Valerie Harper, best known for playing Rhoda Morgenstern on the beloved 1970s sitcoms "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" and "Rhoda," has learned she has terminal brain cancer. The actress, who also starred for two years on the '80s sitcom "Valerie," told People magazine: "I don't think of dying. I think of being here now."
According People, Harper's doctors say she may have just three months to live. This isn't Harper's first bout with cancer. She was previously diagnosed with lung cancer in 2009. Despite being a lifelong non-smoker, she developed a tumor on her top right lobe. After surgery successfully removed the tumor, she spoke with Yahoo! Health about her status as a cancer survivor, saying, "I'm of the thinking that we're all terminal; no one is getting out of this alive. So you shouldn't start sitting shiva before it's time. Live the best life you can. Be as healthy as possible."
Harper, 73, has worked steadily since the height of her fame in the '70s. She most recently appeared on "Desperate Housewives" and voiced a character on an episode of "The Simpsons" that aired in January.
los angeles times
Soundset will pack quite a bang
This year's Soundset — the May 26th daylong hip-hop festival outside Canterbury Park in Shakopee — will once again feature Atmosphere as a headliner. A storm shortened last year's festival and canceled the group's set. Also on the bill this year: bona fide hip-hop legends Snoop Dogg and Busta Rhymes; Mac Miller, who sold out the State Fair grandstand last summer with fellow Pittsburgh rap star Wiz Khalifa; plus Tech N9ne, Aesop Rock, and local favorites Brother Ali and P.O.S. (the latter of whom is also juggling a gig at the Sasquatch fest near Seattle that weekend). Local newcomers on the bill include Greg Grease, Haphduzn, Meta and the unfortunately rare female hip-hop act, the Chalice.
Faulkner finalists: Two of the five finalists for this year's PEN/Faulkner Award were published by Minneapolis' Coffee House Press. Laird Hunt's "Kind One" and T. Geronimo Johnson's "Hold it til it Hurts" are up against "Threats," by Amelia Gray; "Watergate," by Thomas Mallon, and "Everything Begins & Ends at the Kentucky Club," by Benjamin Alire Saenz. The PEN/Faulkner Award is America's largest peer-juried prize for fiction. The winner will receive $15,000 and the four finalists will each receive $5,000. The winner will be announced on March 19, and all five authors will be honored at a ceremony at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., in May.
Chris Riemenschneider,
Laurie Hertzel
