got a clear explanation.

This guy [the shirt designer] lied to my face. He said that I approved the shirt when I didn’t approve that shirt. That was another thing that got me hot, when they released the ‘He approved of it.’ No, I didn’t. The dude told me that was Triple H’s vision for me. So how am I supposed to feel if I work for this guy and he thinks that’s what I look like?

ACH says he was told the design was meant to look like the famous Rolling Stones lips logo, but he looked at the designs side by side and thought they looked nothing alike. ACH offered an alternate logo for his shirt and says he offered to collaborate on another design, but the designer told him that Triple H wanted to stick with the first design. When ACH talked to Triple H about the issues, the WWE executive told him, “I thought you approved this.”

After the issue went unresolved and the shirt was released (briefly – it was taken down after people pointed out it looked like the racist depictions of black people from minstrel shows), ACH took to social media about the issue. With the Submission Squad, ACH addressed his mindset at the time and some of his comments, including when he controversially called ROH star Jay Lethal an “Uncle Tom.”

ACH says he used to look up to Lethal, but they did not get along in ROH and he knew they never would after an incident where Lethal slapped him. ACH says he still has “a lot of resentment” because of that and, “Maybe I should have not called him that. I should have used something else, definitely not an Uncle Tom. But I was angry and upset. At the time, I felt like he was an Uncle Tom.”

ACH described the kind of anger he had at the time as “toxic” and “unhealthy.” Though many online commenters went further and said his behavior must be the result of mental illness, ACH says that wasn’t the case.

I honestly wish I could have done things differently. I feel like I had people trying to tell me to use mental issues as not as an excuse, but you know, say that’s the thing. You know, ‘your anxiety or your depression…’ to help smooth things over. But I’m not one of those people. I don’t come up with excuses for myself. I was angry… I’m not going to be like, ‘Oh, sorry guys, like, mental illness!” because people deal with this stuff in serious ways. That’s a serious issue. I’m not going to publicly say things like that to smooth things over…

ACH went on to describe his online behavior as “a meltdown.”

I had a freaking meltdown in front of the entire world. That’s really what happened. I had a meltdown. I broke down in front of the entire world. The only thing is that people didn’t see me cry…

Truth be told, it’s all my fault. It’s all my fault. I’ll take the blame for this. I could have easily just put the phone down. I could have easily deleted my Twitter app like I normally do. Like, I didn’t have to go on there and say all those things, but I chose to because I was angry, and I felt like I needed to get a lot of stuff off my chest and that’s just not a place to get stuff off your chest. Social media’s just not the place.

Though he says the incident killed his passion for pro wrestling for a while, ACH ends the interview sounding ready to return to the ring once wrestling can resume. In his words: “This could be a really cool comeback or a really shitty ending.”

When we talk about the coronavirus pandemic, we often talk about numbers. How many cases. How many deaths. How many recoveries.

But the true impact of the virus goes far beyond those statistics. We’ve seen this in harrowing stories from medical workers on the front line and from people who have made it out of hospitalization.

While there’s so much we still don’t know about COVID-19, as more people recover we get more stories of what the disease can do. We know that it can infect people with no symptoms. We know that it can kill. What we see less often is what it can do to those who get sick but don’t die.

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Barry Mangione is a pediatric physical therapist who contracted the virus just over a month ago. As a healthy 50-year-old with no underlying health conditions, one might assume he’d weather the illness without too much trouble. But as he described in a Facebook post, this isn’t a “get it and get over it” kind of disease for many people who have officially recovered.

Mangione wrote:

COVID19 is a continuum.

I want to hopefully shed some light amid the confusion. There is a continuum of COVID19 in between ‘you die’ and ‘you get over it and return to normal.’ Today is day 31 for me. I tested negative on day 27. Yesterday out of nowhere, I was hit with crippling fatigue and chills. My cough is almost gone, and I’ve been fever-free for two weeks, but when it comes to COVID19, testing negative doesn’t mean it’s over. For all who talk about wanting it to spread among the healthy to encourage ‘herd immunity,’ let me ask you: if you get sick with COVID19, how do you know how sick you’ll get? I’m a healthy 50 year old with no underlying medical conditions. Those of you who know me know that I am passionately devoted to developing and maintaining mental, physical, and spiritual health.

I’m a pediatric physical therapist. I work in homecare with infants and toddlers. Prior to COVID19, I would travel to people’s homes and work with up to ten children a day for 30 minutes each. Prior to COVID19, I struggled with insomnia, but I could still get up after a nearly sleepless night and rock my day job. Now, I can get a full night’s sleep and be wiped out after doing a couple of telehealth sessions with kids via Zoom. Let me repeat that. I used to travel to different homes, play with up to ten kids a day, and now some days I’m exhausted after sitting at a desk and talking to parents via a screen.

I talk to other COVID19 survivors who still experience symptoms after 30, even 40 days, symptoms like kidney pain, fevers, coughing, fatigue, shortness of breath, headaches, circulation problems, loss of smell, loss of taste, body aches, rashes, back pain…

This is not an all-or-nothing virus. It’s not ‘you die’ or ‘you don’t die.’ When we see the numbers of people who’ve ‘recovered from COVID19’ posted to illustrate how it’s not that bad, those numbers don’t take the lingering health issues and symptoms into account.

Please think about this when you question social distancing. Please think about this when you question wearing a mask in public. Ask yourself, ‘Can I be sick for over a month or more? Can I deal with the uncertainty of when or if this sickness will go away if I get it?’

I’m not looking for sympathy or trying to scare anyone, and I don’t want to diminish the memories of those who’ve died or the pain felt by their loved ones. I grieve for them all. What I hope I’m doing is giving you another tool in addition to gloves, masks, and social distancing to keep yourselves, your loved ones, and all of us safe and healthy: knowledge that this is real, knowledge that we don’t know enough about it yet, and that the continuum of COVID19 is more complicated than dead versus ‘recovered.’

Please stay safe, my friends.

Mangione’s story is important not just for our understanding of what the virus can look like for those who have “recovered,” but also for our understanding of what it might look like if we were to shoot for herd immunity. Despite the much higher death count that would result, it seems that more and more people are leaning toward trying to achieve herd immunity through letting 60% to 80% of the population get infected with the virus instead of waiting a year or more for a vaccine. Some are surprisingly willing to accept more deaths in exchange for saving the economy—but would it actually save the economy? Imagine a large portion of the population getting sick in the way Mangione describes. What would that do to the economy, when millions of people are too sick to work for a month or more? (Though some people will fly through infection without any symptoms, we don’t have proof yet that asymptomatic cases will outnumber those who actually do fall ill.)

Until we have a reliable treatment or vaccine, we’re going to have to get used to the idea of life not going back to normal. We’re either locked down with fewer illnesses and deaths and a choked-off economy, or we’re dealing with millions sick and dying and still end up in an economic crisis.

Because we don’t yet know the full impact of the virus, and there’s no way to predict how it will affect an individual or how many people they might infect if they get it, health experts are not recommending letting the virus run its course through society. It’s not as simple as “Eh, I’m not old or immunocompromised, so I’m not worried.” Getting sick and getting over it isn’t how this is playing out for many people.

As we continue learning more, keep yourself and your community safe and well by continuing to practice social distancing and good hygiene even as things start to “open up.” As frustrating as it is, we’re not anywhere near out of the woods with this virus.