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A difficult week in the world of professional wrestling got even tougher on Thursday when Triple H broke word that Windham Rotunda, best known as Bray Wyatt in WWE, had died at the age of 36.

Rotunda was a beloved figure in the wrestling world, having carved out a stellar career in WWE by creating one of the most unique characters wrestling has had in years and continuing to reshape and redefine that character. His death shocked and saddened the wrestling world, as so many in the business had worked with him, been inspired by him, and/or been able to call him a friend. Many of those took to social media to remember Rotunda by posting tributes to him, sharing in the heartbreak with wrestling fans, and offering their love and sympathies to Rotunda’s family.

Among the most heart-wrenching of those posts came from Amanda Huber, whose late husband Jon Huber died in 2020 and had spent his time in WWE as Luke Harper in the Wyatt family, as she posted a number of photos of Jon and Windham together.

A number of other stars from WWE, AEW, and beyond offered remembrances of Wyatt, providing a glimpse at the impact he had in the industry. From luminaries like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and William Regal to current stars like Big E, the wrestling world took Thursday night to remember Rotunda and offer their condolences to one of wrestling’s great families.

As she says on her chart-topping single, “Vampire,” Olivia Rodrigo has made some real big mistakes. Fans are eager to hear more stories on her upcoming sophomore album, Guts. Ahead of the much-anticipated album, Rodrigo spoke with New York Times about adjusting to fame.

Back in 2021, Rodrigo went from child star to household name with her musical debut single, “Drivers License.” Follow up singles “Deja Vu” and “Good 4 U” garnered equal buzz, proving that Rodrigo was no flash in the pan. However, during the cycle of these songs, which appeared on her debut album, Sour, she had a rough time adjusting to fame.

“I had such a desire to live and experience things and make mistakes and grow after Sour came out,” said Rodrigo to the Times. I kind of felt this pressure to be this girl that I thought everyone expected me to be. And I think because of that pressure, maybe I did things that maybe I shouldn’t have — dated people that I shouldn’t have.”

Between Sour and Guts, Rodrigo was romantically linked to music producer Adam Faze and DJ Zack Bia. Some of the songs on Sour are rumored to be about her High School Musical: The Musical: The Series co-star, Joshua Bassett.

Guts is out 9/8 via Geffen. Find more information here.

The wrestling world suffered a tremendous loss on Thursday. In a tweet from WWE chief content officer Triple H, it was announced that Windham Rotunda passed away earlier in the day. Rotunda, who was best known for his time in WWE as Bray Wyatt, was 36 years old.

The cause of death was unclear. Rotunda had not appeared on television for WWE in several months, as he was expected to have a match at WrestleMania 39 against Bobby Lashley. However, due to an unspecified health issue, he was taken off the card. His status was up in the air for months, and earlier in August, Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful reported that Wyatt was both “getting closer to being cleared” and in the process of recovering from an illness that “was both career and life threatening.”

Rotunda joined WWE back in 2009 as part of its developmental program before making his main roster debut with The Nexus under the name Husky Harris in 2010. After going back down to Florida Championship Wrestling, Rotunda returned to the main roster as Bray Wyatt, the leader of the Wyatt Family, and while the faction eventually broke up, he continued to perform on the main roster. He was a one-time WWE Champion and a two-time WWE Universal Champion.

Rotunda came from a long line of professional wrestlers, as his grandfather, father, and two of his uncles all stepped into the squared circle. His brother, Taylor, spent more than a decade with WWE as Bo Dallas.

September has the potential to be a very big month for the Milwaukee Bucks. Once it rolls around, Giannis Antetokounmpo will be eligible to sign a maximum contract extension with the team before he enters the final years of his deal — currently, Antetokounmpo is under contract for 2024-25 with a player option for 2025-26.

