Both my wife and I have been trying to diet lately, so part of the morning ritual has become to step on a scale and report back and successes. This morning I told my wife how much I’d lost (and nope, I’m not telling you people ;). “Who’s the man!” she responded, by way of congratulations. “Amanda Bynes?” I countered. “????” she said. “It’s a Shakespeare thing,” I explained. “??????” she said again.

http://www.folger.edu/lear Can’t wait for your DVD to show up?  Amy from Folger Shakespeare Library wrote in to remind me not only that they are teaming up with PBS to show McKellen’s King Lear “later this month (check local listings)”, but that they are producing a whole series of projects dealing with cutting-edge methods for teaching Shakespeare. This spring, Folger Education is partnering with PBS to provide teachers with resources for teaching Shakespeare’s timeless tragedy, King Lear. The Royal Shakespeare Company’s production, starring Sir Ian McKellen in the title role, airs on PBS in late March—check your local listings for showtime. Folger Education experts will blog, participate in a free webinar, and provide lesson plans and teaching strategies for creatively bringing Shakespeare to life in the classroom. Seriously, now you have no excuse.  You couldn’t get to see it live, and you can’t see paying international shipping charges to get the DVD from Amazon.uk.  Well, set your DVR and don’t miss your chance!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/mar/10/art-classics Here’s an article that brings a little skepticism to yesterday’s big big news about the “new” Cobbe portrait of Shakespeare, which has actually been around for 300 years and believed to be Shakespeare for at least 3 years – yesterday was just the “official” announcement. In the article, the author points out that the whole premise of this being a Shakespeare portrait rests on its similiarity to the Janssen portrait, which is already acknowledged to have been doctored to look like what Shakespeare was supposed to have looked like.  Got that?  So it’s something of a vicious circle – the Cobbe portrait is only Shakespeare because it looks like this other portrait of Shakespeare, but that one only looks like Shakespeare because it was deliberately manipulated to look like what Shakespeare was thought to have looked like.
Personally I’m still optimistic, as I’m sure that Professor Stanley Wells would have known this and not attached his name to such a single flimsy piece of evidence.  What have they been doing for the last 3 years before making their official announcement?  What tests were run?  What is now conclusive that wasn’t a year ago?

Thanks to Bill for this one, I’d not seen it!

“Ok, so, we’ll be back by about 10.”

“Any special instructions for putting the kids down?”

“My son may ask you to rock him a bit, if so, just sing him a couple of songs and then tell him you’re going to sleep, too.”

“What songs does he like?”

“Baa baa black sheep, twinkle twinkle….oh, and the What a piece of work is man soliloquoy from Hamlet.  Act 2, Scene 2.”

“Very funny.”

“I’m not kidding.” ——————– Ok, that’s a hypothetical – for now. :)  But I’ve definitely created a monster, as every night that I do put the boy down, it now goes  like this: “You sing Shakespeare.”

“Shall I compare thee…”

“No!  New Shakespeare.”

“What a piece of work is man?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

“What a piece of work is man, how noble in reason…etc…”

“That from Hamlet?”

“Yes, that’s from Hamlet.”

“Now sing Shall I compare thee.” And I am not kidding in the slightest.  I’m just thankful that when Mommy puts him down, she is allowed to use the “Only Daddy knows those songs” excuse, and he seems to accept that. The boy is going to be 3 in May.  You people realize, of course, that when my kids are actually old enough to perform Shakespeare for the first time (assuming that they show an interest in it, blah blah not forcing kids yadda yadda), my heart is in fact going to explode.  I can’t wait.