I particularly enjoy reality shows on the Food channels. Is anybody watching The Next Iron Chef?  This happened last night:

(I am almost certainly going to spell some names wrong.)

Chef Anne Burrell has won the previous challenge, and her reward is that she will pick one of the “bottom two” chefs who will have to compete to stay on the program.  She picks Chef Zakarian.

The other chef in the bottom two, judged by the quality of the dishes that they made, is….Chef Anne Burrell.  Oops.

So they have a cook-off, and Anne Burrell loses and is kicked off the show.  She had the advantage, and it bit her.  In summing up, one of the other chefs, Chef Alex Guarnascelli(??), says “It was downright Shakespearean.  Chef Burrell drew her sword, and then she fell on it.”

What?

That analogy may have worked better (though still been broken) if she’d at least said “…and then she tripped over it.”

And by that I mean the Midsummer Helena, not the All’s Well Helena.  While going through the play in prep for my teaching debut, I was reminded of what appears to be a rather silly plot point.

Recap – Lysander and Hermia love each other.  Demetrius loves Hermia (who does not love him in return), but Demetrius is the one who has Hermia’s father’s permission to marry her.  Helena, meanwhile, loves Demetrius, who does not love her in return (although we’re led to believe that he did at one point).  Lysander and Hermia plan to run away into the forest, and have told Helena their plan.

So, here’s my question.  Helena says:

I will go tell him of fair Hermia’s flight:
Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
Pursue her; and for this intelligence
If I have thanks, it is a dear expense:
But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
To have his sight thither and back again.

She’s going to tell Demetrius what’s going on.  I think that the first time I read through the play I thought her thinking went something like, “He will realize that Hermia is gone, and then he will love me again.”  But I noticed last night that she actually says “he will pursue her.”  So Helena knows that Demetrius is going to chase after Hermia, and she (Helena) is going to chase after him.

How exactly does she expect to end up with Demetrius, again? How does she see this plan working out? Is she so out of her head in love with Demetrius that all she’s thinking is, “I will tell him this news and he will be happy with me! Yay!”

Hello loyal readers,

Just a quick note to let everybody know that I’m taking the family to Disney World this week, so there won’t be too much by way of blog posts.  You may spot me on Twitter however!  You never know where you’ll spot a Shakespeare reference.  (Everybody knows about the Macbeth reference in Beauty and the Beast, right?  Ask Bardfilm to tell you about it while I’m gone. 🙂

See everybody when I get back!

D

P.S – I’m taking an audio version of Richard III with me to listen (and follow along!) on the plane.  If I make it through that, I’ve got Midsummer right behind. Got to start working on my teaching debut next month!

Hi everyone,

So, I did just like I said, today’s Black Friday and I sent a note out to my email subscribers announcing the start of my book giveaway.  I previewed it by sending it to myself, and off it went.

And then I promptly got a response back from one of my readers saying that they got garbage – a paragraph of text, and then nothing.  No mention of book, no links, no nothing.

When I got my actual copy (I am, of course, subscribed to my own list for just these purposes :)), I got the same junk.

I’ve contacted the support people for the list server asking what the heck.  Unfortunately this means that, at least for now, I’ve got to cancel the giveaway. I have no idea when I’ll be able to generate a functional email.

I completely understand if people signed up specifically for the giveaway and now want to unsubscribe. I can see how this would sound like a scam for collecting email addresses, but it’s not. 

Sorry for the inconvenience.  My timing was pretty lousy, of course, trying something on such as weird semi-holiday.  Oh, well.  Lesson learned.

Duane

Once upon a time, Bardfilm challenged me to do a Pink Floyd / Shakespeare mashup game.  It’s actually much harder than it looks once you realize that most casual Pink Floyd fans are only really going to recognize “Another Brick In The Wall”, “Money” and “Dark Side Of the Moon.”

Here’s my best shot at it!  Who’s got more?  I did my best to keep them all in tune, if you want to hum them to yourself 🙂

• All in all it was all just chinks in the wall.
• Well (not!) shone, dark side of the moon!
• One of these days I’m going to cut you into little pieces! And then maybe bake you into a nice pie, serve you to your mom.
• Hush now baby, baby, don’t you cry. Mother’s gonna dash all your brains out for you.
• Good morning, Chair your honor; the crown will plainly show my daughter who now stands before you, was caught red-handed saying, “Nothing.” Saying “Nothing!” in a most ungrateful manner – this will not do.
• Crazy, toys in the attic, Lear is crazy, truly gone fishing. They must have taken his kingdom away, crazy!
• Now there’s a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky. Shine on, you blinded Gloucester.
• You are young and life is long, and there is Claudius to kill today.
• Ducats, get away.  Make a good loan, interest pays, you’re ok.
• The lunatic is on the heath.
• Careful with that axe, Titus!
• Emilia tries, but misunderstands (wah-oooo),
  She’s often inclined to steal somebody’s hanky til tomorrow…
• You’ll lose your mind and play
  Free games for may
  See Ophelia play.