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Actor, comedian, and self-proclaimed “voicetramentalist,” Michael Winslow was just about everywhere in the ’80s. His incredible ability to make sound effects with his voice and uncanny beatboxing skills landed him the role of officer Larvell Jones in all seven “Police Academy” movies.

He also did voiceover work in “Gremlins” and appeared in Mel Brooks’ “Spaceballs.”

But Winslow was forced to scale back his career in 1993 after the death of his first wife Belinda Church. As a single father, he had to stop appearing in films so he could spend more time with his children.

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He continued to star in the occasional commercial, perform stand-up comedy, and make guest appearances, but he didn’t have the profile he once had.

Back in July of 2021, Winslow stepped back in the spotlight with a performance on “America’s Got Talent.” After some prodding from his son, he decided it would be the perfect venue to relaunch his career on television.

In the ’80s, he was known as “The Man of 10,000 Sound Effects,” but things have changed since then, he now claims to have “hundreds of thousands.”

“Now, after raising my two kids, I’m in a different phase. I think this is my time,” Winslow, 62, said on the episode. “And America’s Got Talent is the place for me to show the world I still have something to offer, I still have some sounds to make. There’s still room for a little more.”

Judge Simon Cowell was excited to see Winslow when he took the stage. “We know you!” Cowell exclaimed. “I cannot tell you how thrilled I am that you are here!”

Winslow then gave a stunning performance where he impersonated the chimes on an airplane, beatboxed to Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” and performed Jimi Hendrix’s version of “The Star Spangled Banner.” His performance was proof that after five decades in show business Winslow hasn’t lost a step and, in fact, he may be at his peak.

After his performance, Winslow won a standing ovation from the audience and four “gigantic yeses” from the panel.

“My life has changed again for the better, and I’ve gotten another blessing,” Winslow told Terry Crews after leaving the stage. America’s Got Talent is the place for me to show I still have something to offer. I’ve still got some sounds to make, and there’s still room for a little more.”

Winslow is a great reminder that sometimes when celebrities seem to fade away, it isn’t necessarily because they’re washed up or past their prime. They are humans with real challenges just like the rest of us and real-world events can affect their career trajectories. It’s great to see such a wonderful performer get another shot at the big time.

This article originally appeared on 07.14.21

I remember sitting in advanced algebra and trigonometry class in high school wondering if I was really ever going to use any of what I was learning. Math at that level meant nothing to me in a practical sense. I planned to study English and education to become an English teacher, so I couldn’t imagine why I’d need to learn the ins and outs of trig.

As it turned out, some of what I learned came in handy in the functions class I was required to take to fulfill my math requirement in college. But again, I found myself sitting in class with zero idea of why I was learning this level of math and suspecting that I was never going to actually use that knowledge in my adult life.

Now I’m a middle-aged adult and I can say with absolute certainty that I was right. In 27 years, I have not used anything I learned in functions. Not once. Not even a little bit. I agonized my way through that class to eek out a B-minus and to promptly forget everything I’d learned because it was utterly useless to me.

To be clear, higher math isn’t useless—it’s amazing. It was just completely useless to me.

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You know what would have been useful? Learning about financing a car or a mortgage or understanding how and why and where to invest money. In all that time I was doing trigonometric proofs and calculating polynomial functions, I could have been learning all the various real-life math-related decisions I’d have to make as an adult.

I see the same thing happening with my kids in high school and college. It totally makes sense for students who are interested in going into math and science fields to take math beyond basic algebra and geometry. But for those who aren’t—why? There are so many more valuable things for them to take the time to learn—things that every single person really needs a basic knowledge of, such as:

Basic Psychology/Mental Health Maintenance

Every one of us has a brain and mental health is an issue for a huge percentage of people. Even those of us who don’t struggle with mental illness benefit from learning about how our minds work, gaining strategies for managing our thoughts, emotions and behaviors, and understanding why people do the things they do.

How many people would have been saved by learning how to spot a narcissist before getting into a relationship with one? How many people could mitigate an anxiety spiral right when it starts because they learned to recognize the signs earlier? How many people would appreciate the support and understanding of everyone having a basic understanding of their mental health disorders?

Basic Sociology/Human Behavior

Similarly, every one of us lives in a society. Understanding social connections, relationships and group behavior might kind of come in handy. If we don’t understand the causes and consequences of human behavior, we’re going to be confused by society at best and allow or enable atrocities to occur at worst.

