Recommended Reading
from Bruce
Tracy Connor: Funeral director in Boston bombing case used to serving the unwanted (NBC News)
"He was the only one who would bury gay men dead of AIDS back in the 80s. He did funerals for slain prostitutes that everyone else treated like some sort of subhuman trash," Slocum said in an email, calling him "a good man of rare character." http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/06/18086503-funeral-director-in-boston-bombing-case-used-to-serving-the-unwanted
Molly O'Toole: Military Sexual Assaults Spike Despite Efforts To Combat Epidemic (Huffington Post)
Sexual assaults occurred at an average of more than 70 per day in the United States military during fiscal year 2012, according to an annual report being released Tuesday by the Department of Defense.
Froma Harrop: Bangladesh and Us (Creators Syndicate)
You know a corner's been turned when someone in a legion of foreign sweatshop workers is given a face. That's happened in Bangladesh, home of hideous factory conditions - as seen in the ruins of Rana Plaza, a former eight-story work warren. Death toll: over 600.
3D-printable guns are just the start, says Cody Wilson (Guardian)
The inventor of 'The Liberator' plastic firearm believes in an open future and the 'complete explosion' of all gun law.
George Monbiot: Why the politics of envy are keenest among the very rich (Guardian)
Essential public services are cut in order that the wealthy may pay less tax. But even their baubles don't make them happy.
Deborah Orr: I escaped from the shadow of Ravenscraig, without Thatcher's help (Guardian)
Damian Barr says Thatcher helped him to aspire, to escape the constraints of his home town. Maybe, but it wasn't her who persuaded me that getting out was for the best.
Ian Sample: Antibiotics could cure 40% of chronic back pain patients (Guardian)
Scientists hail medical breakthrough by which half a million UK sufferers could avoid major surgery and take antibiotics instead.
Lucy Mangan: "Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild" (Guardian)
the heartening truth is that while you do need to enjoy a fantastically improbable concatenation of circumstances to enable you to go for free to Madame Fidolia's Children's Academy of Dance and Stage Training, the biggest lesson in all of Streatfeild's books is that once you are there, you have to work. ... This is actually quite a shock to the unwary reader - or at least it was by the time I was reading the books in the 80s.
"Pregnant with Potential" (Notalwaysright.com)
Nice Customer: "Excuse me. I may be way out of line, and please feel free to tell me to mind my own business if I am, but… are you afraid you're going to have trouble paying for your groceries?"
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Michelle in AZ
From The Creator of 'Avery Ant'
Selected Readings
from that Mad Cat, JD
In The Chaos Household
Last Night
Sunny and seasonal.
YouTube Puts Adult-Only Rating On New Video
David Bowie
David Bowie's latest music video featuring him as a Christ-like figure surrounded by women in skimpy outfits and priests in a bar was slapped with an adult-only rating by video sharing website YouTube on Wednesday.
The video for the single "The Next Day" was temporarily pulled from YouTube with a screen shot saying it had been removed because its content violated YouTube's terms of service, according to the British singer's publicist.
The video also stars Oscar-winning French actress Marion Cotillard as a woman with stigmata with blood spurting from her wounds as well as Gary Oldman as a priest condemning Bowie.
A spokeswoman from Google Inc.-owned YouTube said the video was removed but then returned to the website with a restriction for viewers aged 18 and above.
Written, conceived and starring Bowie, "The Next Day" video was directed by filmmaker Floria Sigismondi.
David Bowie
'Simpsons' Season Finale
Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane is adding one more voice to Fox, and it's happening earlier than expected.
MacFarlane, who created and provides voices for the network's "Family Guy," "American Dad" and "The Cleveland Show," will guest-voice the Season 24 finale of "The Simpsons," airing May 19.
In the episode - which is dubbed "Dangers on a Train," and will be the second part of an hour-long season finale - MacFarlane will play Ben, a charming married man who meets series matriarch Marge Simpson after she inadvertently signs up for a swingers' website.
Marge ends up in the world of online swingers after mistaking an Ashley Madison-type website for a Dolly Madison-esque site about cupcakes and develops a bond with Ben after discovering that they are both fans of a "Downton Abbey"-type series titled "Upton Rectory."
