Grande dame of cooking still going strong at 90: Julia Child celebrates in San Francisco. How does it feel to turn 90 and have attained the status of an icon, a living legend? "It feels just like it felt before," Julia Child says with the throaty laugh familiar to millions who cut their culinary teeth on her "French Chef" television series. The show, along with her seminal book, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" (1961), revolutionized the way America cooks and eats. While making light of the difference a day -- or another decade -- makes, Child intends to enjoy her birthday thoroughly. First, there will be all the public observances, including a sold-out dinner Thursday at San Francisco's tony Fifth Floor restaurant, which -- like dinners that night at 19 other venues across the country -- will benefit the scholarship fund of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (which Child co-founded). Friday to Sunday, the action moves to Napa, with both members-only and public events at COPIA: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, of which she is an honorary board member. Aug. 15, her actual birthday, will see her in Maine at an annual gathering of nieces, nephews, their offspring and friends, who for many years have rolled a joined birthday celebration for several members of the group into a jolly reunion. The schedule Child and her assistant of 14 years, former pastry chef Stephanie Hersh, have laid out is not exactly a senior-citizen routine, even though Child has always been candid about her age and realistic in assessing her own capabilities. When the Pasadena native moved back to California from her long-time home in the Boston area last year, she also made the move from a condominium she and her late husband, Paul, had purchased many years ago to a progressive retirement home. She is in the most active of the four levels available, but should the need arise, she can move on to assisted living facilities within the same complex.

What was age of Child when former pastry chef Stephanie Hersh joined her as assistant

The series starts in Baghdad at an undetermined time . The Sultan Shahryar has gone mad after accidentally killing his wife during a failed coup d' tat , Which she had planned with Shahryar's brother Schahzenan . In his madness , Shahryar believes that all women now want to kill him , but the law states that the Sultan must be married again or the throne will be passed to his brother . Shahryar therefore orders Grand Vizier Ja'Far ( ( ( Jim Carter to bring him a harem girl to marry and then have executed the next day . In order to prevent this , the Grand Vizier's clever daughter , Scheherazade , decides to marry the Sultan herself . Scheherazade has a plan to prevent her execution and at the same time cure the Sultan of his madness . With the help of some tutoring from a bazaar storyteller , Scheherazade tells the Sultan a story every night , stopping at dawn with a cliffhanger and refusing to continue until dusk . Shahryar must therefore let Scheherazade live for another day in order to hear the rest of the story . Cunningly , Scheherazade has hidden a moral within every story , to bring the Sultan out of his madness . Meanwhile , Schahzenan hears about the Sultan's madness and that he is unable to execute Scheherazade . Perceiving this as weakness , Schahzenan leads his army to Baghdad in an attempt to take the throne by force . However , by the time Schahzenan's army reaches the city , Scheherazade's plan has worked . As a result of her stories , Shahryar has overcome his madness and has fallen in love with Scheherazade .

Where in the world does Sultan Shahryar reside?

The Washington Supreme Court is asking the Legislature to approve a $90 surcharge on a court filing fee to help provide legal help for the poor in civil cases, Chief Justice Gerry Alexander said Wednesday. "Some might say, why should we support this when we face tough financial times?" Alexander asked in his State of the Judiciary address to a joint session of the Legislature. "It seems to me in America, where we rejoice in the fact that we are a nation devoted to the rule of law, we should not ration access to justice." The recommendation comes from the court's Task Force on Civil Equal Justice Funding, created in 2001 to look for ways to cope with the sparse amount of money available for such cases. As the task force was studying the issue, $900,000 was cut from state support for civil equal justice services. That prompted the state's two main legal services providers - Columbia Legal Services and Northwest Justice Project - to cut their staffs, Alexander said. The change would increase the cost of filing a lawsuit in Superior Court to $200. The total fee would be split, with 54 percent going to counties and 46 percent going to the state for a newly created equal justice account. Alexander also requested money for five additional Superior Court judgeships and one additional District Court judgeships, arguing that increased caseloads require more judges. Two of the Superior Court judges and the District Court judge would be in Clark County, with one Superior Court judge added in the joint district that serves Benton and Franklin counties and one each in Kittitas and Kitsap counties.
What prompted the state's two main legal services providers to cut their staffs?