From learning how cults and conspiracy theories work to recognizing how our prejudices can blind us to reality, sociology has useful knowledge we all need to internalize.

Media Literacy

If we’re going to be bombarded with media 24/7, we’d better know how to process it. Understanding how journalism works, what makes a source credible, how information can be skewed and how to recognize misinformation and disinformation is vital. What is bias and how can it be mitigated? How can we recognize when an outlet values accuracy?

So many of the problems the U.S. is facing currently are due to people watching or listening to dubious news sources. Mandatory media literacy courses would (hopefully) go a long way toward changing that.

The Stock Market and Other Investments

I underestimated how much I’d need to know about the stock market when I was younger. None of that economic stuff interested me, but I wish I understood it better now.

But really, it’s investing in general that we need to understand more about when we’re younger, especially since starting young is the No. 1 best advice any financial advisor will give you.

How Banking, Credit and Credit Cards Work

Every single one of us uses a bank or credit union and credit is a huge part of adult life. And yet most people I know have had to piece together how credit and credit cards actually work through advice from friends and family and good old trial and error, sometimes with devastating consequences.

Taxes

Good gracious, right? Not just how to do taxes, but what taxes get used for.

Financial literacy is what I’m saying. We need mandatory financial literacy classes. (Florida has actually just become the first state to require personal finance education to graduate, so yay Florida.) I think I was required to take economics in high school, but it was much more high-level economic theory than personal finance. We need personal finance first, then the bigger picture.

First Aid/Safety/Self-Defense

Most of us probably got some first aid and/or CPR training in health class, but how comprehensive was it? Did it include infant CPR? Do we know how to recognize if someone is having a stroke? Signs of infection?

What about basic everyday safety, like why you shouldn’t leave a car running in a garage or common household fire dangers or how to spot asbestos?

Self-defense seems like a no-brainer. Basically, a “How to Stay Alive and Keep Others Alive” course that includes most everything you need to know to protect yourself and your loved ones on a daily basis.

Navigating our Healthcare and Health Insurance System

Ugh. I’ve been an adult for almost three decades and everything about our healthcare system confuses and frustrates me. Maybe if we required schools to teach young people how it works, it would shine a big spotlight on how ridiculously and unnecessarily complicated it is because no one could possibly explain it in a way that’s understandable. Maybe that would push lawmakers to actually do something about it, because honestly, it’s just a gigantic mess.

There are surely others, but those are the major subjects that come to mind as vital after being an adult for a long while and seeing what my own kids need to have a decent grasp on as they make their way into the world. And honestly, there are some classes that adults should be required to take well into adulthood. Parenting classes, for example. Or local government and voting.

All subjects and courses have value to some people, but if we want students to be prepared for adulthood, we should make sure they are given the vital knowledge and skills every person actually needs and will use.

This article originally appeared on 03.25.22

The entire Real Housewives multiverse is filled with exaggerated feuds between castmates. Usually the beefs remain within the Bravo network family. However, thanks to “Lace It” rapper Eminem’s trademark dispute filing in February againstPotomac branch members Giselle Bryant and Robyn Dixon, he’s been reluctantly introduced to the stars’ feisty nature.

Eminem is fighting to block the duo’s protection over their podcast name, Reasonably Shady. Now the legal battle has escalated from a simple intellectual property mix-up to a full-on protective order request. Bryant and Dixon’s lawyer, Andrea Evans, has responded to Eminem’s legal maneuver via a statement in People.

“It seems obvious to us that if you file a lawsuit, you should be made available to be deposed,” wrote Evans. “[We’d] like to question Mathers at least about his use of the expressions Slim Shady and Shady. It’s unclear to us that Mathers can be the owner of the trademarks and file this suit against our clients, but he will not make himself available to be deposed.”

As a response to the blockage in October, the pair’s legal team requested that Eminem make himself available for questioning to explain why he felt the Reasonably Shady podcast could be seen as an extension of his Shady enterprise. Eminem reportedly declined, stating it would become “unduly burdensome,” suggesting others, including his manager, Paul Rosenberg, speak on his behalf.

Bryant and Dixon’s representatives weren’t okay with this alternative. The case is moving forward, and thus the saga continues.