Comedian Lisa Lampinelli will voice Ben's wife.
Seth MacFarlane
Longtime Cannes President To Step Down
Gilles Jacob
Cannes Film Festival president Gilles Jacob, who has presided over the fest for 36 years, will be leaving his position as president when his term expires in 2015, Cannes told TheWrap on Wednesday.
Jacob revealed his intention to leave the job in an interview with the French newspaper Nice Matin, saying that he promised his wife "several times" that he would retire. His remarks (in French) appeared in a one-paragraph note on the paper's website on Wednesday.
The 83-year-old president is contracted to head Cannes for another three festivals, including the one that begins next week. He has been at Cannes since 1977, and in that time has been responsible for the introduction of the Un Certain Regard and Cinefondation sidebars in 1978 and 1998, respectively. In 1978 he also introduced the Camera d'Or award, which goes to the festival's best first-time director.
He has also been credited with bringing film-industry professions and celebrities onto the Cannes jury, which initially had been comprised of academics.
Gilles Jacob
Sculptures Fetch $16M
Auguste Rodin
Two early casts from Auguste Rodin's masterpiece "The Gates of Hell" have sold for a total of more than $16 million at a New York City auction.
"The Thinker" sold Tuesday for $15.3 million, a new record for the figure. Sotheby's hasn't said who bought it.
The full-scale sculpture was commissioned by publishing magnate Ralph Pulitzer in 1906 and made under Rodin's supervision.
"Ugolino and His Children," from 1883, sold for $965,000. "The Kiss," from 1909, did not sell.
Auguste Rodin
Rival Charities In Dispute
Anne Frank
Two organizations bearing Anne Frank's name are in a bitter dispute over the possession of the Frank family archive, in an echo of a court battle they fought in the 1990s over which one had the right to trademark the Holocaust victim's name.
The conflict between the Basel, Switzerland-based Anne Frank Fund and the Amsterdam, Netherlands-based Anne Frank Foundation is in part a struggle to control the late Jewish teen's legacy. But, with one side even comparing the other to Nazi Germany, it also threatens to damage both institutions' reputations.
The archive, which contains 25,000 family letters, documents and photos from several generations, has been in the care of the Foundation in Amsterdam since 2007, on a loan from the Fund that it expected would become permanent.
The Fund, headed by Anne Frank's closest living relative, her cousin Buddy Elias, now wants the material to go to a new permanent Frank Family Center devoted to the wider Frank clan and other relatives, not just Anne. It will be located at the Jewish Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, where Anne Frank was born in 1929.
Aside from the debate over the loan agreement, the Foundation insists that that not all of the archive even belongs to the Fund. The Foundation is best-known for running the Anne Frank House museum, located in the actual Amsterdam canal-side building where the young girl and her family hid during the German occupation of the Netherlands.
Anne Frank
Song Cut From Pageant
'Miss America'
The next Miss America won't hear a familiar refrain when she's crowned in Atlantic City, N.J., in September.
The song, "Miss America," which starts with the words, "There she is, Miss America," will not be part of the pageant.
Miss American Organization Vice President Sharon Pearce tells The Press of Atlantic City that the tune, which was first played in 1955, is no longer included. She says no decision has been made on a final song.
The song was replaced by instrumental music at the 2013 pageant in January after the widow of the songwriter filed a licensing lawsuit in federal court in California in 2012. The complaint was dismissed in December following a confidential settlement.
'Miss America'
Actor To Serve Sentence In Rehab
'Charlie Brown'
The man who was the original voice of Charlie Brown in "Peanuts" television specials was sentenced Wednesday to a year in jail for threatening his former girlfriend and stalking her plastic surgeon, then immediately released to a residential drug treatment center.
Robbins, 56, choked back tears as he told the judge that treatment for alcoholism and addiction to prescription medications would be a first step toward becoming "the fun-loving person" he was. He said he loved his former girlfriend, and he apologized to her and her plastic surgeon "for any fear that I caused."
