August 4th, 2016 → 5:27 am
“The game is up.”
I recently learned that this phrase, “the game is up,” originally meant ‘the game is afoot,’ or, the ‘game is about to begin.’ In other words, it originally meant exactly the opposite of what it means today. That cracks me up for some reason.
As for Rio, in today’s parlance, let the games begin!
July 4th, 2016 → 11:08 am
“When we are born we cry that we are come
To this great stage of fools.” – King Lear
And every day, it seems to get crazier. But I love it nonetheless. Happy Birthday USA – what better place to spend it, then the Grand Canyon?
June 20th, 2016 → 5:26 am
“This royal throne of kings, this sceptered isle,
This earth of majesty, this seat of Mars,
This other Eden, demi-paradise,
This fortress built by Nature for herself
Against infection and the hand of war,
This happy breed of men, this little world
This precious stone set in the silver sea,
Which serves it in the office of a wall,
Or as a moat defensive to a house,
Against the envy of less happier lands;
This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England.” – Richard II
One of Shakespeare’s most famous odes to his motherland. Good luck on the vote Thursday! I’m quite anxious to see what happens…
Filed under: Blog & Other & Politics/Politicians
June 16th, 2016 → 6:08 am
“Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood
Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
Making the green one red.” – Macbeth
As written in this morning’s op-ed by Charles Blow: “There is so much blood on our hands that no amount of Second Amendment rationalizing can make them clean.” Just ban assault rifles already, for god’s sake. Every action has benefits and costs, and I don’t deny that some (good) people would pay a price if we banned rapid-fire weapons (as my husband put it, it’s fun to go to a range and just shoot repeatedly), but I’m sorry, that price is worth the benefit of the thousands of lives that would be saved. Even if we only diminish gun violence (I agree, we are unlikely ever to eliminate it), it is worth it. People who are opposed to such a public policy initiative I don’t think honestly get how many lives are lost to gun violence every day. The nonchalance die-hard gun supporters have about such loss of life appalls me.
Filed under: Blog & Other & Politics/Politicians
June 12th, 2016 → 6:15 am
“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” – Sonnet 18
I know it is only June 12, but a friend asked me the other day when we could go on a floating trip together, and the earliest date I could come up with was near the end of July! Our summer is so booked it feels practically over. Ah, summer, don’t go, stay, please, stay!
May 16th, 2016 → 5:50 am
“They threw their caps
As they would hang them on the horns of the moon.” – Coriolanus
Happy graduation to everyone finishing college, high school, kindergarten, or anything else this month. Wo-hoo!
May 7th, 2016 → 5:36 am
“Such wind as scatters young [women] through the world
To seek their fortunes farther than at home,
Where small experience grows.” – The Taming of the Shrew
There has been a lot of press around Malia Obama’s decision to take a “gap year” between high school and college. I would just like to note that I took a gap year 20 years ago now, before it was ever made cool by a president’s daughter. Mine was between college and graduate school and I worked at a minimum wage job for half of it, and for the other half drove around the U.S. in a car worth $300, staying at youth hostels and camp grounds, and visiting 44 out of the 50 U.S. states. It was amazing. And yes, everyone should do it.
May 3rd, 2016 → 5:00 am
“O that this too sullied flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew.” – Hamlet
Shakespeare has numerous quotes on suicide. Many of the best authors often do! I’ve been reading Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint-Exupery this week, and came across one of the most beautiful, accurate descriptions of nonemotional suicide I’ve ever come across. I quote only a part of it here: (for full impact you should probably read the whole thing)
Filed under: Blog & Literature/Theatre/Art & Other
April 29th, 2016 → 5:51 am
“Ships are but boards…” – Merchant of Venice
Upon which, apparently, to put supremely silly names.
March 17th, 2016 → 6:04 am
“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.” – Hamlet
Or, as The New York Times noted this morning – NOT. For yet another year Denmark has come in at No. 1 on the World Happiness Report. In large part, apparently, because of a relative lack of inequality (at least as compared to much of the rest of the West). Go Denmark!
Oh, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day ☘️