November 8th, 2016 → 5:42 am
“Let time shape, and there an end.” – Henry IV
It took a long time, but the end of this U.S. presidential election is finally upon us. I will not be able to get any work done today – at all.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians
November 4th, 2016 → 8:40 am
“One good deed dying tongueless
Slaughters a thousand waiting upon that.” – The Winter’s Tale
We do not praise goodness enough. The news and the world seems filled with evilness and bad deeds. But good people and good acts happen all the time. If we talked about them more, maybe more would be inspired to occur. To the kind lady who helped rescue my fallen groceries from oncoming traffic: thank you.
October 31st, 2016 → 5:47 am
“Be thou a spirit of health or goblin damned,
Bring with thee airs from heaven or blasts from hell,
Be thy intents wicked or charitable,
Thou com’st in such a questionable shape
That I will speak to thee.” – Hamlet
And what I will say is: “Would you like a Snickers or a Twix?”
Happy Halloween everyone!!!
October 27th, 2016 → 5:45 am
“Thus play I in one person many people.” – Richard II
The latest Shakespeare gossip is that Christopher Marlowe may have been Shakespeare’s co-author! And that, essentially, perhaps many more of Shakespeare’s plays than we ever really realized were co-authored. It kind of makes sense, as the theatre was so collaborative in those days; writers were also actors, actors were also stage managers, everyone did a bit of everything. It’ll be fascinating to see what else science turns up – although, of course, nothing will ever stop the speculation, conspiracy theories, and general unknowns about our favorite Bard.
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art
October 19th, 2016 → 5:53 am
“Cormorant devouring time.” – Love’s Labor’s Lost
(Note: The cormorant is a ravenous sea bird that eats fish in large numbers.)
All of a sudden I’m crazy busy and can’t find enough time to get everything done. I hate when it gets like this. It’s exhausting!
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
October 15th, 2016 → 5:40 am
“It would make a man mad as a buck to be so bought and sold.” – Comedy of Errors
This line from Comedy of Errors has nothing to do with buying or selling anything. It’s said by a servant who’s just pissed off at being ill-treated and abused and made to stand out in the cold. The line struck me as, even in the 16th century, commerce clearly had a negative reputation. We knew this already from Merchant of Venice, of course, but fascinating to see the same negative connotations pop up in other plays as well.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money
October 7th, 2016 → 5:16 am
“I’ll meet with you upon the mart.” – The Comedy of Errors
I’m currently reading The Comedy of Errors with my online discussion group. And I came across the above line in the first Act, where “mart” is used in reference to a market. I looked into it, and it was quite common hundreds of years ago to use the word “mart” instead of “market,” though that isn’t generally done today. As an economist in my day job, I find that fascinating.
Filed under: Blog & Economics/Money
October 4th, 2016 → 5:03 am
“Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful
Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
That has a name.” – Macbeth
And that name is Donald J. Trump.
Filed under: Blog & Politics/Politicians & Stupid/Evil People
September 30th, 2016 → 5:58 am
“I am gone, though I am here.” – Much Ado About Nothing
It’s that time of the semester when my students are barely there, I’m barely there, everyone’s walking around half-sick, fully tired, and wishing they were in bed. Wouldn’t that be nice right now? More sleep…..zzzzz….
Filed under: Blog & Other & Self/My Life
September 25th, 2016 → 5:05 am
“I do not know yet why I live to say this thing’s to do,
sith I have cause and will and strength and means to do it.” – Hamlet (second quarto only!)
Note: replace “sith” with “since” and the quote will read much easier to the modern eye
I am currently sitting in on an online Shakespeare course at Future Learn (“Shakespeare: Print and Performance”). I say sitting in on because while I am fully signed up, I am only watching the videos and not doing the homework assignments (I have been taking the quizzes though and scoring very highly!!). Anyhow, a lot of the videos are repetition for me, but every once in awhile I do learn something new. Today I learned that the second quarto edition of Hamlet is not only different than the first folio edition (this, I knew), but it is different by hundreds of lines. My goodness! There really are significantly different versions of Hamlet out there. What does that mean? Were there multiple authors? Multiple updates? Versions made for different playhouses? We’ll never truly know, but I did like the quote given above that is from the second quarto alone. Hamlet wonders why he’s sitting around thinking so much, and not doing anything, and it reminded me not only of myself at times, but most definitely of some of my own students right now. There’s a homework assignment due tomorrow, get on it!
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art