The Bucks have gone through extension talks with Antetokounmpo in the past, so even though there’s been a slight change in ownership, the team’s brass understands how to navigate these potentially bumpy waters. Part of what makes this so tricky revolves around quotes that Antetokounmpo gave to Tania Ganguli of the New York Times, as the former NBA MVP explained that there is a scenario where he will not sign a new deal with the team.

“The real question’s not going to be this year — numbers-wise it doesn’t make sense,” Antetokounmpo said. “But next year, next summer it would make more sense for both parties. Even then, I don’t know.”

He added: “I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, everybody’s going for a championship, everybody’s going to sacrifice time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing.”

This isn’t a totally new stance by Antetokounmpo, as he said prior to signing his current deal in 2020 that his top priority is for everyone in Milwaukee to be “fighting for the same thing … which is to be a champion.”

It’s worth noting that this does not necessarily mean that Antetokounmpo would want to become an unrestricted free agent or even try to push his way to another team. He’s spoken in the past about how discussed retiring with the Bucks prior to signing his current deal, and he’s made very clear that he has a number of interests beyond basketball. The simplest answer is usually the correct one in these situations, so the most likely outcome is that he’ll just end up signing a new deal, but we’ll see what ends up happening when next summer rolls around.

Over the past few years, there’s been a concern among some conservatives that specific topics, such as LGBTQ awareness and critical race theory, are too prevalent in classrooms. These concerns have inspired various legislative actions, such as book bans and restrictions on discussing LGBTQ topics in schools.

Unfortunately, this debate has also resulted in a hostile work environment for some teachers and administrators, and clashes at school board meetings have been commonplace. In extreme situations, educators have been accused of grooming children into becoming LGBTQ.

Critics of the conservative scorched-earth approach to education believe that it’s nothing more than a manufactured moral panic used by politicians to garner support on issues that hit close to home for parents. A disturbing aspect of the education backlash is that it often targets teachers who already have a tough job.

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North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum stood up to GOP rank-and-file at the presidential debate on Wednesday, August 23, by claiming that the idea that teachers are indoctrinating children across the nation is “false.” For many, it was a welcome course correction from the Republican narrative.

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A moderator asked Burgum if too much is being made about the issue of transgender children playing sports in schools, and he used the question to discuss the topic of indoctrination.

“But I do think when we start talking about education—and we think that we’re going to have a federal government one size fits all—we’re just completely losing track of the fact that education differs by state. Some school districts are doing a fantastic job, some less so,” Burgum said.

“But the idea that every school district and every teacher is somehow indoctrinating people is just false,” he continued. “Teachers in this country, the vast majority of them care about those kids. They’re working in low-paying jobs, and they’re fighting for those kids and their families.”

Burgum also reframed the argument from social issues to what’s most important, children being taught the fundamentals in schools.

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“There’s a lot of crazy woke things happening in schools, but we’ve got to get these kids reading. If a child can’t read by third grade, they’re four times less likely to graduate high school. So we need to make sure we bring in reading remediation all over this country,” Burgum said.

“We need transparency in the classroom because parents should never have to wonder what’s being said or taught to their children in the classroom,” she continued. “Parents need to be deciding which schools their kids go to because they know best, and let’s put vocational classes back into the high schools. Let’s teach our kids to build things again.”

It’s crucial for parents to have a voice in what’s happening in the classroom. But when politicians turn the focus in education from teaching kids the fundamentals to a hyper-focus on the culture war, that’s when the system is bound to fail. Burgum did a commendable job in the debate, reframing the discussion from the culture wars to what matters most: children learning about the three Rs and supporting their teachers.

Raising kids is tough no matter what generation you fall into, but it’s hard to deny that there was something much simpler about the childrearing days of yesteryear, before the internet offered a million and one ways that parents could be—and probably are—doing it all very, very wrong.

Taylor Wolfe, a millennial mom, exemplifies this as she asks her own mother a series of rapid-fire questions about raising her during the 80s and the stark contrast in attitudes becomes blatantly apparent.

First off, Wolfe can’t comprehend how her mom survived without being able to Google everything. (Not even a parent, but I feel this.)