The way we come across long-lasting friendships is often unexpected. But when you’re part of a military family. You learn to grab hold of the good people you meet and carry those friendships across states and oceans. You mark your friendships based off of what base you were stationed at when you met them and know those friendships can withstand just about anything because they’ve been tried.

So for an American family stationed in Japan, there was no doubt at least one lifelong friendship would be made. It just may have been surprising that the friend wasn’t affiliated with the military. Instead, the friend was an older Japanese man who didn’t speak English and lived next door to the young family in Yokosuka, Japan.

But this isn’t the first time this unique story went viral. In 2013, Reddit user Theresa52 posted a picture of a note that she received from her neighbor-turned-friend. People loved the letter and sweet story attached. Theresa explained that after moving to their new neighborhood in Japan, she and her husband passed out beer and chocolate to their neighbors. A few hours later, they met, Hiroshi Yamashita, their new neighbor and one of the recipients of their gift.

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When Yamashita knocked on the family’s door, he presented them with gifts of his own—toilet paper, stuffed animals and a note. In the thread Theresa noted, “Things that are consumable and household necessities are popular gifts. We have heard lots of stories about people getting laundry soap,” after someone asked if toilet paper was a common housewarming gift in Japan. The stuffed animals were for their infant daughter at the time.

But the note is what keeps going viral. It starts out, “I can’t speak English. Thank you for the present. My name is Hiroshi Yamashita. I’m 52 years old. [I’m divorced] and I live alone.” Since Yamashita didn’t speak English, the note had some spots that were difficult to understand but the intent was clearly pure.

Theresa wrote in the comments of the post that it appeared that he was asking if her husband was in the Navy. While the sentences are out of order a bit, if you reorganize them a little, it seems Yamashita is attempting to say, “I have stuffed animals and toilet paper. You can use it if you’d like.”

The man concludes the letter with “Thank you for your friend operation.” It seemed that he was thanking the family for their hospitality, but Reddit users surmised that he was referring to Operation Friendship in 2011 when the United States aided Japan after an earthquake. Either way, it was still friendship operation because what says friendship like taking time out of your day to write in a language you don’t speak just to make sure your neighbors feel welcomed?

“It was adorable! We had brought him a six pack and some chocolate and tried to introduce ourselves to him. A couple hours later he brought over this letter with a pack of toilet paper and some stuffed animals for our daughter,” Theresa wrote in the comments while joking that their initial introduction probably amused Yamashita.

Further explaining within comment threads, Theresa said that they used pointing and Google Translate when they initially met Yamashita, and in turn, he used a translator app to write the note.

Theresa shared an update in the comments about six years after the story originally went viral saying, “We all exchanged gifts and food regularly for the four years I lived there. We would go to neighborhood festivals and have dinners together as well. I miss them all and think about them often.”

You never know when being kind will turn into a life long friendship. We certainly hope Yamashita and Theresa are doing just as well today and are continuing to spread their kindness around.

This article originally appeared on 2.23.23

Tom Wilkinson, the beloved and acclaimed British actor who was an always welcome fixture of movies and TV, has died, according to the BBC. He was 75. No cause of death has yet been released.

For decades, Wilkinson gave dozens of performances that were forceful yet soulful, characters who steamrolled their way into stories but were held back by neuroses and pain. He played all manner of types:

• The disgruntled, prideful former foreman who’s been lying to his wife about being unemployed in The Full Monty.
• The grieving father who goes too far in In the Bedroom, for which he received his first Oscar nomination.
• The self-doubting creator of a questionable memory-erasing procedure that part of him suspects does more harm than good in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
• The snarling, terrifying mob boss Carmine Falcone who doesn’t see a more sinister force taking over Gotham in Batman Begins.
• The crooked litigator so wracked with guilt over what he’s done that he loses his mind in Michael Clayton, for which he received his second Oscar nom.
• A self-hating Lyndon B. Johnson who has to fight both fellow politicians and himself to do something good in Selma.

There are many roles besides, all of them richly portrayed by one of England’s finest character actors. Wilkinson mostly subsisted on supporting characters, though he never kept to the background. He always forced his way to the forefront with the power of his presence, creating magnetically complicated characters who visibly wrestled with demons.

His work seemed to slow down a bit in the last few years, though he was always still around. One of his last turns was reprising one of his breakthrough roles in Disney+’s Full Monty revamp. There’s plenty more besides, memorable turns in Sense and Sensibility, Rush Hour, Shakespeare in Love, Guy Ritchie’s RocknRolla, Valkyrie, Duplicity, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, The Ghost Writer, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Snowden, and many more. The cinema, and the world, is poorer for no longer having him in it.

