Is Popeye's Ad Racist? •  Banned Books Week Founder Passes Away

• Do you think this ad, featuring a black woman shilling fried chicken for Popeye’s, is racist? Mediabistro sure does, although Jossip begs to differ. Click through for video. •

• Dr. Fabiola Carrieri says she was not offended by the comment made by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi (“I wouldn’t mind being resuscitated by you”) while she was working in an Abruzzo field hospital. She said it was merely a “gallant” compliment intended to lighten the drama of the situation. • Police in Saudi Arabia are investigating an elaborate hoax that involved sewing machines, cell phones, and a non-existant substance called “red mercury.” • A Swedish man has announced that he plans to display what he calls “Scandinavia’s largest collection of erotic items” in his Stockholm garden. He owns over 15,000 “erotic items” to combat society’s “anti-sex” leanings. • If you’re looking to build your own erotic collection, be one of the first 100 people to stop by Babeland on tax day and receive a free Gold Digger vibrator. • Dr. Aronne, author of new dieting book The Skinny, explains to the Wall Street Journal why a big meal makes you want to eat more. He also sets up a daily diet plan that advises groundbreaking weight loss measures like breakfast and salads. • The Houston Chronicle explores yet another stupid trope for ladies in Hollywood: the high powered, but still mentally unstable, career woman. • Judith Krug, the founder of Banned Book Week and former director of the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, has sadly passed away. • The Iraqi government has been working quietly on a draft law that seeks to protect victims of sex trafficking and punish the abusers with fines and prison sentences. Currently Baghdad offers no protection to victims of trafficking. • Allen Andrade, 32, is scheduled to go on trail today for the murder of Angie Zapata, a transgender woman. Andrade is believed to be the first person tried for a hate crime under the sexual orientation section of Colorado’s hate crime law. • The Parks and Recreation office of Spokane, WA, have employed an exterminator who plans to detonate some 100-150 squirrels that hide in the ground with a special machine called the Rodenator Pro. • A man from Texas has been ticketed for cursing at his neighbor about his cat, who liked to “defecate” in his yard. “I used the slang word, the four-letter word to describe what the cat was doing,” he later explained. • In attempts to escape prosecution in a fatal drunk driving case, the defendant published his own (fake) obituary. He was later found alive, hiding under a pile of rocks in New Mexico. • A polar bear from Chicago has been brought all the way to Detroit to mate with two females at the Detroit Zoo. • Spokesmodels at the New York Auto Show have been forced to field questions about the bailout from attendees, despite the fact that they are employed by temp agencies and don’t actually have anything to do with the auto industry. •