Culinary great Jacques Pépin can certainly appreciate the notion of home, having lost his own more than once while growing up in France during World War II.   “We rebuilt it every time, and luckily, no one was home when the bombings happened—it was stressful,” Pépin recently told Mansion Global.  The renowned French chef and television star, whose cooking career spans 75 years, celebrates his 90th birthday in 2025.  Pépin rose to fame as the personal chef of French president Charles de Gaulle and moved to the U.S. in 1959, where he racked up the accolades.  They include 24 James Beard Foundation Awards, a lifetime achievement award from American Public Television and a Lifetime Achievement Emmy.  He continues to work full time and is a culinary arts teacher at Boston University.  But much of Pépin’s time is devoted to the Jacques Pépin Foundation, which he established in 2016 with his daughter, Claudine Pépin, and son-in-law, Rollie Wesen.  “We provide funding and opportunities for underprivileged people, including those who have been released from prison, to have cooking careers,” Pépin said.  “We give grants to community kitchens and host cooking classes where they can learn.”  In honor of his 90th birthday, the foundation launched the 90/90 Campaign, a fundraising initiative in which chefs and restaurants nationwide host 90 events leading up to chef’s big day on Dec. 18, 2025.  According to Pépin, the money raised through 90/90 will support the foundation’s programs.  I’ve never bought a big piece of art.  I do a lot of landscapes, seascapes, forests, abstracts, and objects like flowers and pots.  https://www.mansionglobal.com/articles/why-star-chef-jacques-pepin-doesnt-buy-artand-other-thoughts-about-his-home-db0f5a56    

Judith Viorst (née Stahl; born February 2, 1931) is an American writer, newspaper journalist, and psychoanalysis researcher.  She is known for her humorous observational poetry and for her children's literature.  This includes The Tenth Good Thing About Barney (about the death of a pet) and the Alexander series of short picture books, which includes Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972), which has sold over two million copies.    Viorst is a 1952 graduate of the Newark College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.  Viorst's book Sad Underwear (published in 1995) is a collection of poems that examines a wide variety of feelings and experiences from a child's point of view.  Her verses are accompanied by black and white illustrations by Richard Hull.  Viorst also penned the musical Love & Shrimp with Shelly Markam.  The Ensemble Theatre of Cincinnati hosted a performance of Love & Shrimp, starring Deb Girdler, Pamela Myers and Shelley Bamberger, in the spring of 1999.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Viorst    

A special-edition library card celebrating the New York Liberty, Brooklyn’s hometown team and the 2024 WNBA champions!  The New York Liberty-themed library card, available at all BPL locations beginning in June 2025, features the championship WNBA team and their iconic mascot, Ellie the Elephant.  This summer, the Liberty and BPL are partnering through Brooklyn Basketball to support BPL's Summer at the Library programming.  Brooklyn Public Library's card is free for anyone who lives, works, pays property taxes or goes to school in New York State.  https://www.bklynlibrary.org/liberty-library-card    

Frederick Forsyth, the British author of “The Day of the Jackal” and other bestselling thrillers, died June 9, 2025.  He was 86.  Born in Kent, in southern England, in 1938, Forsyth served as a Royal Air Force pilot before becoming a foreign correspondent.  He covered the attempted assassination of French President Charles de Gaulle in 1962, which provided inspiration for “The Day of the Jackal,” his bestselling political thriller about a professional assassin.  Published in 1971, the book propelled him into global fame.  It was made into a film in 1973 starring Edward Fox as the Jackal and more recently a television series starring Eddie Redmayne and Lashana Lynch.  In 2015, Forsyth told the BBC that he had also worked for the British intelligence agency MI6 for many years, starting from when he covered a civil war in Nigeria in the 1960s.  Although Forsyth said he did other jobs for the agency, he said he was not paid for his services and “it was hard to say no” to officials seeking information.  “The zeitgeist was different,” he told the BBC. “The Cold War was very much on.”  He wrote more than 25 books including “The Afghan,” “The Kill List,” “The Dogs of War” and “The Fist of God” that have sold over 75 million copies.  https://www.cnn.com/2025/06/10/uk/frederick-forsyth-has-died-after-illness-intl-hnk   

http://librariansmuse.blogspot.com  Issue 2955  June 13, 2025