(Via BBC)

The first big in-season trade of this basketball year went down on Saturday when the New York Knicks and Toronto Raptors agreed to a swap that sends OG Anunoby to New York (along with Malachi Flynn and Precious Achiuwa) and Immanuel Quickley, RJ Barrett, and a second round pick to Toronto.

The trade finally brings an end to Anunoby trade rumors in Toronto, which have persisted for a couple years now, with the Raptors not getting the draft capital they once could’ve commanded for him since he is a free agent this summer. The lack of a first round pick going back to Toronto in the deal was a bit of a surprise given what they had been asking for him previously, but they do land a young guard in Quickley that many believe has not been able to tap into his full potential in New York.

Knicks fans have been frustrated with Tom Thibodeau’s usage of Quickley this season, as the team has been better when he’s on the floor, and now he figures to get a chance to take on a much larger role in Toronto, where there is not much in the way of guard depth. Still, the news of the trade seemed to catch Quickley by as much surprise as everyone else, as he reacted to Woj and Shams breaking the news of his trade along with everyone else.

His now former teammate Josh Hart likewise found himself waking up to the news, seemingly taken aback by the sudden trade.

This is life in the NBA, and while Quickley undoubtedly wanted to be in New York, it’s possible from an individual perspective on the court, this will be a positive move for him. Still, it’s a young player getting introduced to the harsh reality of the basketball business and now he has to make the move north to Toronto and get acclimated to his new team as quickly as possible.

The New York Knicks have been looking for a potential big swing on the trade market for quite some time. The Toronto Raptors have needed to figure out what the future holds for standout forward OG Anunoby, who can become an unrestricted free agent this summer. And according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the two teams have decided to come together to execute a trade revolving around perhaps the best three-and-D wing in all of basketball.

Wojnarowski brings word that New York has, indeed, won the Anunoby sweepstakes, although it will cost them a pretty penny. The Knicks will acquire Anunoby and big man Precious Achiuwa in exchange for a package that includes R.J. Barrett, Immanuel Quickley, and a collection of draft picks.

News of the deal was confirmed by Shams Charania of The Athletic.

Both Wojnarowski and Charania report that New York will not have to dig deep into its collection of draft picks, as the team is going to send a single second-round selection to Toronto.

It’s a big move for the Raptors, which sit at 12-19 on the year and have long held the reputation of being a team that would rather lose a player in unrestricted free agency than get something back for them on the trade market. Now, all eyes are on what the future will hold for Pascal Siakam, who is also slated to become a free agent at the end of the year.

As for the Knicks, while parting ways with Barrett and Quickley will sting — particularly the latter, who is a restricted free agent after the season — Anunoby gives them some major reinforcements on the wing, and should be a snug fit alongside guys like Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle. And as an added bonus, while the team could potentially lose Anunoby in free agency, the Knicks managed to do this deal without diving into their collection of first-round picks, which could let them continue to be active in the trade market going forward.

On the year, Anunoby is averaging 15.1 points, 3.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists, a steal, and 0.5 blocks in 33.3 minutes per game while connecting on 37.4 percent of his threes.

Just days before Christmas, The Chicks announced the untimely death of founding member Laura Lynch. The news rocked the country music world. According to People, on December 22, Lynch was involved in a fatal head-on collision in Hudspeth County, Texas. On Saturday, December 30, more details about the accident have surfaced.

A report from TMZ alleges that a driver connected to the accident could potentially face criminal charges. In an exclusive statement shared with the publication, the Texas Department of Public Safety PIO Sgt. Eliot Torres revealed that an investigation had been launched due to the collision’s severity.

The department is doing its due diligence to research if the driver, who has not been named at this time, was under the influence at the time of the accident. After the driver was treated for their injuries in a local hospital, their blood was drawn to test for traces of drug and alcohol. Local authorities might seek charges against the driver if either test returns positive.

After the accident, The Chicks’ current members, Emily Strayer, Martie Maguire, and Natalie Maines, shared a joint statement on the group’s official Instagram page. “Laura had a gift for design, a love of all things Texas and was instrumental in the early success of the band,” the note read. “Her undeniable talents helped propel us beyond busking on street corners to stages all across Texas and the Midwest.”

