October 31st, 2012 → 6:11 am
“There’s hell, there’s darkness, there is the sulphurous pit,
Burning, scalding, stench, consumption; fie, fie, fie!” – King Lear
This quote just sounds like Halloween to me, though the joke is that, if you read earlier in the text, Shakespeare is actually talking about a woman’s private parts here. Ha!
October 29th, 2012 → 6:00 am
“Blow winds and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks!
You sulphurous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head! And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ the world!” – King Lear
I hear Hurricane Sandy is going to be a doozy. Here’s hoping it doesn’t drown the East Coast too terribly.
October 21st, 2012 → 7:17 am
“All’s well that ends well; still the fine’s the crown.
What’er the course, the end is the renown.” – All’s Well That Ends Well
I don’t know anyone who can’t wait for this darn U.S. presidential election to be over with already (expect perhaps the pundits?). In the above quote “fine’s” means “end,” reiterating the point that the best thing now is for this all to be over with already.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
October 19th, 2012 → 5:52 am
“If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
If you poison us, do we not die?” – Merchant of Venice
This is just a small excerpt from the much longer speech by Shylock about being a Jew. What is fascinating to me is that I just learned, last night, of the reference to witches in this that contemporaries of Shakespeare’s time likely understood, but we today miss. In the 16th century one test of a witch was whether she bled or not when you pricked her (it was assumed that she did not), so Shylock is saying here, hey, Jews are not witches! We bleed too! Just like you.
October 17th, 2012 → 5:33 am
“Flat burglary as ever was committed.” – Much Ado About Nothing
7 valuable paintings were stolen from a museum in Rotterdam yesterday, including a Gauguin, a Matisse, and a Picasso. The way it was executed sounds like an Ocean’s 11 high-professional job. I thought those sorts of perfectly executed heists only happened in the movies?!?
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
October 11th, 2012 → 6:14 am
“Society is no comfort
to one not sociable.” – Cymbeline
I think I caught a cold on my recent travels. My head hurts and I can’t stop coughing. I’ve got to teach and go to work but frankly I’d prefer to just crawl back into bed and stay there. I really don’t feel like being a part of society today. *sigh*
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life
October 9th, 2012 → 6:21 am
“But wonder on, till truth makes all things plain.” – A Midsummer Night’s Dream
I attended a conference at Harvard this past week, where some cutting-edge Big Data research was presented. Some of the papers I thought had flaws, others were presented as “canonical” and discussed as breakthroughs. Who knows?! Isn’t that the beauty of academic research, though? You get to just wonder on…until, hopefully, the truth wills out…(hopefully)
October 1st, 2012 → 5:29 am
“So sweet and voluble is his discourse.” – Love’s Labor’s Lost
My 2 year old son is talking more and more every day, and I love it!! I love knowing what he is thinking and watching as he processes the world. My husband is dreading the “why” phase (“but why does Emma have that ball?”; “but why did her mommy buy it for her?”; “but why does she love her so much?”) but in all honesty, I can’t wait for that too! What mother doesn’t love watching her baby use language for the first time?
Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life