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“What did we have to Google?” her mom asks while shaking her head incredulously.

“Everything! For starters, poop!” Wolfe says. “Cause you have to know if the color is an okay color, if it’s healthy!”

“I was a nursing mom, so if the poop came out green, it was because I ate broccoli,” her mom responds.

…Okay, fair point. But what about handy gadgets like baby monitors? How did Wolfe’s mom keep her kid alive without one?

“I was the monitor, going in and feeling you,” she says.

@thedailytay My anxiety would have hated the 80s. Or maybe loved it? IDK! #fyp #millennialsontiktok #parenttok #momsoftiktok #comedyvid ♬ original sound – TaylorWolfe

Could it really be that easy? It was for Wolfe’s mom, apparently. Rather than relying on technology, she simply felt her child and adjusted accordingly.

“If you were hot, you slept in a diaper. If you were cold, you had a blanket around you.” Done and done.

Wolfe then got into more existential questions, asking her mom if she ever felt the stress of “only having 18 summers” with her child, and how to make the most of it.

Without missing a beat, Wolfe’s mother says, “It’s summer, I still have you.”

Going by Wolfe’s mom, the 80s seems like a time with much less pressure. From feeding her kids McDonald’s fries guilt-free to being spared the judgment of internet trolls, she just sort of did the thing without worrying so much if she was doing it correctly.

That’s nearly impossible in today’s world, as many viewers commented.

“Google just gives us too much information and it scares us,” one person quipped.

Another seconded, “I swear social media has made me wayyyy more of an anxious mom.”

Even a professional noted: “As someone who has worked in pediatrics since the 80s, the parents are way more anxious now.”

I don’t think anyone truly wants to go back in time, per se. But many of us are yearning to bring more of this bygone mindset into the modern day. And the big takeaway here: No matter how many improvements we make to life, if the cost is our mental state, then perhaps it’s time to swing the pendulum back a bit.

The “Shrek” movies are the most popular of the DreamWorks Animation films, with “Shrek 2” being the studio’s top-grossing movie of all time.

But what we now think of as the iconic Scottish ogre played by Mike Myers was almost completely different. After Nicolas Cage passed up the role, Chris Farley was cast to play Shrek. In fact, according to Uproxx, Shrek writers Terry Rossio and Ted Elliot had originally based Shrek and Donkey’s relationship on Farley and David Spade’s relationship in “Tommy Boy,” so the larger-than-life comedian was a natural choice.

Sadly, Farley passed away in the middle of film production in 1997 after recording around 85 percent of his lines. He would eventually be replaced by fellow SNL star Mike Myers.

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The two men approached the role of Shrek quite differently. As Farley’s brother later explained to Yahoo, “Originally the Shrek character was a little bit more like Chris, like a humble, bumbling innocent guy.” Myers’ Shrek, on the other hand, was a bit older, more jaded and…well, quite obviously Scottish.

Hearing how Farley played Shrek is a fascinating example of how two different actors can interpret characters in different ways. Despite Myers’ Shrek being beloved and familiar, it’s clear from the footage of Farley’s recordings leaked in 2015 that his Shrek would have been great, too. Definitely different, but great.

Watch:

People had lots of feelings about hearing Farley as Shrek and what he brought to the role, as well as the loss of his extraordinary talent:

“Chris Farley’s Shrek sounds more chill than the original. yes, he has layers in his personality to protect himself from the world and has the same struggles with Myers’ Shrek but their difference is how they cope with it. Farley’s Shrek copes by being motivated by his parent’s love and he sounds more disappointed because the world doesn’t love him. Myers’ Shrek on the other hand copes by shutting himself from the world isolating himself since he never found anyone who would actually love him for who he is, so the revelation is more cathartic because it shows his frustration with the world and tearing down a ‘layer’ from donkey.” – @TauGeneration

