Happy Halloween

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!

Filed under: Blog & Other

Hurricane Sandy

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 Hurrcane Sandy is going to be a doozy.  Here’s hoping it doesn’t drown the East Coast too terribly.

Filed under: Blog & Other

Cousin

October 27th, 2012 → 7:04 am

“A little more than kin, and less than kind.” – Hamlet

I have a distant cousin coming to visit this weekend.  Wish me luck.  It’s always been my assumption that he means well, but he’s notorious for being blithely critical and unapologetically condescending.  “You do things that way?”  “Why would anybody think that?”  Wish me luck I remember to kiss him and not kill him.

Filed under: Blog & Self/My Life

Lance Armstrong

October 23rd, 2012 → 7:58 am

    “Look like the innocent flower,
    But be the serpent under it.” – Macbeth

What else is there to say, except:  What a shame, what a shame. What a disappointing shame.

Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People

Just 2 1/2 More Weeks…

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

Witches, Jews, and History

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.

Filed under: Blog & Other

Art Heist

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

99 Years

October 15th, 2012 → 6:10 am

    “It was a grievous fault,
    And grievously hath Caesar answered it.” – Julius Caesar

A mother in Dallas apparently super-glued her toddler’s hands to the wall (among other abuses).  The judge this week handed down a prison sentence of 99 years.  I can’t stop thinking about this case.  It is truly inconceivable to me.  What goes on in a person’s mind (and a mother, no less) to justify gluing a defenseless child’s hands to the wall??

Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People

Romney as Norway? Ryan, the Thane of Cawdor? Biden=Bellona’s bridegroom?

October 13th, 2012 → 6:50 am

    “Norway himself,
    With terrible numbers,
    Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
    The thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict;
    Till that Bellona’s bridegroom, lapp’d in proof,
    Confronted him with self-comparisons,
    Point against point rebellious, arm ‘gainst arm.
    Curbing his lavish spirit: and, to conclude,
    The victory fell on us.” – Macbeth

I realize it’s not as clear cut as the presidential debate last week, but I think Biden won this one.  He sure gave point against point and fought like Bellona (the Roman goddess of war).

Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians

Hermit

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