February 22nd, 2015 → 6:31 am
“This place is too cold for Hell.” – Macbeth
It snowed here in St. Louis again this weekend. Things have been bitterly cold this past week and I’m hating winter right now. But every time I think about complaining I feel guilty. Boston is getting it so much worse this year. Poor Boston. I travel to the East Coast for a conference next weekend – here’s hoping I don’t get snowed in and stranded there!
February 19th, 2015 → 5:21 am
“‘Tis the soldiers’ life
To have their balmy slumbers waked with strife.” – Othello
God bless our veterans. I hope this latest federal legislation will help them.
January 17th, 2015 → 7:44 am
“Out of this nettle, danger, we pluck this flower, safety.” – Henry IV, Part I
Why don’t we celebrate the heroes, such as Lassana Bathily, as much as we lionize the villains of our common tragedies?
Filed under: Blog & Other & Stupid/Evil People
January 12th, 2015 → 5:41 am
“Forsooth, a great arithmetician,
One Michael Cassio, a Florentine.” – Othello
I’ve agreed to lead a discussion group on Othello over the next few months (how did that happen?!), so forgive me, but I have a feeling many of the upcoming posts will be Othello based. Already on just the first page of the play I’ve underlined a number of things I wouldn’t mind blogging about. The first is simply the word “arithmetician.” I’ve written before how few math/numbers related quotes I’ve been able to find in the Shakespeare canon, so when I came across this word I was at first excited! But it appears that Shakespeare means it less about arithmetic, than about describing someone with military knowledge. Oh well. It’s still a cool word, IMO.
January 6th, 2015 → 6:43 am
“Sap checked with frost and lusty leaves quite gone,
Beauty o’er-snowed and bareness everywhere!” – Sonnet 5
Despite our horrible Mexico adventure, I wish I were still there! Winter is upon us and it is freezing here – brrrrrrrrrr!
October 31st, 2014 → 5:57 am
“We talk with goblins, owls, and sprites.” – The Comedy of Errors
And pirates, princesses, and superheros – all costumes my son’s friends will wear tonight. Happy Halloween! I can’t wait to go trick-or-treating.
October 23rd, 2014 → 6:08 am
“Is it not strange that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?” – Much Ado About Nothing
I agree. It is weird to contemplate…
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other
October 15th, 2014 → 5:34 am
“What art thou that usurp’st this time of night?” – Hamlet
I haven’t gotten a good night’s sleep in ages, it feels like. Damn you, usurper of the night…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
October 10th, 2014 → 6:14 am
“Ask my dog: if he say ‘ay’, it will; if he say ‘no’, it will;
if he shakes his tail, and say nothing, it will.” – Two Gentlemen of Verona
I was heartbroken to read that the dog of the nurse in Spain who was infected with the Ebola virus, Excalibur, was put down this week. Poor dog! Dogs are such good companions – they do what we say and comfort us when we’re sad and now, apparently, give their lives for us when demanded.
September 17th, 2014 → 5:46 am
“I found him under a tree like a dropped acorn.” – As You Like It
I keep reading reports, posted alongside gruesome photos, of people dying in the streets, outside of hospitals, under trees and beside rivers where the Ebola virus struck them down or family members abandoned them for fear of catching the disease themselves. It is ghastly.