An new visitor and Anonymous commenter writes, “I’m looking for a word to use when training my new doggie. I need a ‘release’ word to let him know he’s done a good job and may move about freely, or get out of his sit position. Some words other people use include “okay”, "release", "bingo", "that’ll do", or "free". I want a kool Shakespeare-like word. Does the Shakespeare Geek have any suggestions??” Sounds like a fun topic.  There are of course the great exclamations like Forsooth! or Zounds!  but those are just funny words, they don’t really have any context.  What’s a good Shakespearean way to say what the commenter asks for?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/daniel_hannan/blog/2008/11/24/shakespeare_my_best_to_worst I seem to have missed this when it was posted back in November, but the man’s got me in his Blog Roll, so it seems only fair that I give it a little credit.  Despite claiming that his “hits fall by 80% whenever he blogs about [Shakespeare]”, the article is a laundry list of best/worst elements you might find at some sort of funky modern awards show, like “Handsomest Line” (The sun doth gild our armour; up, my lords!) versus “Ugliest Line” (leaky as an unstanched wench), or “Line most likely to provoke moronic laughter” (“Put out the light, and then put out the light”). Fascinated by his Best Hamlet, someone I’d never heard of.

http://community.livejournal.com/shaksper_random/44826.html The gang at Shakesper_Random is thinking of “any songs that they associate with Shakespearean characters and/or Shakespearean romantic pairings!” Example?  “Under My Thumb” for Kate / Petruchio. Got it?  Go play.

http://www.premiere.com/Feature/The-65-Most-Romantic-Movie-Couples Nothing direct from Mr. Shakespeare, but I’ll assume that would be cheating.  However, we do get Shakespeare In Love (#54), and 10 Things I Hate About You (#32, re-telling of Taming Of The Shrew). Any others in that mix with a Shakespeare hook? I know that Never Been Kissed (#31) has a prom these of “famous romantic couples” but honestly can’t remember if anybody does Romeo and Juliet (or Anthony and Cleo).

http://pics.livejournal.com/reasonabsurd/pic/0004hx49 Is “Yo Dawg” the new “I Can Haz”? Seems like a bunch of these just went flying through my newsreader.