It’s always fun to look at the search logs.  Since I’ve been tracking it, here are the most popular queries that will land you on ShakespeareGeek: 1)  Romeo’s last words  – Somebody explained this one to me. It’s a popular crossword puzzle clue.  The answer is “I die.” 2) Elizabethan recipes – I’ve never understood the popularity of this one.  I think it’s because I’m one of the few links for it in Google, so there’s little competition.  My stats also show that nobody really goes on to buy anything from the shop mentioned in that post, so maybe it’s just a curiosity?  Who knows. 3) Megan Fox tattoo – It makes me happy that a very hot girl has a tattoo that happens to be a quote from King Lear. 4) How old is Romeo – I’m glad we had a pretty in depth discussion on this one, because it’s one of those indirect questions where you’ve always assumed you had the right answer (Juliet is 13, therefore Romeo must be 13, right?) until you give it some thought and say “You know, it never actually says he’s 13…” 5) Simpsons Hamlet – Who is typing this, ya think?  Simpsons fans who recognize their Shakespeare, or Shakespeare fans who watch The Simpsons?   I’m also intriged by #6, which is in fact “Shakespeare geek“.  Not sure if that was the sort of thing people type anyway, or if they are actually looking for little old me, but I’m happy to see so many links pop up :).

http://www.fray.com/geek/ Quarterly magazine Fray is doing their next issue on “geeks” and looking for contributions.  What’s a geek? We are everywhere:  superfans, wonks, philes, heads, enthusiasts of the sublimely obscue.  We are the people who care too much about something others do not really understand.  We make the world go ’round.  If you’ve ever been into something so much your friends wondered about your sanity, you’re a geek, too. Needless to say I already signed up, proudly declaring myself a Shakespeare geek.  Who’s with me?

http://www.newkerala.com/one.php?action=fullnews&id=39584 There’s not much by way of actual information in this article, which refers to a new book called Shakespeare in Venice that suggests he may have indeed gone there himself.   But, still, it’s always an interesting idea.  If they had any proof it would certainly throw a monkeywrench into some of the authorship debate, wouldn’t it?

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,23438755-5001028,00.html Two libraries in Britain and the US plan to reproduce online all 75 editions of William Shakespeare’s plays printed in the quarto format before the year 1641. This is one of those projects that makes me wish I was a grad student someplace, just spending all day combing through every last page looking at the handwritten notes in the margins.  It’s not just that they’re scanning the quartos – the British Library did that with theirs back in 2004 – it’s that each quarto is different, and they are scanning them all. It’s funny that the article says Shakespeare wrote “at least 37 plays.”  I thought the generally held number now was 38 – or aren’t they counting Two Noble Kinsmen, you think?

A little while back I posted a reference to my day job, stating that I was looking to talk to high school students and teachers about a few things related to college admissions.  Since the first response I got was a little strong, I wanted to explain a little bit. My first respondent said, basically, “If you expect me to advertise for you or you’re going to stick my name on a bunch of mailing lists, I’ll be pissed.”  I assume, then, that there are people out there who think exactly that and choose not to respond.  So let me answer that, assuming you trust me.  I’m not going to do that.  That’s not the purpose.  In my day job I write software for a web company that does stuff related to college admissions.  I happen to like being good at my job and producing a good product.  So, independent of everybody else in my company, sales team included, I’m doing my own independent research.  As the developer of the product, I want to talk to potential users of the product.  In my own way, not in a marketing focus group way.  I’m not sending sales people your way (unless you decide you want me to).  I’m just trying learn what my audience wants so I can deliver it. If that sounds cool, feel free to contact me.  More details in the original post, linked above.  Sorry for interrupting the flow of Shakespeare again, but I have to pay the bills somehow.