For the first time in 70 years, Elizabeth II was absent from the royal races at Ascot: She had not missed this event before, being a true fan of horses. Instead, she was replaced by the Duchess of Cornwall and the Prince of Wales, who arrived at Royal Ascot in an open carriage. But this is not the only tradition that has been broken by members of the royal family at the races this year.

This is the digital version of The Pulse. If you want it earlier, start every morning with The Pulse delivered to your inbox. Sign up here. Good morning! The poll results are in.  A day after college football bid us adieu, men’s college basketball did its best to snatch the spotlight. Quickly:  Unranked Nebraska trounced No. 1 Purdue, 88-72, giving equal 3-2 conference records to the two programs of wildly differing pedigrees.

• The bed or receptacle prepared by a fowl for holding her eggs and for hatching and rearing her young. • Hence: the place in which the eggs of other animals, as insects, turtles, etc., are laid and hatched; a snug place in which young animals are reared. • A snug, comfortable, or cozy residence or situation; a retreat, or place of habitual resort; hence, those who occupy a nest, frequent a haunt, or are associated in the same pursuit; as, a nest of traitors; a nest of bugs.

When Ned Price began work at the CIA in 2006 as an intelligence analyst he was not yet ready to come out. Part of the process of applying for the job involved undergoing a polygraph test, which Price thought might reveal that he was gay. This part of himself, then signifying in his mind a potential for leverage and blackmail, would be out in the open and could spell the end of his aspirations to work in intelligence.

In Tower Heist, the latest action-comedy from Brett Ratner, Ben Stiller plays the dedicated chief of staff at an extremely fancy Manhattan apartment building (think Hector Elizando in Pretty Woman, or Michael J. Fox in For Love of Money) known as the Tower. This being a Brett Ratner movie, that this name immediately calls to mind the Twin Towers is both entirely intentional and totally meaningless. Instead, Ratner’s focused on another story ripped from the headlines.