Culture

NEW YORK - The next wave of union protesters isn't blue collar. It's lawyers, paralegals, secretaries, helicopter pilots, judges, insurance agents and podiatrists. These white-collar workers are not exactly the picture of the labor movement, but they are becoming a more essential part of it as they turn to unions for help in a tough economy as bosses try to squeeze out more profits. "Employers have been downsizing, asking employees to take on larger roles, making them work more hours," said Nicole Korkolis, spokeswoman for the Office and Professional Employees International Union.

As if you didn't know this already, we're coddling criminals in America. By that I don't mean the petty drug dealers, three-strikes necklace-snatchers and other mooks filling up our state prisons; many of them are doing hard time. I'm talking about people like Jeff Skilling. Skilling, you may recall, was a key architect of the rise and fall of the energy and commodities trading firm Enron, which around the beginning of the last decade claimed the trophy for the biggest securities fraud of all time.

In the heart of the Ethiopian community here, a group of friends gathered after work in an office to chew on dried khat leaves before going home to their wives and children. Sweet tea and sodas stood on a circular wooden table between green mounds of the plant, a mild narcotic grown in the Horn of Africa. As the sky grew darker the conversation became increasingly heated, flipping from religion to jobs to local politics. Suddenly, one of the men paused and turned in his chair.

You'll be able to sample bulgur dishes and many more Turkish specialties at the Anatolian Cultures & Food Festival, May 16 to 19 at the Orange County Fairgrounds. For more information on the festival, visit anatolianfestival.org.

American mall staple Hollister issued a mea culpa after the male models it sent to a store opening in South Korea inflamed locals with racist tweets. The brand, owned by Abercrombie & Fitch and known for being a devotee of skimpy styles, usually sends scantily clad models to pose with customers at new store launches. But the four models it sent to Yeouido, Seoul, earlier this month did more than prettify the storefront. During their stint from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, they tweeted photos of themselves making squinty eyes, mocking their Asian fans' accents and engaging in other offensive behavior such as flipping off the camera.

Education has long been preached as a way to keep kids away from drugs. It's the walk to school that has Supt. Tom Barnett worried. This hardscrabble Northern California town has become a hotbed for medical marijuana farming. Kids stroll much of the year past pungent plants flourishing in gardens and alleys. The red-and-black-clad Timberjacks football team moved its halftime huddle on a recent Friday night to avoid the odor of marijuana smoke wafting over the gridiron from nearby houses.

Video game heroine Lara Croft is an adrenaline junkie unafraid of getting bloody. But in Germany, the buxom starlet of the "Tomb Raider" series doesn't bleed -- even if she's being mauled by a tiger. Although the $25-billion video game industry is global, the games themselves aren't. They reflect the distinct cultures and traditions of different markets, and game publishers carefully tweak their titles to tone down offensive material.

Representing Bermuda at the Athens Olympics last year, Cabinet minister Dale Butler bowed to tradition and dressed formally. Like many other men, he wore a shirt, a tie and a jacket. Unlike other men, he also wore knee socks and short pants. The ensemble was a hit with the ladies, Butler said, but as he was leaving a reception there, he encountered a Saudi prince in the elevator.

Varnette P. Honeywood, an artist who gained fame when her vivid and joyful portraits of everyday lives of African Americans were prominently featured on TV's "The Cosby Show," has died. She was 59. Honeywood, who was diagnosed with cancer at least two years ago, died Sunday at a Los Angeles hospital, said her friend K. Joy Peters. As a black artist Honeywood was "extraordinarily important," partly for the visibility "The Cosby Show" gave her but also because young people were inspired by her "exuberant and positive images of black culture," said Paul Von Blum, emeritus professor of African American studies at UCLA.

IT was like watching a man try to swim up a waterfall. Professor Tao Xiuao cracked jokes, told stories, projected a Power Point presentation on a large video screen. But his students at Beijing Foreign Studies University didn't even try to hide their boredom. Young men spread newspapers out on their desks and pored over the sports news. A couple of students listened to iPods; others sent text messages on their cellphones.

