About the Author
You may expect a book on Shakespeare to be issued by Academia. ‘YOUR DAILY SHAKESPEARE’ isn’t and its inspiration and use are eminently practical. Academic eyebrows will rise and expressions frown. I accept both as the price to pay for my modest but sincere attempt to free Shakespeare from the strictures of academic learning and to make Shakesperean verbal power easily accessible to the rest of us.
Someone else usually writes information on an author. Therefore any praise of the author exempts him from the charge of vanity.
Having to introduce myself I must avoid the all too common sin of overstating achievements and stretching credentials. The sin is easily avoided by remembering the lines,
“For it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass”
(Alls Well That Ends Well)
Golden words, that should be carved, painted or inscribed on the walls of (at least some) presidents’ offices. I don’t even like the word ‘president’. Its Latin route is connected with sitting, that is, ‘sitting before or above others’ - and many agree that sitting is done with anatomy not routinely used for thought. But I digress….
There is a history in all men's lives,
Figuring the nature of the times deceased;
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life…”
(King Henry IV, part 2)
And here is my history and a few recollections of the “times deceased”.
My formal education is in Engineering and I must reluctantly confess to having a PhD in Electronics. Still, throughout my ‘electronic’ life I was and remained a passionate lover of literature, or rather, of anything well written.
Following custom….after graduation I gained employment with a large corporation where I became a manager with a rather impressive and Napoleonic title. But working there became a challenge to my mental health. It all started when my employer told me that a spade, which I used to call a spade, should henceforth be called “an upward-downward, dynamic and portable soil management tool”. I exaggerate but not by much.
Even before the verbal Orwellian revolution I often found corporate meetings immensely boring. During one such meeting I remembered how King Richard III upbraids Stanley for delivering the news obscurely and long-windedly. Richard says,
What need'st thou run so many miles about,
When thou mayst tell thy tale the nearest way?
(King Richard III)
That instant marks the beginning of ‘YOUR DAILY SHAKESPEARE’. I thought that with a judicious use of Shakespearean lines a speaker can achieve two objectives. One, a good quote captures the attention and two, it breaks the monotony of exposition. The challenge was to tie the thousands of Shakespearean befitting lines to the thousands of daily situations and occasions when they can be used. I wanted any reader to find easily and quickly what he/she needs. In ‘YOUR DAILY SHAKESPEARE’ the user looks for the situation first and the situation refers him to a selection of applicable quotes. Equally, text and analytical index contain tips for usage and memorization.
I hope I have succeeded but should you disagree I will repeat what Prospero says at the end of “The Tempest”
As you from crimes would pardon'd be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
(The Tempest)
Back to biography. After leaving the large corporation I founded
Computer Friends, Inc., a company I am still directing. We have had an honorable career with occasional flashes of brilliance. For example some original products of ours found themselves praised by the New York Times and by various other national and international newspapers. In 1998 I also co-founded
Douglas Telecom, Inc., a company that has developed a very innovative CRM (Customer Relation Management) software integrated with VoIP (Voice over IP) software (also original).
Throughout the life of Computer Friends, there have been several occasions where a Shakespearean line helped or triggered a positive outcome - in advertisements, letters, presentations etc. I wish and hope that the same may happen to you, whether you use ‘YOUR DAILY SHAKESPEARE’ or not.
As to my other ‘credentials’, I have written many articles and several technical manuals in the form of Socratic dialogues. I believe it is possible to overcome the difficulties of technical subjects by clarity of written exposition, an abundance of analogies and by introducing a measure of soul-lightening humor.
I should stop now because,
“... there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.”
(Much Ado About Nothing)
But I will still add that … I have developed a method of reading and a device to mark books non destructively. I called method and device MEMEX (an acronym for ‘Memory Exercizer’). Of the method and device, Mortimer Adler, author of the best seller “How To Read a Book” and Charles Van Doren, Director of the Encyclopedia Britannica wrote,
“The best ideas are always simple. MEMEX is both very simple and a wonderful idea. By promoting active reading – the only way to read really well – it promises to help thousands of people to read better, and have more fun doing it. I strongly recommend MEMEX to anyone who reads – for study, for business or profession, or just for pleasure”
Now then, would you like to improve, power up and enhance your communications with the help of Shakespeare? Don’t delay! Because….
“…that we would do
We should do when we would; for this 'would' changes
And hath abatements and delays as many
As there are tongues, are hands, are accidents”
(Hamlet)
Happy reading, happy quoting, good luck and….
“… fortune play upon thy prosperous helm as thy auspicious mistress!”
(All’s Well that Ends Well).
~Jimmie Moglia, April 2007
To read some of Jimmie's short stories and other writings,
please visit Shakespeare's
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