“This scene is so heartwarming. Farley’s Shrek is like a more emotionally aware ogre whereas Myers’ is so emotionally stilted he doesn’t even KNOW how he feels half the time. Farley’s knows exactly what he wants, but accepts that he doesn’t deserve it bc of how he was raised, and how the world treated him.” – @DAMIENDMILLS

“I think this really demonstrates just how much of an animated character comes from the voice actor, Chris’ Shrek may have the same core (I want to be left be to my own devices) but his take is so different! The whole parrents issue is really interesting, because we never do get to see how Shrek became the angry grump he is, and it a really unique take. I still like Myers, but I do wonder what just how different Farley’s Shrek would have been.” – @kennymartin5976

“In addition to the fact that Farley passed away during the making of this film, what also makes me sad is hearing his performance. They picked a great scene from the movie that had humor, but also showed more depth in Shrek’s character, and if you listen to Farley’s voice he’s hitting those emotions perfectly. I think this clip shows us a glimpse of Farley being able to hit those dramatic notes in addition to being the clown. Who knows, maybe he could’ve gone on to do some more serious movies, or sort of dramedy roles, and he might have been great in them. It’s sad we’ll never be able to see that. RIP Chris Farley, we miss you.” – @yoshim616

Check out a back-to-back comparison of clips from the movie and the original recordings:

Here is a video comparing the two
⬇️ pic.twitter.com/I4v6BxxVPD

— Frank Bruno (@FrankRBruno) August 24, 2023

Not everyone can afford regular therapy or even require therapy consistently, but that doesn’t mean those same people don’t need help at times. Life happens. In the moment, you could be struggling with depression that stems from going through a divorce or the loss of a loved one or beloved pet. Your normally manageable anxiety could be feeling like it’s suddenly a freight train barreling towards you after moving to a new city.

These are moments where you might feel like having a little unbiased extra support could be helpful—and that’s where a free app called WhiteFlag could come in. WhiteFlag is an app that connects users who have struggled with similar things. In the mental health field, this is called peer support.

The person lending the support is typically someone who previously experienced the same thing as the person seeking help. It’s an invaluable tool used in multiple mental health settings, and this app has just put it at everyone’s fingertips.

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Tiffany Jenkins runs the vlog Juggling the Jenkins and she brought more eyes to the app after posting about using it to her millions of followers. She explains to her followers in a video how the app works, which honestly could be used as an advertisement with how much she praised the app.

“When you first go in and download the app, you put in all the things that you’re struggling with. And then, you raise your white flag when you’re struggling,” Jenkins explains. “And you’re matched by compatibility with other people who’ve been through something similar. Not therapists who are getting paid to listen. They’re anonymous people who understand your struggle and who are willing to talk to you.”

After Jenkins’ quick rundown of how the app works, it’s easy to see how this could be a lifeline for people who are having a difficult time. You can find out more about the app through her video below and on the WhiteFlag website here.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Tiffany Jenkins (@jugglingthejenkins)

Stephen Strasburg is calling it a career after more than a decade with the Washington Nationals, one in which he has had incredible highs and more than his fair share of injury issues. Since winning World Series MVP honors in 2019, a year in which he racked up an 18-6 record across 209 innings pitched, Strasburg has been on the mound just five times for 30.2 innings of work.

As his arm issues have continued to keep him off of the mound, the former No. 1 overall pick, who set the baseball world ablaze in his first ever start, has decided to retire. While he won’t be pitching anymore, he will still be compensated quite well by the Nationals, as he’s in the fourth year of a 7-year, $245 million deal he signed after that World Series performance. According to Bob Nightengale of USA Today, Strasburg’s deal with the Nationals was completely uninsured and fully guaranteed, meaning he will still collect all of the money he’s still owed through 2026, plus some deferment checks the Nationals used to stretch out the cost of his contract through 2029.

