In tribute to Stan Lee I was really hoping the word Excelsior appeared somewhere in Shakespeare’s work, but I could not find it.

However, about a month ago I did ask which Shakespeare stories would have made good superhero stories, and got many responses.  So I thought I’d gather them all together in one place, so that it will come back up as a “Best Of” over the years and we can appreciate the man all over again.

Link to the original tweet.

Hamlet is mentioned twice, as the “brooding” “superhero of doubt”.

Troilus and Cressida is also mentioned twice since most of the characters are mythical heroes in the first place.

Coriolanus is mentioned three times, but since I said it the first time maybe I skewed the results.  “He’s Captain America for Rome.”

Surprisingly (to me), Titus Andronicus showed up three times as well, for being a “hyper-violent edgy 80s comic gorefest.”

Alongside Coriolanus in the “Wait, I didn’t read that one in high school!” category, Cymbeline and Pericles also received a vote 😉 Pericles actually got two.

In total twelve different plays were suggested, which goes to show that the potential for a superhero story is all in the mind of the reader.   Imagination is everything.

If anybody needs me I’ll be waiting patiently for the next Avengers movie, hoping for a Stan Lee cameo, so I can cheer my head off. Excelsior!

This month’s posts are sponsored by No Shave November. To help raise cancer prevention awareness, and some money along the way, all proceeds from this month’s advertising, merchandise and book sales are being donated.  If you’d like to support the site by supporting the cause, please consider visiting my personal fundraising page linked above, where you can make a direct donation.

I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, one of my favorite things in life is when people come up to me and want to talk about Shakespeare. Especially those people who I don’t normally get to speak with, because makes for an extra bond with someone I would not otherwise have had.

But I don’t know everything, and I hope I don’t give the impression that I pretend to.  So very often what will happen is somebody will want to talk about something that I have no idea about, either because I’ve just never thought of it, or maybe because I haven’t even read the play they’re referencing.

You ever find yourself in that situation?  What do you do?

Personally I welcome it.  I’ll say without hesitation, “You know, honestly? I don’t know. I’m not familiar enough with that play. But it’s an excellent question, and now I want to find out the answer.”  And typically I’ll turn to you good folks and ask for you to education me, so that if the question ever comes up again, I’ll have thoughts on the subject.  A reason for me to learn more about my favorite subject?  Yes please! It’s one of the reasons I’m reminded that I really do love this stuff and I’m not kidding myself. Nobody makes me do that. I do that because I want to do that.

How about you? I figured out a long time ago that many of the people that read my site are much smarter than I am, and usually have the answers to my questions. How often do you run into the situation where somebody asks you a question about Shakespeare where you’ve got nothing?  Do you hem and haw and hedge and try to fill in the blank?  Or do you just come right out and say, “I have no idea”?

Assuming that this does happen sometimes (i.e. that you don’t know everything), do you care to fill in those gaps in your knowledge?  Or do you just walk away from the encounter without really giving it much thought?

This month’s posts are sponsored by No Shave November. To help raise cancer awareness, and some money along the way, all proceeds from this month’s advertising, merchandise and book sales are being donated.  If you’d like to support the site by supporting the cause, please consider visiting my personal fundraising page linked above, where you can make a direct donation.

In past years I’ve half participated in the charity drive known as No Shave November, mostly as a joke excuse to stop shaving for a month. But as I’ve gotten older I came to realize two things:

1. I have an audience here.  And not a small one.
2. It’s not like cancer is “other people’s problem.”

This past year alone several close members of my family, both male and female, were diagnosed with cancers of different sorts, requiring removal of things, radiation treatment, and chemotherapy. None of those things is a joke.

So this year let’s see if we can’t put some money where my big mouth is. Many of the posts I make this month are going to be “beard” themed.  I will, from time to time, post progress pictures. All the posts I make this month are going to contain links to the fundraising page I’ve set up over on the No Shave November site.

If you want to click on it and donate some money directly, great.  Much appreciated.

I’ll also be donating all of my profits this month, whether from Google Ads, t-shirts and other merchandise, or book sales.

Ok, that’s about all I’ve got to say about that. If you’ve ever wanted to help support in some way, here’s a new chance.

Donate to Shakespeare Geek’s No Shave November Fundraising Page by Clicking Here!

Thanks in advance!

The funniest thing happens to all my keyboards. Check it out.

This is on a relatively new MacBook. If you can’t see it, my A S and E keys are basically wearing off.  Just those.  Here’s the weird thing, though:

That’s two different keyboards!  Same problem.  Not so much the E on that one, but it’s clear on the S and starting on the A.  I’ve had it happen on about 4 different computers, if you can imagine.  And it’s not purely a MacBook problem, as it’s happening on my USB keyboard as well (I don’t have a picture of that one). I actually even had one keyboard replaced because of it.

Now, you might say “Those are the most common letters in the English language, it makes sense.”  But there’s two reasons why that’s not the problem.

First, the most common letters in English are, depending on where you look, E A T or E A R.  S is much farther down the list.

Second, if this was indeed the problem, then wouldn’t all people experience the same problem?  I’ve yet to see another case of it. In fact everybody that sees my keyboard says, “I’ve never seen that before.”

Here’s my theory.  What word do I type more often (much, much more often) than the average person?  You got it.  And hey, check this out:

S h A k E S p E A r E

All those letters appear two or more times in my favorite word. Coincidence? I think not! I am literally writing about Shakespeare so much that I am wearing out keyboards.