I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I notice something different every time I flip through one of the plays.  This time it is Midsummer, right at the beginning.  I know that Lysander is pleading his case for Hermia, and argues that Demetrius could have Helena instead.  What I don’t think I ever noticed, though, is what he says:

LYSANDER
Demetrius, I’ll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar’s daughter, Helena,
And won her soul;

Maybe I’m not fully up on my terminology, but are we supposed to believe that Demetrius actually slept with Helena, and now has completely lost interest in her? We’re not talking about modern times where a girl will go on a daytime talk show with 15 guys who might be the baby daddy.  You’d think that one guy just blurting out “Yeah, he slept with her and they’re not married” would be a big deal, wouldn’t it?  On top of that, Theseus basically says, “Yeah, I’d heard that too.”  How does Helena not come off looking like a big slut? But maybe I’m overinterpreting, and maybe “made love” really is supposed to mean something more along the lines of “showered with attention and gifts and tokens of affection, and generally made her believe that he loved her.”  That’s always how I’d interpreted it, without close scrutiny of the exact words.  That seems a bit more forgivable. So which is it?  Is Demetrius just a typical young man who only wants what he can’t have?  Or is he a scoundrel who takes advantage of women and casts them aside? [I suppose there is also the third option that he’s talking about a different Helena here – let some random girl we don’t get to meet play the role of town slut – but that would be strangely and unnecessarily confusing.]

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 :).