If there were ever any doubt that Scott Boras is the best to ever do it as a baseball player agent, let this be Exhibit A in his Agent Hall of Fame case. Now, Strasburg would certainly prefer to be playing the game he loves and be healthy, and I want to be clear that I don’t think he’s retiring simply to collect checks. That said, it’s a great bit of agent work to get your client who has had past arm issues a fully guaranteed deal to ensure that should something happen down the road and he does have to retire, he doesn’t have to forego any money to make the decision that’s best for his health.

Usually international tournaments don’t have two teams with a real shot at winning a gold medal in the same group. Fortunately for basketball fans, Group H at the 2023 FIBA Basketball World Cup provides exactly that, as two international juggernauts sit at the top of the group. France enters the tournament this year as the No. 5 team in the world and the defending bronze medalists in the tournament. Canada comes in at No. 15, but with a number of NBA players on the roster, the team has every reason to believe it will outperform its ranking and compete gold.

On the outside looking in of that top-2 are Latvia, which enter the tournament without the services of star big man Kristaps Porzingis, and Lebanon. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where either team is able to knock off the French or the Canadians, but international play is weird, because all it takes is one off night for everything to change.

Here are the odds to win the group entering the tournament (via DraftKings).

Canada -110
France -110
Latvia +2000
Lebanon +15000

Today, we’re look through the most prominent players, the schedule, and the games to watch in Group H.

Players to Watch

R.J. Barrett (Canada): With Jamal Murray and Andrew Wiggins missing the tournament, Barrett’s role on the Canadian team is incredibly important. Canada has a no-doubt No. 1 option (see below!) and a number of very good NBA players, but Barrett is the guy who could help push them over the top with the ability to impact the game on both ends of the floor. The Canadians already have sky high aspirations at the World Cup, and Barrett being the best version of himself would make them even more attainable.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada): One of the two players who earned an All-NBA First Team nod last season and are playing this summer, Gilgeous-Alexander very well might be the best player in the entire tournament. His international exploits are not nearly as well-known as those of Luka Doncic, as this will mark his first major international tournament with his home country. Murray missing out means the ball will be in his hands even more, and it seems a safe bet to say he’ll deliver.

Evan Fournier (France): Things could be going better for Fournier with his NBA career, but he’s continued to be a menace for the French when he suits up for his country. It came in a narrow loss, but Fournier dropped 29 points on Australia, and his ability to provide an offensive spark is part of what has made the team so good over the years. He and Nando De Colo are a veteran, battle tested backcourt that should give France a shot against anyone.

Rudy Gobert (France): The French frontcourt could look very different next year, as Victor Wembanyama has made clear he wants to play in the Olympics and Joel Embiid is eligible to join the team as it goes for a gold medal in Paris. Gobert, meanwhile, has been a constant for France as it has constantly put forth impressive showings over the years. He’s an experienced, decorated international player and someone whose size and physicality could very easily give opposing teams trouble.

Davis Bertans (Latvia): It is hard to imagine a scenario where Canada and France aren’t moving on in the group. The most likely way that scenario comes to fruition involves Bertans getting scorching hot in a game against either of them, the Latvians knocking them off, and taking care of business against Lebanon. With Kristaps Porzingis out, the Thunder forward will take on even more responsibility in trying to get them out of the group.

Schedule/TV Info (all times EST)

Aug. 25
Latvia vs. Lebanon, 5:00 a.m., ESPN+
Canada vs. France, 9:30 a.m., ESPN+

Aug. 27
Lebanon vs. Canada, 5:30 a.m., ESPN+
France vs. Latvia, 9:30 a.m., ESPN+

Aug. 29
Lebanon vs. France, 5:30 a.m., ESPN+
Canada vs. Latvia, 9:30 a.m., ESPN+

Game to Watch

Canada vs. France: This is not just the best game in the group. It’s very possible the showdown between the Canadians and the French is the best game in the entire tournament, as the two teams are legitimate candidates to win a gold medal behind rosters with an abundance of NBA talent. It tips off at a very reasonable time for those of us in the States, and there’s even a chance that this ends up being a preview of the gold medal game a little farther down the road. This one is going to be fun.