Today is Saturday, Aug. 23, the 235th day of 2025. There are 130 days left in the year.

Today in history:

On Aug 23, 1927, amid worldwide protests, Italian-born anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti were executed in Boston for the murders of two men during a 1920 robbery. (On the 50th anniversary of their executions, then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis issued a proclamation that Sacco and Vanzetti had been unfairly tried and convicted.)

Also on this date:

In 1305, Scottish rebel leader Sir William Wallace was executed by the English for treason.

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In 1775, Britain’s King George III proclaimed the American colonies to be in a state of “open and avowed rebellion.”

In 1914, Japan declared war against Germany in World War I.

In 1939, Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, in Moscow.

In 1970, the Salad Bowl strike began, organized by farm labor leader Cesar Chavez; between 5,000 to 10,000 laborers walked off the job, leading to the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history.

In 2000, A Gulf Air Airbus crashed into the Persian Gulf near Bahrain, killing all 143 people aboard.

In 2003, former priest John Geoghan (GAY’-gun), the convicted child molester whose prosecution sparked the sex abuse scandal that shook the Roman Catholic Church nationwide, died after another inmate attacked him in a Massachusetts prison.

In 2011, a magnitude-5.8 earthquake centered near Mineral, Virginia, the strongest on the East Coast since 1944, caused cracks in the Washington Monument and damaged Washington National Cathedral.

In 2013, a military jury convicted Maj. Nidal Hasan in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, that claimed 13 lives; the Army psychiatrist was later sentenced to death.

In 2020, a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, seven times as officers tried to arrest Blake on an outstanding warrant; the shooting left Blake partially paralyzed and triggered several nights of violent protests.

In 2022, a jury convicted two men of conspiring to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in 2020, a victory for prosecutors in a plot that was broken up by the FBI and described as a rallying cry for a U.S. civil war by anti-government extremists.

Today’s Birthdays:

Actor Vera Miles is 96.
Actor Barbara Eden is 94.
Football Hall of Famer Sonny Jurgensen is 91.
Ballerina Patricia McBride is 83.
Former Surgeon General Antonia Novello is 81.
Singer-songwriter Linda Thompson is 78.
Author and motivational speaker Rudy Ruettiger is 77.
Actor Shelley Long is 76.
Actor-singer Rick Springfield is 76.
Noor al-Hussein (Queen Noor of Jordan) is 74.
Film composer Alexandre Desplat is 64.
Actor Jay Mohr is 55.
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is 54.
Actor Ray Park is 51.
Actor Scott Caan is 49.
Rock singer Julian Casablancas (The Strokes) is 47.
Actor Joanne Froggatt is 45.
Olympic gold medal swimmer Natalie Coughlin Hall is 43.
Musician Lil Yachty is 28.

Benson Boone is a ridiculous young man.

That was the main takeaway from the 23-year-old’s performance Friday night at St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, the debut show of his first all-arena tour that will see him play more than 50 cities across the next three months.

The Washington state native emerged in 2021 as a competitor on “American Idol” who found a burst of self confidence that led to him leaving the show, despite landing in the Top 24.

It was a smart move, given that it’s been ages since “Idol” has produced an actual star. Boone, or someone managing him, realized it made far more sense to forgo network television and lean into his increasing TikTok popularity, which helped fuel interest in his early singles “Ghost Town” and “In the Stars.”

But it was last year’s “Beautiful Things” that blew Boone out of teenage phones and into the mainstream. And Boone was more than ready for the spotlight, with a sound that filtered ’70s glam rock and sleek ’80s pop through a modern sensibility and a flamboyant look clearly modeled after his hero Freddie Mercury (even if he comes off more like the late magician Doug Henning). Think an American Harry Styles with more teeth and bigger muscles.

Oh, and he does back flips.

Friday night, Boone pulled out every trick in his repertoire, radiating with the intensity of a vaudeville-era star playing to the cheapest seats in the house. He’s got a strong, if not particularly nuanced, voice that served him well over the lustful screams from the audience, which was heavy on young women and families.

In addition to his back flips (I lost count at five), Boone spent the 95-minute show sprinting up and down the catwalk that stretched across the arena floor, stopping to grab fans’ hands in the pit below and staring directly into the cameras that followed his every move, beaming his mug to the entire sold-out arena.

Yes, Benson Boone tries really hard. He was fun to watch at times, but he got tiring. The music business is full of brooding cool kids afraid to show too much effort, so I suppose it’s refreshing to see someone wholeheartedly embrace fame at its biggest, brightest and tackiest. But, man, even Katy Perry would look at this guy and suggest he tone it down a bit.

As for the music, the tour is built around the tracks from his sophomore album “American Heart,” which hit streaming some six weeks after the tour went on sale and fans paid hundreds for tickets. Boone has said Bruce Springsteen was a key influence on the record, but hearing the songs live only reinforced that he sounds more like the Killers’ plastic take on the Boss. (The Killers have made exactly one great album and that’s “Hot Fuss.” I will die on this hill.)

Take “Mystical Magical,” which “SNL” fans might remember from Boone’s appearance on the show in May. Its rinky dink synths sound torn from Styles’ far superior “As It Was,” while the chorus interpolates the hook from Olivia Newton-John’s classic “Physical.” That’s not even a novel move, as Doja Cat did the exact same thing with “Physical” just four years ago on the, yes, far superior “Kiss Me More.”

