The Purple Mango Post - Photographs, dispatches and writing by freelance journalist Corinne Purtill

Subway Madness

New Yorkers: They will walk past your lifeless corpse if you die accidentally, but try to kill yourself on their watch and they will tear you a new one. Watch the world's angriest suicide prevention at the 125th Street Station.

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More Biographies!

Photo credit: The Internet.

More of my biographies are up at Biography Channel website! As I've mentioned before, their Famous People Database has been around for a while, and the biographies for people like Tom Hanks and Barack Obama have already been written. But that's okay. That's Old Europe, as Donald Rumsfeld would say. With their preternatural sense of what the Kids Are Talking About, the people at Biography have directed me to satisfy the burning questions of a new generation of celebrity-obsessed television viewers. Questions like...

Billy has always been my favorite Baldwin. Where can I learn more about him?

I don't care what anyone says: Hunter was the best television show of the 80s. It was because of that guy. The old one.

That girl from Growing Pains, who lost all that weight? Is she okay?

My favorite thing about Six Feet Under was the guy who sometimes played Clare's boyfriend. Has he had any other bit parts lately?

The woman who played that nun on Father Dowling Mysteries was amazing! So mouthy and street-smart! Why don't people talk more about her?

That actress who used to be on Law & Order is great. No, not her. The other one.

Did Vanessa from The Cosby Show die?

And Corey Feldman! What the hell happened to Corey Feldman??

You're welcome, America.

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Duch: Guilty and Sentenced

Photo: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

From the AP: PHNOM PENH, Cambodia — A war crimes tribunal sentenced the Khmer Rouge's chief jailer on Monday to a prison term that will see him serve less than half a day for every person killed at the notorious torture center he commanded.

Survivors expressed anger and disbelief that a key player in the genocide that wiped out a quarter of Cambodia's population could one day walk free – despite being convicted of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

"I can't accept this," sobbed Saodi Ouch, 46, shaking so hard she could hardly talk. "My family died ... my older sister, my older brother. I'm the only one left."

Kaing Guek Eav, known as Duch, was the first major Khmer Rouge figure to face trial more than three decades after the "killing fields" regime tried to turn the country into a vast agrarian society – leading to the deaths of 1.7 million people.

As commander of the top secret Tuol Sleng prison – code-named S-21 – the 67-year-old Duch admitted to overseeing the torture and deaths of as many as 16,000 people.

He was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but will spend only 19 in jail – 11 years were shaved off for time served and another five for illegal detention in a military prison.

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Borderlines

Sedona, Arizona, 2006.

This short essay by William Finnegan in the New Yorker is one of the most lucid pieces on immigration that I have read in quite some time. Anti-immigrant sentiment isn't rising because there are more drug mules and headless corpses on the border. It's rising because people are afraid, uncertain and threatened, and the temptation to exploit that fear for easy political gain is too great for many people who like to think of themselves as leaders.

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Job News

Got a piece of good news on Friday - I was hired by Human Rights Watch as the project manager for their 2010 Annual Report. The project manager is sort of a spare brain dedicated to keeping all the moving pieces of the report in order, collecting information from HRW's very talented (and busy) team of researchers, writers, directors, designers, etc. It's a temporary consulting job that will end when the report is published this fall.

I have admired Human Rights Watch for a long time and am so looking forward to starting this job!

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The World's Cutest Under-Age Smoker

Ratanakiri, 2008.

No offense to the Indonesian baby, but I loved this little guy. If only I knew how to get him to quit.

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Biography

Joan, you bad bitch. Photo courtesy Telegraph.co.uk.

Lately I've been writing for the website of the Biography Channel, producing written biographies to go along with upcoming documentaries they have planned for television. My first bios are live - click through to read everything you've ever wanted to know and more about Bobby Flay, Joan Collins and Donna D'Errico.

(Just in case you were wondering, Biography chooses the subjects - not me. The profile of Playmate/Baywatch star Donna D'Errico took me to parts of the Internet I don't usually visit.)

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