Category Archives: Amusing Shakespeare

Most Shakespeare is understandable by anyone and the humor present herein is of two kinds. One directly related ti the theme and content. The other has to do with the old but perfectly understandable language that carries an inherent charge of humor

Plumbing for ISIS

“… this news, which is called true, is so like an old tale, that the verity of it is in strong suspicion” (Winter’s Tale, act 8, sc. 2) More than news, the following is an anecdote, of which history is full. The word ‘anecdote’ (from the Greek, meaning literally “not given out”, that is “unpublished”) Read More

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Crime and (un)Punishment

“ … Foul deeds will rise, Though all the world o’erwhelm them, to men’s eyes.” Hamlet act 1, sc. 2 American visitors to this site will probably know of the event, but here is a summary for our international guests. It is a case where the evidence is undisputable. And from the evidence we can, Read More

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Mass-shootings and False Consciousness

“… The undiscovered country from whose bourn No traveler returns – puzzles the will. And makes us rather bear those ills we have, Than fly to others that we know not of.” (Hamlet, act 3, sc. 1) Roseburg is the approximate equivalent of a continental European small provincial town. It is the seat of Douglas Read More

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A Deep Divine

“…meditating with two deep divines, Not sleeping, to engross his idle body, But praying, to enrich his watchful soul.” King Richard III, act 3, sc. 7 Sipping an espresso in the park’s cafe’, I looked at the trees, thinking of that “time of the year… when yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang upon Read More

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Atom Bombs, Babes & Cakes

“You are too shallow, Hastings, much too shallow, To sound the bottom of the after-times.” (K. Henry IV part 2) Given Obama’s visit to Hiroshima, I am re-publishing this post from last year. (May 2016) I think it is relevant, for the accepted vulgata does not tell the whole story. (The year 2015 has already Read More

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French Fries & Strange Flesh

Knowing that flattery is the infantry of negotiations, Octavian, on meeting Antony after a long time, starts the conversation by recounting, for the benefit of the audience, one of Antony’s feats, the fame of which reached even Rome, “…on the Alps It is reported thou didst eat strange flesh, Which some did die to look Read More

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Head in the Sanders

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, which in their seeds And weak beginnings lie intreasured. (1) If this is true of the lives Read More

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Much Ado About Tsipras

     For one who spent five years of his misspent youth toiling with (ancient) Greek, the recent limelight on Athens feels like a return to the past. For suddenly the ancient Greeks are on the lips of politicians, economists, commentators and media pundits of all shades and colors. There is Plato, Socrates, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristotle, Read More

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Early Elections, Bush or Clinton?

“I would with such perfection govern, sir, To excel the golden age” The Tempest, act 2, sc. 1 I finished my coffee, closed my book, paid my bill and got up to leave. When the unknown man at the next table – whom I will henceforth called UM – said to me, “May I ask Read More

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FBI’s Football Fever

“I have some sport in hand Wherein your cunning can assist me much.” Taming of the Shrew (act 1, sc. 1)   After the media’s fitful fever (1), the business of FIFA, the corruption of the corruptible, the FBI’s arrest of the corrupt, the theories of conspiracies, the election of FIFA’s president and his subsequent Read More

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