Even more so live than on record, “Momma Song” sounded like a half dozen other tracks in Boone’s repertoire. Like much of his material, it was all surface and no depth, a sparkly bauble made of tin foil.

Then again, I don’t know that the crowd cared that his songs all start to blend together. They came to see Benson Boone belt his tunes, preen for the cameras and do back flips. He delivered on all three fronts.

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When Meghan Trainor burst onto the pop music scene in 2014, her dance-oriented pop was a refreshing contrast to so much of what was coming out of the radio. She wrote songs about feeling positive about your body, something that many a tween girl and younger needed amid an onslaught of online bullying and body shaming. According to Trainor’s lyrics, you’re fine just the way you are. And it’s very likely that that message has saved some lives.

And it’s easy to understand why that’s made her so beloved of a fan base that’s stayed with her long after the international sensation of “All About That Bass” has faded from earshot. So she deserves the kind of attention that attracted 8,112 fans to the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand on Friday night. What they experienced was a bubbly, buoyant dance party that kept the crowd on its feet and bouncing throughout her 80-minute, 19-song set of retro-flavored dance pop.

But was it a concert? That’s debatable. It was basically a prerecorded show, with Trainor singing lead vocals atop the tracks from her albums. The lone reason to buy a ticket was to witness her dancing with eight other women and to celebrate the infectious beats and positive messages of her songs with a Grandstand full of kindred spirits.

And to be clear: They are her songs. Unlike some pop stars whose music is the product of a consortium of songwriters and producers, Trainor is the lead songwriter on all of her hits. She was already selling songs in her teens to pop and country acts before she signed her first recording contract and she doesn’t just shop around for songs that send affirmative messages to young female listeners: She writes them.

But Friday’s show may have undercut her message somewhat, as a considerably thinner Trainor sported a spangled bikini-style Las Vegas showgirl outfit and a platinum wig wider than her shoulders, frequently turning to wiggle her slimmed-down posterior to the audience when her biggest hit was about being proud to have a considerably larger one.

That said, there was plenty of fun to be had admiring the well-executed choreography with her dancers, all of them clad in cheerleader-style pleats. And the audience clearly exulted in singing and dancing along to such ‘50s-flavored fare as “Dear Future Husband” and “Whoops.” But I came away concerned that the glamorous showgirl schtick was making Trainor seem too much a poor girl’s Taylor Swift, when she has the potential to be someone uniquely her. The kind of individual she encourages her listeners to be.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

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Jessica Shepard had the second triple-double in team history, and the Lynx used a dominant third quarter for a 95-90 win on Friday at Indiana.

Kayla McBride tied a season high with 29 points, Natisha Hiedeman added 17 off the bench and Minnesota ended a two-game skid.

Playing all 40 minutes, Shepard finished with 22 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, including 11 points, 10 assists and nine rebounds in the first half. She was 10 for 11 from the field and did not turn the ball over nor commit a foul.

Shepard needed just 22 minutes for her triple-double, the fastest in league history, she’s the first player to get a triple-while shooting at least 90%, and she’s the third player in league history to have at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists with no turnovers, joining Alyssa Thomas and Sabrina Ionescu.

“I was just trying to do whatever it took for our team to win coming off two losses,” she said. “If you’re going to have a triple-double, you have to win the game. I was proud of our whole team.”

Moriah Jefferson had the only other triple-double in Lynx history on June 28, 2022 with 13 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Initially listed as questionable, MVP-favorite Napheesa Collier missed her seventh consecutive game with a right ankle injury. The Lynx are 5-2 in her absence.

“In terms of what the group needed, and maybe what we don’t have when we’re playing without Phee, is a paint presence, so the others needed someone to throw it into. Over the games that Phee hasn’t been in, Jess has kind of taken on spot of Phee and has done it quite well,” coach Cheryl Reeve said. “This is the epitome of Jess: good scorer, passer, rebounder. All of it was on display for us today.”

Shepard, a strong contender for the league’s Sixth Player of the Year Award, moved into the middle of the Lynx frontcourt in Collier’s absence and is averaging 11.9 points and 10 rebounds in those seven games. Yet, she could very well again be a non-starter when Collier is back.

Reeve said the bench is a Lynx strength.

“We’ll be very mindful about making sure Jess’s minutes are what they need to be and we’ll find different way to do that. Not an easy decision for sure, but Napheesa Collier is an MVP, so everyone will understand that decision has to be made.”

This is the first of three regular-season meetings between the teams, who also tip off Sunday night at Target Center. Indiana (19-17) beat Minnesota July 1 in the Commissioner’s Cup final.

Playing its third road game in four nights in three cities, the Lynx (29-7) dominated the third quarter, outscoring the Fever 32-17 to turn a two-point halftime deficit into an 82-69 lead. Getting defensive stops led to getting out in transition which led to being better identifying open opportunities and the Lynx were 13 of 15 from the field in the quarter.

“We just got the ball moving a little bit more but it all started with our defensive intensity,” McBride said.

A layup by Shepard put the Lynx up 89-76 with 4:37 left, but Aliyah Boston scored eight straight points to whittle Minnesota’s lead to five with 2:02 left.

McBride scored on a drive and Bridget Carleton drained a step back jumper with 1:03 left as the shot clock was about to expire for a 93-86 cushion.

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