Most states in the U.S. have oddly shaped boundaries, largely formed by meandering waterways and coastal irregularities. But two states stand out for their seemingly defiant rectangularness—Wyoming and Colorado.

These almost-twin states share a border, are almost exactly the same size (Colorado is just 1.06 times larger than Wyoming), boast basically the same shape and have the Rocky Mountains eating into a sizeable chunk of them. (Wyoming’s share of mountains is a bit larger than Colorado’s, but its topography isn’t nearly different enough than Colorado’s to account for how many fewer people it has.)

Wyoming’s population as of 2022 was estimated to be just over 580,000, while Colorado’s was estimated to be just over 5.8 million. Almost exactly a 10-fold difference between the two very similar states.

So…why?

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Water resources? A logical guess, but nope. Both states contain the headwaters of multiple major rivers, and according to RealLifeLore, Wyoming actually has a slight edge over Colorado due to the way its freshwater is legally allocated.

What makes Wyoming the least populous U.S. state despite being the country’s 10th largest state by area has to do with the Gold Rush, agriculture, World War II, federal lands, the rise of the telecom industry, educational institutions, airplanes and more. It’s a historical Tale of Two States that illustrates how twins with different upbringings can share many similarities but also end up with two very different life stories.

Watch the folks at RealLifeLore explain the population discrepancy between Wyoming and Colorado:

The one correction some people in the comments of the video offered up was that referring to the “mild” climate in Wyoming seems a bit misleading. Several people mentioned that the winter weather in Wyoming is harsher than in Colorado, which may account for fewer people wanting to live there. (However, considering the fact that there are more densely populated places in the world with exceptionally punishing winters, weather doesn’t fully explain it, either.)

It’ll be interesting to see in another hundred years or so if these states’ population trends change, but for now, Wyoming remains the least populous and most naturally undisturbed state. So if you’re big on the outdoors and not so big on people, the Equality State (Side fun fact: Wyoming was the first state to give women the right to vote.) might just be the place for you. If you love the mountains but also people, Colorado may be more your speed.

This article originally appeared on 5.10.23

Paul Schrader and Martin Scorsese go way back. Taxi Driver was based on Schrader’s first solo screenplay. He’s written or co-written some of his finest films, including Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, and Bringing Out the Dead. They’re close buds, which is good because Schrader, as people well know, isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Naturally Schrader has some thoughts about Scorsese’s latest, the much-loved Killers of the Flower Moon, and surely Scorsese is cool with him mouthing off.

Per Variety, Schrader — who made a very fine picture himself this year, namely Master Gardener — sat down with the French publication Le Monde, during which he discussed the differences between he and his longtime collaborator. For one thing, Schrader likes smaller, more intimate films while Scorsese digs sprawling, ambitious epics.

“Marty compares me to a Flemish miniaturist. He would be more the type who paints Renaissance frescoes,” Schrader explained. “Give him $200 million, a good film will inevitably come out of it.”

But Schrader has a few bones to pick with Flower Moon.

“That said, I would have preferred Leonardo DiCaprio to play the role of the cop in ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ rather than the role of the idiot,” Schrader said. “Spending three-and-a-half hours in the company of an idiot is a long time.”

As it happened, that was the original plan for Flower Moon. Its initial draft hewed close to David Grann’s book, which largely focuses on the federal investigation into the spate of mysterious murderers befalling the noveau riche Osage people of Oklahoma. Instead Scorsese and team wound up inverting it, deciding to make the lead character Ernest, the nincompoop who marries a wealthy Osage woman (played by Lily Gladstone), one of a number of Osage people whom his uncle (Robert De Niro) wants murdered for their money. The character DiCaprio was originally supposed to play, former Texas Marshal Tom White, went to awesomely mumbly Jesse Plemons.

But Schrader, who’s made untold films about antiheroic protagonists, thinks the original way would have worked best. He’s an opinionated guy, as witness his prolifically updated Facebook page. And honestly, considering his incredible CV — Blue Collar! American Gigolo! his deranged Cat People redo! Light Sleeper! his recent run of First Reformed, The Card Counter, and the aforementioned Master Gardener, plus many greats in between! — he can say whatever he wants. Besides, he’s not wrong about another of the year’s super-long pictures.

(Via Le Monde and Variety)