This is old, but I’d never seen it.  The Onion’s always good for a laugh, triply quadruply so when they’re doing Shakespeare!

“Listen to this: ‘When we first see Hamlet comma he is getting over his
father’s death comma which some say comma indeed comma was a shock to Hamlet comma and he could not get over it when he sees his father’s ghost comma which comma wants revenge,'” Burroughs read aloud during her turn. “If you ask me comma this paper sucks pretty bad.”

Admit it, teachers!  You’ve done this.  I know you have.

RIPT Apparel does a specially designed, one-of-a-kind t-shirt each day.  Yesterday’s shirt?  Earth Day.  Today’s shirt?  Why, who do you think?
Designed by Ressa McCrae, this shirt is called “What Fools These Mortals Be.” She’s been featured on their site before.   I think it looks pretty cool.  Anybody can slap a public domain image on a t-shirt.  This is not that.  This is a unique item, designed specifically for old Will’s birthday. He’s going something of an eye-roll going, wonder what he’s thinking?(*) Note that this is not an affiliate thing and I’m not making money off the deal, I’m posting entirely because it’s a “Shakespeare’s-Birthday-only” thing and I highly support merchants and other folks recognizing our holiday 😉

I like to think of today as “Shakespeare Day” in general rather than Shakespeare’s Birthday.  Makes it seem bigger and more important, and gives me an excuse to pretty much do Shakespeare stuff all day.  Talk like him.  Read him, read about him.  Go see him performed.  Tell people about him.  That latter tends to be how I spend my day, talking Shakespeare to anybody that I can corner.

Alas, I have a day job schedule that doesn’t lend itself well to taking my own personal holiday off (not when the kids’ spring vacation was this week and my own birthday is next week), so I’ll be at work today.  But! I’ve queued up a bunch of posts, hoping to break my own record of 10 in a day, and I’ll try my best to keep tabs on what else is going on and update here.

What about you?  Got links to your own celebration? Consider this your invitation to post them!

This article on Shakespeare’s Eulogies is obviously intended as a defense in the Authorship debates, opening with the argument that the Oxfordians claim no eulogies were forthcoming with William Shakespeare died in Stratford.  However, I like it as well as a good collection of what people had to say about Shakespeare when he died.  Let’s remember, after all, that today’s not only Shakespeare’s birth day, but it’s the day he died, too.

(In judgement a Nestor, in wit a Socrates, in art a Virgil;

the earth buries [him], the people mourn [him], Olympus possesses
[him])

Reminder that today, April 22 2010, is the last day to enter our Shakespeare in Bits Contest for a chance to win 1 of 10 copies of their multimedia Romeo and Juliet application!  More details, including an independent review by Mad Shakespeare, available here.

To enter, here’s what you need to do:

* “Like” ShakespeareGeek on Facebook.
* Do the same for Shakespeare in Bits.
* Now go post something on one or both of our walls.

The original rules say that the comments with the most “likes” wins, but we’ve got 10 copies to give away so just posting something gives you a good shot at winning.  What are you waiting for?