It seemed like a typical dinner party for the well-heeled set: eight women, some dressed in stilettos and skinny jeans, gabbing over glasses of wine and endive spears with goat cheese at a lavish Hollywood Hills home. But amid the Kate Middleton pregnancy chatter and a debate on the best mascara brands, the conversation turned to mobile app strategies and the latest tech companies to score millions of dollars in venture capital funding. Not too long ago, such meet-ups among tech-savvy women - or men, for that matter - were a rarity in Los Angeles.

Chicago entrepreneurs Jason Lucash and Mike Szymczak managed to launch a line of audio products during the recession. Their folding cardboard speakers made Time magazine's 2009 list of best inventions. National television exposure on the "Today" show and "Shark Tank" soon followed. Then they did something really surprising. They moved to California. The knock on the Golden State is that costs are too high, regulations too plentiful and the attitude toward business is generally unfriendly.

MASHANG VILLAGE, China - The last time they saw their father, Hong Yunke, he was leaving home, hauling his wooden medicine chest, on a frigid December morning in 1967. "I'm going to treat a patient and collect money," Hong told his son, 12, and his daughter, 9. "I'll be back soon. " Hong was what the Chinese call a barefoot doctor, a self-educated healer who treated the sprained ankles of farmers for 20 cents, enough in those days for two pork buns. His wife, unable to endure the poverty, had left him to raise the children on his own. No matter.

Guitarist and ethnomusicologist Bob Brozman, who progressed from an early fascination with the delta blues of the South to a consuming passion for the traditional music of Hawaii and became a leading authority on the National steel guitar, has died. He was 59. Brozman was found dead April 23 at his home in Santa Cruz. His death was ruled a suicide, according to the coroner's office of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department. Brozman emerged in Santa Cruz in the 1970s as a street musician, playing a decidedly uncontemporary American roots style of music ranging from obscure jazz tunes to Hawaiian chanties.

CAIRO - Hold the martini, please. With fanfare and cheers from Islamists, the first nonalcoholic hotel in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Hurghada has opened, a testament to a new political culture, which seeks at the very least a veneer of piety in a nation caught in the fury of upheaval. Egypt is mired in political and economic problems. It drifts from crisis to crisis and is headed for a dangerous summer of power outages and gas shortages. Such temporal annoyances, however, have not dissuaded conservative Islamists from trying to bring the nation in closer sync with the Koran.

The classic Maya civilization, which flourished in Central America for more than 600 years, has been celebrated for its vast city states adorned with monumental pyramids and for its technological feats such as the development of an elaborate written language and impressively accurate astronomical observations. But for decades, archaeologists have argued over the birth of the culture that spawned those splendid cities about 1000 BC. Did Maya society spring from the Olmec civilization of Mexico's Gulf Coast, known for its colossal carved stone heads?

For Afghan women, going out still usually involves little more than throwing on a burka before leaving the house. But two American "beauticians without borders" are introducing Afghans to Western-style ideas of womanhood by teaching them the finer points of applying lipstick.

SACRAMENTO - At 855 pages, it has been lauded by linguists and anthropologists as the only dictionary of its kind: a comprehensive translation of Iu-Mien into English that doubles as a guide to the dying practices of a people who, beginning in 1975, fled the hills of Laos after aiding the CIA's secret war. Over the quarter-century it took to produce, much came to pass. For the Pasadena professor whose name graces the book's charcoal cover, there was the murder of a daughter, a house fire that consumed his nearly finished work and the gentle assistance of collaborators on three continents who helped him pick up the pieces.

Richie Havens, the veteran folk singer whose frenetic guitar strumming and impassioned vocals made him one of the defining voices and faces of Woodstock and 1960s pop music, died Monday of a heart attack at his home in Jersey City, N.J. He was 72. His death was confirmed by his booking agent, Tim Drake. The Brooklyn native with the powerful ripsaw voice galvanized rock fans as the opening act at Woodstock, the festival billed as "Three Days of Peace and Music" in upstate New York in August 1969.

BOSTON -- Boston's Catholic archbishop marked the city's renewed sense of community after the marathon bombings but warned of the “culture of death” that led to the tragedy, calling on the faithful to “build a civilization of love.” At the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley offered Sunday's Mass, which was attended by the city's police commissioner, “for the repose of the souls” of those who died as a result of...