http://www.yoofspeak.net/ Ok, ouch.  WTF?  Somebody want to translate?

Earlier today I got to use the word “pandering” in IM conversation, just hoping that I’d get to point out that the word comes from Pandarus, a Shakespearean character. Alas, no such luck. However, not 5 minutes ago I heard a hallway conversation from two cubes over on the derivation of the character “Lothario.”    Before the inevitable “I wonder if it’s a Shakespeare thing. Hey Duane?” came lofting my way I’d already googled enough to answer, “Nope, not Shakespeare, he’s apparently from a 1703 play by Nicholas Rowe called The Fair Penitent.”  I like anticipating when I’m needed. 🙂 Although interesting, the Wikipedia is unclear on whether Rowe’s character is in fact the origin.  There’s a reference to a Lothario in Don Quixote, which was 100 years previous.    So perhaps Cervantes is the originator of the name?  In that case Shakespeare could also have known of the character.  Maybe he shows up in Cardenio!

So, Megan Fox is the sexiest woman in the world, according to FHM magazine.  It also happens that she has a King Lear tattoo, which I’ve pointed out in the past.  You know what that means, right?  Traffic spike for Shakespeare Geek! 🙂  I’m getting a heck of a lot more traffic from people googling “Megan Fox tattoos” then I ever got from Folger, I’ll tell ya that. Other than that, it’s a slow day. 🙂

http://www.tvsquad.com/2008/03/27/abc-orders-two-more-pilots/ I’m surprised I missed references to “The Prince Of Motor City” the first time around.  This potential new ABC drama claims to have “Shakespearean themes.”  The obvious guess (as the above post points out) is a battle over who takes charge of the family business when the dad dies, the son is not quite ready, and the evil uncle swoops in and takes control. Could be good, I suppose, if they actually went for it and did a planned 2-season run or something, complete with accidental murder of the uncle’s advisor, eventually insanity and suicide of the girlfriend, and so on, culminating in the big death scene at the end of the series.

http://akfarrar.vox.com/library/post/shakespeares-oldest.html Our very own Alan K Farrar (how many blogs do you *have*, Alan???) reciting Shakespeare’s sonnet 145, labelled as his “oldest piece of writing, written when he was around 18 to his wife, Ann Hathaway.” I’m curious – do we know that to be fact (or at least, strongly evidenced theory)?  This is the “I hate from hate away she threw” sonnet, which is typically considered a direct reference to his wife (“hate away” -> “Hathaway”).  But I’m not sure where the logic comes from that it is the first?  I realize that they were not published or numbered in chronological order, so the 145 doesn’t bother me so much.  I’ll call it the first if somebody explains to me why it is, and not just because it doesn’t fit the same iambic pentameter structure of all the others and thus must have been an early effort.  That logic could just as well demonstrate that Shakespeare didn’t write that one at all.