November 25th, 2014 → 6:44 am
“‘Twas a rough night.” – Macbeth
We live about half a mile from the courthouse in Clayton, MO where the grand jury announcement was made on the Michael Brown case last night. I came home early from work to avoid the roads, ordered my husband to do the same, but then we had to listen to all the helicopters swarming overhead all night. My four year old son had trouble going to sleep because of all the commotion we could hear outside. It was an awful, nerve-wrecking evening.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
November 23rd, 2014 → 6:59 am
“Sleek o’er your rugged looks.” – Macbeth
Apparently the U.S. press corps was told they have to dress better than they do when they cover the U.S. president, if they want to be around the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their visit next month. Ha ha ha ha ha.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
November 6th, 2014 → 5:59 am
“This common body
Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream,
Goes to, and back, lackeying the varying tide,
To rot itself with motion.” – Antony and Cleopatra
First Democrats were in control, now Republicans are in control… who holds the power in Congress seems to sway with every election. It’s exhausting.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
July 30th, 2014 → 5:36 am
“‘There is no sure foundation set on blood,
no certain life achieved by others’ death.” – King John
There are so many bloody conflicts ongoing in the world right now – Syria, Iraq, Sunnis/Shiites, Israelis/Palestinians, … – that it is worth remembering the above quote.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
June 28th, 2014 → 7:05 am
“More are men’s ends marked than their lives before.
The setting sun, and music at the close,
As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last,
Writ in remembrance more than things long past.” – Richard II
100 years ago today Archduke Francis Ferdinand was assassinated, and the world slid into its first World War. It is humbling to look back on it now; the horror, the uninevitability of it, the profound waste. There is a world that existed before June 28, 1914, and a rather different world that was borne after it.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other & Politics/Politicians & Stupid/Evil People
June 5th, 2014 → 6:03 am
“He would drown the stage with tears,
And cleave the general ear with horrid speech,
Make mad the guilty and appal the free,
Confound the ignorant, and amaze indeed
The very faculties of eyes and ears.” – Hamlet
Egypt’s brave satirical comedian has finally succumbed to the death threats and agreed to go off the air. It is a sad day.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Politics/Politicians
May 27th, 2014 → 3:48 am
“There is a tide in the affairs of men.” – Julius Caesar
It didn’t get much coverage in the U.S. – at least not relative to the truly historic nature of the event – but India has elected a new prime minister from a new party with a new background and a new agenda. The world shifts.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
April 28th, 2014 → 6:01 am
“Truth will come to light.
Murder cannot be hid long – a man’s son may, but
in the end truth will out.” – Merchant of Venice
Mahmoud Abbas has at last admitted to the horrors of the Holocaust. Progress is possible.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
April 4th, 2014 → 8:30 am
“A good sherris-sack hath a two-fold
operation in it. It ascends me into the brain;
dries me there all the foolish and dull and curdy
vapours which environ it; makes it apprehensive,
quick, forgetive, full of nimble fiery and
delectable shapes, which, delivered o’er to the
voice, the tongue, which is the birth, becomes
excellent wit. The second property of your
excellent sherris is, the warming of the blood;
which, before cold and settled, left the liver
white and pale, which is the badge of pusillanimity
and cowardice; but the sherris warms it and makes
it course from the inwards to the parts extreme:
it illumineth the face, which as a beacon gives
warning to all the rest of this little kingdom,
man, to arm; and then the vital commoners and
inland petty spirits muster me all to their captain,
the heart, who, great and puffed up with this
retinue, doth any deed of courage; and this valour
comes of sherris.” – Henry IV
No wonder Queen Elizabeth gave the pope a gift of whiskey at their meeting yesterday. Originally I had thought the gift rather odd for a religious man, but Shakespeare expounds the virtues of alcohol so thoroughly I feel like getting a drink myself right now!
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
March 13th, 2014 → 8:28 am
“For this, be sure, tonight thou shalt have cramps,
Side-stitches that shall pen thy breath up: urchins
Shall, for that vast of night that they may work,
All exercise on thee: thou shalt be pinched
As thick as honeycomb, each pinch more stinging
Than bees that made ’em.” – The Tempest
Barack Obama was on the comedy podcast Between Two Ferns the other day. I don’t know about his performance, but I did spend an embarrassing amount of time at work yesterday (during lunch, of course!) watching a number of the other videos. Some were really funny!
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Politics/Politicians