Back to School with Shakespeare

July 31st, 2013 → 6:01 am

    “Love goes toward love, as schoolboys from their books,
    But love from love, toward school with heavy looks.” – Romeo and Juliet

A most excellent reader of this blog alerted me to a link where you can get Back to School Shakespeare quotes.  My only problem with the above quote is, why does it have to make NOT studying equivalent to falling in love and reuniting with a lover?  Am I the only one in this world who enjoyed school and studying growing up?  Having said that, I am sad that today is the last day of July, and that soon summer will be over…  I’m such a hypocrite…

Filed under: Blog & Other

Kunsthal Museum Art Heist

July 29th, 2013 → 5:45 am

    “If we should fail?”
    “We fail? But screw your courage to the sticking-place, and we’ll not fail.” – Macbeth

That seems to be the mantra of the thieves of the Kunsthal Museum art heist.  I’ve been fascinated by this story for weeks now, where robbers walked off with works of art by Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Gauguin, and others from the Kunstal Museum in the Netherlands.  Authorities had begun to close in on the culprits in Romania, when it was reported that some crazy old mother burned the hundreds of millions of dollars worth of art in a stove (!) thinking it would save her son; that if the authorities couldn’t find the actual paintings, they couldn’t convict her son of anything.  Now, there’s speculation that her admission was a lie, a story told to make the trail of the art itself go cold.  This entire escapade is worthy of a Hollywood movie.  I just pray all that beautiful art isn’t really burnt to cinders in some crazy old woman’s basement…

Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art

Raising a Son, Part II

July 27th, 2013 → 5:59 am

    “My boy, my [Vincent], my fair son!
    My life, my joy, my food, my all the world!
    My widow-comfort, and my sorrows’ cure!” – King John

It’s as though my son read my blog the other day, and embarrassed, decided to atone for it.  Last night at dinner something happened and I said to him, “What would you do without me?”  And he looked me straight in the eye and said, “Mommy, I would never do anything without you.”   ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life

Raising a Son

July 25th, 2013 → 6:55 am

“See, sons, what things you are!” – Henry IV, Part II

Ah, what the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have to look forward to…  This morning, in the middle of our early AM cuddle, my son peed on me.  So much for a smooth potty training with no accidents!

Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life

Royal Baby

July 23rd, 2013 → 6:16 am

    “This royal infant – heaven still move about [him]!-
    Though in [his] cradle, yet now promises
    Upon this land a thousand thousand blessings,
    Which time shall bring to ripeness” – Henry VIII

Congratulations to the Brits!  Happy royal baby!

Filed under: Blog & Other

Detroit’s Bankruptcy

July 21st, 2013 → 7:12 am

    “I can get no remedy against this consumption of the purse;
    borrowing only lingers and lingers it out,
    but the disease is incurable.” – Henry IV, Part II

Detroit has been sick for a long, long time.  I grew up in Detroit.  Lived in the very heart of it until I was about 9 years old.  It breaks my heart to see how much things have fallen apart.  Hopefully this bankruptcy declaration is the bottom, and from these ashes Detroit can start to rise again.

Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money

Rolling Stone Tsarnaev Cover

July 19th, 2013 → 6:18 am

    “The devil hath power
    T’assume a pleasing shape.” – Hamlet

Just because the devil can look innocent and cute, you don’t make him look that way and glamorize him on the cover of a major magazine!  What was publisher Jann Wenner thinking?  I commend Walgreens, CVS pharmacy, and all the other stores that are refusing to sell this issue.  If I had a subscription to the magazine (which I don’t), I’d cancel it.

Filed under: Blog & Stupid/Evil People

Bullying

July 16th, 2013 → 6:50 am

“There is no more mercy in him than there is milk in a male tiger.” – Coriolanus

The last few years have seen a lot of discussion and awareness brought to the issue of childhood bullying.  But the best essay/poem/performance I’ve seen about it so far is the one I saw last night, by Shane Koyczan.  Go to his website and scroll down the homepage to the video of his “To This Day” TED talk.  It’s amazing.

Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other

More Shakespeare Trivia

July 14th, 2013 → 6:42 am

    “To marry him is hopeless,
    To be his whore is witless.” – The Two Noble Kinsmen

I heard recently that the play The Two Noble Kinsmen is the only one of Shakespeare’s plays never to have been adapted for either film or television.  So, I quote it here today to give it some attention.

Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art

Creepy-Ass Craker

July 12th, 2013 → 6:25 am

    “What craker is this same that deafs our ears
    With this abundance of superfluous breath?” – King John

I recently came across a discussion of the origin of the slur “cracker” (which took place because a witness in the George Zimmerman murder trial testified that Trayvon Martin referred to Zimmerman as a “creepy-ass cracker”).  To my surprise, the earliest use of the term is apparently Shakespeare (!), in the quote above.  Who knew we could thank Shakespeare for such treasures as “hobnob,” “madcap,” “bloodstained,” and yes, also “cracker.”

Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other