Guest Post: Romney as Shakespeare’s Dark Lady?!

February 28th, 2012 → 6:32 am

    “When my love swears that she is made of truth
    I do believe her, though I know she lies…

    Although she knows my days are past the best,
    Simply I credit her false speaking tongue:
    On both sides thus is simple truth suppress’d….

    Therefore I lie with her and she with me,
    And in our faults by lies we flatter’d be.” – Sonnet 138

I love that second to last line:  “Therefore I lie with her and she with me.”  (Wasn’t Shakespeare great at the double entendre?)  Romney lies to his fans just to get elected; they lie to themselves in order to vote for him.  It’s all so crazy, as pointed out in this guest post from Better Living Through Beowulf.  Can’t wait to find out what happens in Michigan today!

Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians

Egypt’s Transitional Government

February 22nd, 2012 → 7:31 am

“There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you.  It is but heading and hanging.” – Measure for Measure

What is Egypt thinking?  Putting non-profit workers on trial for…promoting democracy?  Thomas Friedman’s op-ed today in the New York Times summed it up well – Egypt’s leaders really should be worrying about poverty, illiteracy, and the economy, not a few foreign non-profit organizations.

Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians & Stupid/Evil People

President’s Day

February 20th, 2012 → 6:45 am

    “He may not, as unvalued persons do,
    Carve for himself, for on his choice depends
    The sanity and health of this whole state.” – Hamlet

Happy President’s Day everyone! I hope you have the day off. I don’t, but then again, at least I’m not president. 😉  It can’t be an easy job. While I like to make fun of some of our current presdential candidates, my kudos to anyone who is even willing to try…

Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians

Hope

February 18th, 2012 → 6:07 am

“The miserable have no other medicine, but only hope.” – Measure for Measure

I say this to the people of Greece, who are rioting in protest against greater austerity measures.  I say this to the people of Syria, who are fighting for basic liberty and freedom.  I say this to the citizens of the United States, who are desperate for a third party presidential candidate.  I say this to myself, whenever things are bleak, because it is true.

Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money & Politics/Politicians & Self/My Life

Mother-Daugter Love

February 16th, 2012 → 8:06 am

“Two loves I have, of comfort and despair.” – Sonnet 144

It’s my mother’s birthday today, so of course I woke up thinking about her.  About how much she used to comfort me when I was down, and about how much I miss her now that she is gone…

Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life

Happy Valentine’s Day!

February 14th, 2012 → 7:20 am

“My affection hath an unknown bottom, like the Bay of Portugal.” – As You Like It

Who knew?  But in Shakespeare’s day the Bay of Portugal was considered the deepest point on earth.  Funny, knowing what we know now, but I like how it sounds as an homage to love, for some reason…

Filed under: Blog & Other

Music & the Grammys

February 13th, 2012 → 6:18 am

    “Orpheus with his lute made trees,
    And the mountain tops that freeze,
    Bow themselves when he did sing…
    In sweet music is such art,
    Killing care and grief of heart. – Henry VIII

Music is also a good way to lift the heart.  A nod to Adele, the Grammys, and of course, to poor Whitney Houston.

Filed under: Blog & Other

Words

February 11th, 2012 → 7:54 am

    “Though what they will impart
    Help nothing else, yet do they ease the heart.” – Richard III

A smart person told me the other day to write in order to ease my pain.  I’m happy to report that I found some time to do that yesterday and it worked!  I don’t know if I’m going to be able to keep it up in any kind of a consistent fashion – with a young baby and a full time job right now it is just so hard to carve out regular chunks of time – but if I can, I will.  The writing life is for me.

Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Self/My Life

Guest Post – Solyndra & the Federal Loan Guarantee Program

February 9th, 2012 → 7:35 am

    “I’ll so offend to make offense a skill,
    Redeeeming time when men think least I will.” – Henry IV

In my day job I’m an economics professor, with a specialty in environmental and energy economics.  My love of Shakespeare hardly ever crosses into this domain, so I was quite surprised when, sitting at my desk in my office yesterday, reading a technical industry publication, I came across the above quote used in reference to the Solyndra debacle and the federal government’s loan guarantee program for renewable energy.  I actually don’t think this was the best use of a Shakespeare quote, because it requires knowing a bit about Prince Harry (think: wild child) and the context of his ascent to king as Henry V (think: reformed wild child) to fully understand the meaning here (and how many people reading technical energy publications know that??).  But for me at least, this was fun to come across.

If anyone out there sees other uses of Shakespeare in odd contexts in their daily lives, please pass the quotes along!  I’d love to hear them, and I may even start posting some of these “guest” quotes now and again on the webiste.

Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money & Politics/Politicians

Nancy Brinker, CEO Susan G. Komen for the Cure

February 5th, 2012 → 8:45 am

“Zounds!  I was never so bethumped with words.” – King John

Nancy Brinker, founder and chief executive of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, has changed her story repeatedly over the last few days as to why the group didn’t want to give funds to Planned Parenthood.  It’s all been a bit ridiculous.  A few years ago I stopped giving money to Susan G. Komen for the Cure when I found out how little money actually went to cancer reduction efforts (as opposed to administrators and lawyers).  This just confirms for me that there are better places for my donations.

Filed under: Blog & Other