Sam Simon Dies at Age 59

Space soprano plans first37 duet from ISS WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11, 2015 In this Saturday, March 7, 2015, file photo, Hindu women stand drenched in colored water as they participate in ‘Huranga,’ during celebrations marking Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, at the Baldev Temple in Dauji, 180 kilometers (113 miles) south of New Delhi, India. During Huranga women playfully hit men with cloth whips as men drench them with buckets of colored water. — AP ‘The Simpsons’ co-creator Sam Simon dies at age 59 am Simon, a co-creator of Fox’s long-running hit animat- Doctors first gave Simon three to six months to live when ed series “The Simpsons” and an ardent philanthropist he was diagnosed with incurable colon cancer in 2012. Simon, Sfor animals, died after a battle with colon cancer, his who had founded the Sam Simon Foundation in 2002, decid- agent said on Monday. He was 59. Simon won nine Emmy ed to give away his fortune, estimated by media at $100 mil- awards for his work as a writer and executive producer of “The lion. “I have a desire to help animals,” Simon told Reuters last Simpsons,” the situation comedy that premiered in 1989 and August. “The question of whether it makes financial sense, it’s won over a global audience with its portrait of a bumbling my money and I get to do what I want with it. It’s an expensive father and his wayward family. hobby I picked up at the end of my life.” Growing up in Beverly Hills, California, Simon embraced art and was selling cartoons to San Francisco newspapers while still a student at Stanford University. In 1988, Simon joined cartoonist Groening and producer James L. Brooks in creating “The Simpsons” prime-time series. He oversaw the writing staff and helped develop the characters populating the dys- functional world around the oafish but endearing Homer Simpson: his dutiful wife, Marge, and their children, bratty Bart, overachieving Lisa and baby Maggie. “Sam helped estab- lish the tone and world of the Simpsons in the early years of this landmark series, and his contributions live on,” Fox Television group said in a statement. The show was a smart social satire built around crass characters and it became the longest-running sitcom on American television. After four seasons of “The Simpsons,” Simon negoti- ated a deal to leave the show while retaining a percentage of its future earnings, which would bring him between $20 mil- This Aug 12, 2013 file “The Simpsons” co-creator Matt Groening, who worked lion and $30 million a year. He is still listed as executive pro- photo shows Sam Simon, with Simon to develop the show for Fox’s broadcast channel, ducer in the show’s credits. — Reuters co-creator of ‘The said in a statement, “We will miss Sam’s phenomenal talents, Simpsons,’ at his home in sharp intelligence, and sly sense of humor.” Executive produc- Pacific Palisades, Calif. er and showrunner Al Jean added, “I personally owe him more In this undated publicity photo released by Fox, characters from the animated series, ‘The than can be repaid, but I will do my best to help every animal I Simpsons,’ from left, Maggie, Marge, Lisa, Homer and Bart, are shown. — AP photos can in his memory.” Afghan artist in hiding after sexual harassment protest young Afghan artist who walked through the streets of Kabul wearing a suit of armor featuring large breasts Aand buttocks in protest against sexual harassment has gone into hiding after receiving death threats. Kubra Khademi, 27, had walked around in the costume in central Kabul on February 26 hoping to cast a spotlight on groping and inappropriate touching of women in public spaces in Afghanistan. The suit was fashioned at a cost of 500 Afghanis ($10) by a local blacksmith, said Khademi. She then decided to take it out for a run. After removing her coat in the street, the young artist, who was wearing a hijab, said she found herself harassed from all sides and was forced to flee after jeers and stones were hurled her way. “It did go according to what I was expecting. The crowd was coming at me and sort of pushing me,” she told AFP on International Women’s Day, adding she had to escape the area in a taxi. Khademi said a painful event from her early childhood had evoked her bold protest. “This piece is about what happened to me when I was four or five years old. Somebody touched me and then he just walked away. I was just a female for him. He didn’t care how old I was,” she said. “I was feeling guilty. Afghan artist Kubra Khademi, 27, speaks about a piece of artwork she made as a protest against sexual harassment during an interview with AFP in Kabul. — AFP photos Why did it happen to me? It was my fault. And I said: ‘I wish my underwear were made of iron’.” threats over email and had been forced to leave her home. A were being oppressed by the garment. their shoes, come out on the streets with burqas on,” said Now in hiding in the suburbs of Kabul, Khademi lamented: few days after Khademi’s performance, some male activist car- “We wanted to tell officials that miseries of Afghan women Basir, a 29-year-old activist who goes by one name. “And we “These things happen daily, every moment, every hour in my ried out their own unique form of protest, donning the all- cannot be felt by marking Women’s Day in big halls with emp- also wanted to really experience as a human being how a city.” She added she had received both insults and death encompassing burqa to show solidarity with women they said ty speeches. In order to feel them you have to put yourself in woman feels under a burqa.”— AFP.

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