[ This could turn not-safe-for-work (NSFW) pretty quickly, so beware …. ] We’ve had Bawdy Shakespeare and Filthy Shakespeare.  Whether or not you believe that every other word out of Shakespeare’s mouth was a euphemism for naughty bits, the simple truth is that these topics have long been one of the most popular Google searches. So, to have some fun and make it easy for the high school kids who want something to giggle at in English class, I ask : what’s your favorite Shakespeare dirty joke? One of my favorites, I can’t even really do justice here – but I’m talking about the scene in Comedy of Errors between Dromio and Antipholus of Syracuse.  Claiming that his newly discovered wife is “spherical like a globe” and that he “could name countries in her”, they do a hysterical schtick where Antipholus asks “Where was Ireland? What about Spain? France?” until finally getting in a big finish when he asks about her Netherlands.  Here’s a link to the full script, I can’t at the moment find a better link. I count this among favorites because, when I saw it performed, I laughed hysterically.  Malvolio’s comment in Twelfth Night about “her C’s, U’s and T’s” might be more filthy, but I don’t know that it’s as funny.  And I’ve always assumed that Hamlet was trying to be offensive, not funny, when he asked about country matters.

[ There’s an actual question for y’all at the end of this anecdote, just so you know. 🙂 ] Funny thing happened last night.  I brought the kids to the library, and “my fan” the children’s room lady is working.  She and I discuss Shakespeare whenever I’m in, and we worked together to bring Rebel Shakespeare to the library for two performances this summer. Anyway, I give her my new business card to keep in the files.  She thinks my job is to be a full time Shakespeare geek (I wish!) and mentions a radio program she’d heard where a man spoke of having a 9-5 day job in the computer world, and then in the evening shopping around his book of poetry. “Funny you should say that,” I tell her.  “I just published a book myself.”  Being a librarian she immediately puts her hands onto her little computer keyboard to look it up.  “It’s not available in print yet,” I say. “It’s an e-book.” “It’s not available for my Kindle,” she says, half asking. This is the first time I’ve ever met a Kindle user, and it surprises me.  But I’m prepared. “Why yes, as a matter of fact it is very much available for the Kindle!” I tell her. She grabs a piece of paper and a pen to write down the name.  “It’s a collection of Shakespeare wedding quotes,” I tell her, not that she appears to care. Her head pops up again.  “My son is getting married!” she beams. Moral of the story: Talk about yourself and your projects, often.  You never know who you’ll meet.  I wrote a Shakespeare wedding book for Kindle and I met a Kindle owning, Shakespeare loving mother of the groom.   Ok, on to the question. As I mentioned, I’ve never seen  a Kindle (or a Kindle owner) in the wild.  I’m more of an Apple guy, and know several iPad owners.  But a librarian owning a Kindle? Made all the sense in the world. So, a quick poll – how many of my regular readers have a Kindle?  And what’s the Shakespeare experience like on it?  I know that in the iPhone world we have all sorts of applications and interactive browsers to play with, but I really don’t know what a Kindle can and can’t do.  Do you carry complete works around on it?  Can you?  How’s the searching, and highlighting?  They are both battling it out for the ebook market, but I think they’re really positioned to be very different things. I’m wondering if even the best dedicated book reader can win.