Robbins, who has been in jail since his arrest in January and pleaded guilty in April, received five years' probation. He was ordered to pay the plastic surgeon $15,082 in restitution and to avoid contacting her for 10 years.
Prosecutors have said Robbins called the former girlfriend as many as 37 times over 24 hours, threatening to kill her and her son if she didn't return his dog and car. He allegedly followed the plastic surgeon, calling her office so frequently that she moved to a hotel and hired an armed guard. Prosecutors said he demanded a refund for his ex-girlfriend's breast enhancement.
Robbins starred as Charlie Brown in the 1965 debut "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and held the role in five other television specials, including "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" in 1966.
'Charlie Brown'
NYC School Cancels Workshop
John Galliano
Parsons The New School of Design in New York City has canceled a four-day workshop by the controversial fashion designer John Galliano.
Galliano was creative director at Christian Dior when he was fired in 2011 for an anti-Semitic rant. He's currently involved in a lawsuit against his former employer.
The school said in a statement that his appearance was to include "a candid discussion about the connection between his professional work and his actions in the world at large." It said it canceled the workshop after the two sides couldn't reach consensus on the conditions of the conversation.
Earlier this year, the designer began a temporary artist residency at the studio of Oscar de la Renta in New York.
John Galliano
"Old Maids"
Francis
Pope Francis has told nuns from around the world that they must be spiritual mothers and not "old maids."
Francis also warned the sisters against using their vocations for personal ambition, saying priests and sisters who do so "do more harm to the church."
Francis has complained frequently about such "careerism" in the church - a buzzword that is frequently used to describe Holy See bureaucrats.
The pope made the comments during an audience Wednesday with about 800 sisters attending an assembly of the International Union of Superiors General, which gathers the leaders of women's religious orders from some 75 countries.
Francis
In Memory
Jeanne Cooper
American actress Jeanne Cooper, who starred on the daytime television soap opera "The Young and the Restless" for four decades, died on Wednesday, her son, actor Corbin Bernsen, said. Cooper was 84.
Bernsen had been updating the status of Cooper's health on Facebook and Twitter over the past few weeks. Neither the cause of Cooper's death nor what she had been suffering from has been disclosed.
Cooper joined the cast of CBS network's "The Young and the Restless," in its first season in 1973, and portrayed the boozy and wealthy Katherine Chancellor. She was still a cast member at the time of her death although her character recently underwent surgery for a brain tumor.
Known as the "The Duchess" and the "Grand Dame of Genoa City," the Chancellor character is credited with giving the series a dash of controversy during its beginnings and becoming an iconic figure in U.S. television soap opera genre.
Cooper, a daytime Emmy winner, also brought her personal life onto the show in 1984 when footage of her real-life facelift was used to depict her character undergoing the same procedure.
Cooper was born in Taft, California, in 1928 and began her professional screen acting career in the 1953 film "The Redhead from Wyoming."
She also appeared on several television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including "The Twilight Zone" and "Perry Mason," before joining "The Young and the Restless."
Cooper had three children, Caren, Collin and Corbin, who currently stars on the comedy-drama series "Psych" on the USA Network.
Jeanne
In Memory
Bryan Forbes
British film director Bryan Forbes, whose work includes the original 1970s horror classic "The Stepford Wives," has died at age 86 after a long illness, a family spokesman said Wednesday.
Forbes was born John Theobald Clarke in 1926 in London. He began his film career as an actor, playing a number of supporting roles in British films in the 1940s and 1950s, but he soon found more success in screenwriting, and later directing.
He made his debut as director in "Whistle Down the Wind," the 1961 movie about children who come across an escaped convict and mistake him for Jesus.
Forbes went on to make films such as "King Rat," a tale of survival in a prisoner-of-war camp, and "The Stepford Wives," a thriller about sinisterly perfect suburban housewives.
He was screenwriter for "Chaplin," the 1992 biopic of Charlie Chaplin starring Robert Downey Jr., and also wrote several novels. His latest book, "The Soldier's Story," was published last year.
Forbes was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2004 for services to the arts.
He is survived by his wife, the actress Nanette Newman, and two daughters.
Bryan Forbes
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