Bill Cosby Has Message for Grads: You Pay the Rent

--Graduation may be a time for serious consideration of the future, but to comedian Bill Cosby it is also a time for fun. Cosby, wearing a white sweat suit and jogging shoes under his gown, nearly brought the house down as he addressed the University of South Carolina commencement in Columbia. Mixing an offbeat interpretation of the traditional graduation message with his unique brand of comedy, the star of the nation’s top-rated television series entertained almost 3,000 degree candidates and a crowd of more than 12,000 packed into the Carolina Coliseum. The biggest cheer went up as he opened his gown to reveal “Carolina” in garnet letters across the front of his sweat shirt. “All across this great nation, people are graduating and hearing they are going forth,” Cosby said. “My concern is whether they know where ‘forth’ is. The road home is already paved. ‘Forth’ is not back home. We love you and we are proud of you, and we are not tired of you . . . but we could get tired of you. ‘Forth’ could be next door to us, but you pay the rent.” Cosby, who received an ovation as he entered, was awarded an honorary doctorate of humane letters, as was Alex Haley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “Roots.”

--Willie B, a 450-pound gorilla, celebrated his 25th anniversary at the Atlanta Zoo by eating a huge cake made of strawberries, melons, squash and other fruits and vegetables. The cake was adorned with 25 green bamboo sticks instead of candles. Willie also ate the bamboo sticks. “He’s an eclectic vegetarian and he just loves bamboo,” said Vaughn Barfield, assistant to the director of the zoo. The gorilla, named after former Mayor William B. Hartsfield, was 3 years old when he came to the zoo and has lived there longer than any other animal.

--The villagers of Woodcote, England, know that their former postmistress has no intention of slowing down even though she has reached the age of 100. So they sent Maggie Beeson flying faster than the speed of sound. Beeson told neighbors on her birthday in March that her one remaining wish was to fly on the Concorde jetliner. Residents of the Oxfordshire village, 35 miles west of London, set out to grant that wish. They conducted raffles and other fund-raisers to raise the fare--about $500. At lunchtime, bandsmen of the 2nd Battalion of the Wessex Regiment marched through the village in their scarlet tunics in a festive send-off. Then, Beeson climbed into a Rolls-Royce limousine and waved to well-wishers as she was swept off to London’s Heathrow Airport for a 90-minute flight over southern England, to the Bay of Biscay off France and back. There were about 100 other passengers on the chartered flight.