Ripped from the Headlines: May 2020: This Week In Culture: May 17–23, 2020

Garter snakes make friends, evidently, forming bonds with other snakes and seeking out their company in burrows. They also have different personalities, classified by researchers as "bold or "shy." The behavior helps to conserve heat, and protect them from predators since it increases the odds for each snake's survival if the group is attacked.

NASA's Osiris–REx — short for Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer — is on schedule to land on the asteroid Bennu in October. After some practice runs over the summer, which were delayed to to the pandemic, the lander will touch down on the surface and gather samples and data. It will leave the asteroid around the middle of next year and return to Earth in September of 2023.

Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli pleaded guilty in the criminal case involving their payment of bribes to get their daughters into USC. According to the deal they made with prosecutors, she will serve two months in prison and he will serve five, both followed by two years of supervised release. The couple will also pay a total of $400,000 in fines and perform 350 hours of community service.

On May 27th, two astronauts will take off in a SpaceX rocket headed for the International Space Station. This will be the first of many planned flights where private companies will provide the vehicles for NASA crews to get into orbit and beyond. The collaboration is meant to save the government money and to provide opportunities for the companies to sell seats on other flights to tourists eager to reach orbit.

Susan Rothenberg, one of America's most influential painters in the 1970s and 80s, died at 75. She became famous for the horses she painted early on, and her style and subject matter continued to evolve over the years, especially after she moved to a ranch in New Mexico in 1990. Quotidianus is Latin for "occurring every day," which became the French word quotidien.

Jim Fixx, who died in 1984 , did more than anyone else to popularize running as a sport. His 1977 book The Complete Book of Running became a #1 bestseller and revolutionized jogging in America and around the world. Today, with most team sports impossible or on indefinite hold, running offers people an opportunity to exercise safely outdoors and its popularity is growing once again.

Film director Lynn Shelton, a pioneer of a sincere, low-budget style of filmmaking known as "mumblecore," died at 54 of a previously undiagnosed blood disorder. Her movies Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely were influential and made her a successful TV director, where she worked on Shows from Mad Men to Glow to Little Fires Everywhere.

With people absent from closed national parks, animals are returning to areas normally crowded with human visitors. Bears, bobcats, deer, antelope, and many other species are living their best lives, but that may soon change as parks begin reopening. Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks are open again, and others plan to do so soon. There is some concern that younger animals who are unfamiliar with humans may have a hard time adjusting to our return.

Spike Lee's most recent film, Da 5 Bloods, releases on Netflix on June 12. The film tells the story of four African-American veterans who return to Vietnam in the present, and explores the enduring issues surrounding that war and its aftermath. Domitare is Latin for "tame" or "subdue," and that became donter in Old French, which became daunt in English. So to be undaunted is to be brave and untamed.

Italy has eased its strict lockdown, and restaurants may now reopen under new rules ensuring social distancing and safe practices. Many restaurant owners are not sure they can or should reopen, and many consumers are uncertain about dining out, especially since it's impossible to wear a mask while eating. Vie means "life" in French, so viable means "able to live."