Category Archives: Presentation Ideas

Shakespeare is an inexhaustible source of presentation themes and ideas, including starters, epilogues and quotes that can revive the spirit of the audience. A well placed quote at the beginning of a presentation catches the attention and at the end it may be what triggers the applause. Relatively few people realize that in a presentation you cannot have form without substance, but substance without form can kill the effect. In the book “Your Daily Shakespeare” there are more than 10,000 instances of how to adapt a Shakespearean quote to any situation, including, of course, hundreds of examples usable in presentations.

What’s in a name? Nagorno-Karabakh

Posted on April 10, 2016 by jimmie

… that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet… On this point I would disagree with Juliet. If, rather than ‘rose’ the flower were called, say, ‘globularia’, the perfume would be the same, but the overall effect wouldn’t. For in ‘rose’ the initial ‘r’ trembles softly on the palate Read More

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The Trouble with Trump

Posted on March 16, 2016 by jimmie

“If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction.” (Twelfth Night, act 3, sc. 4) By general consent, in American elections there is no kingdom for a stage, there are no princes to act, nor monarchs to behold the swelling scene (1). By tacit agreement, elections stand midway Read More

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Arab Winters

Posted on February 4, 2016 by jimmie

“Now is the winter of our discontent Made glorious summer by this sun of York…” King Richard III, act 1, sc. 1 Five years elapsed since the first of the widely acclaimed “Arab Springs”, though it does not seem that long, as the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) conceals its own advance. By Read More

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Plumbing for ISIS

Posted on January 3, 2016 by jimmie

“… 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 The word ‘anecdote’ (from the Greek, meaning literally “not given out”, that is “unpublished”) Read More

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October Surprise

Posted on September 7, 2015 by jimmie

“…With colours fairer painted their foul ends.” (The Tempest, act 1, sc. 2) We are approaching the 35th anniversary of the so-called “October Surprise” of 1980. Given the workings of the inaudible and noiseless foot of time (1) most will probably have forgotten, or may have stored the event in what is loosely called the Read More

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Terror On The Paris Express

Posted on August 29, 2015 by jimmie

“Who cannot steal a shape that means deceit?” (King Henry VI p2, act 3) I was determined to believe that the drama on the fast train to Paris, was a stellar victory in the War on Terror. The mainstream media informed us, with the abruptness of ecstasy and the pleasure of the extraordinary, – informed Read More

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Head in the Sanders

Posted on July 28, 2015 by jimmie

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

Posted on July 11, 2015 by jimmie

     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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Unofficial Charleston

Posted on June 24, 2015 by jimmie

A man’s life is no more than to say “one” (Hamlet, act 5, sc. 2)   Given the massive media coverage, to further expostulate on the Charleston murders, why day is day, night is night and time is time, were nothing but to waste night, day and time, to borrow from Polonius. Call for indignation? Read More

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Early Elections, Bush or Clinton?

Posted on June 15, 2015 by jimmie

“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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