So we’ve got friends over Friday night, and they have a daughter who I believe is just over 1 (she’s been walking a few months).  The father, a dedicated sports fan, tells her “Do Touchdown!” and she squeals and throws her arms up in the air.  It’s very cute. This makes me think of high school and the two cultures that arose between the sports kids and the nerdy kids, I of course being one of the nerdy kids.  “It’s funny how different our kids will end up,” I said.  “Brendan, who’s on Daddy’s watch?” “Shakespeare,” my 2yr old son replies. I swear, I totally meant to demonstrate that the sports guys raised their kids with more of a sports mentality, while the nerdy kids raised their kids to be nerds.  It was harmless, but apparently not well thought out. “Are you calling my kid stupid?” asked the mother. “Ummm……” said I. “I think you are, I think you just called my kid stupid.” Awkward!  She was at least partially joking – it’s not like they stormed off or anything – but the conversation rapidly turned to other subjects.

http://blog.hollywoodtoysandcostumes.com/?p=193
It’s one thing to say “do a Shakespeare theme” for Halloween (for grownups), but if you think about it, it’s quite the commitment.  Most people can bust out some form of athlete / construction worker / medical personnel based entirely on stuff already in their closet or easily borrowed.  But try doing Beatrice and Benedick without having some friends who are either directly involved in the theatre (and hence may have some stuff), or else are crazy into the Renaissance Festival scene.  Either way you’re going to spend the night explaining to people who you are, anyway :).

UPDATED:  More Shakespeare Halloween Ideas!

http://www.byhell.com/homework-help/cite-three-allusions-to-greek-and-roman-mythology-used-in-act-1-of-romeo-and-juliet/ I don’t like doing people’s homework for them, mind you, but sometimes it’s fun to look at the questions. Cite three allusions to Greek and Roman mythology used in Act 1 of Romeo and Juliet   The “Phoebus’ lodging” one would be obvious, if not for the fact that it’s not in Act 1.  How many can you think of WITHOUT LOOKING AT THE SCRIPT?

http://celtx.com/ [Found via http://www.collegebound.net/blog/2008/10/16/do-you-have-the-write-stuff-for-college/]   Back in college I wrote some plays.  I remember what it was like to try and format a script.  I never learned the “official” template (much to the annoyance of my directors).  For those that take it seriously, however, there’s word processors dedicated to the task.  Celtx gets a link because the blogger who pointed it out not only speaks of it in Shakespearean terms (“Shakespeare says Celtx rocks”) but actually shows a picture of a dude dressed up like Shakespeare :).

http://manchesteruniversitypressblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/frankfurt-and-new-books.html I link to this one for the second book’s description: The traditional view of Shakespeare is that he was a man of the theatre who showed no interest in the printing of his plays, producing works that are only fully realised in performance. This view has recently been challenged by critics arguing that Shakespeare was a literary ‘poet-playwright’, concerned with his readers as well as his audiences. Hurray!  Finally a retort to all those “You do know the works are meant to be performed, not read” people!