GET LAMP Sonnet Review

A skillful exercise, this sonnet blog. Such parser game nostalgia warms my heart. You might be int’rested in Graham Nelson’s Command-line Shakespeare remix, The Tempest. Similar:Slashes in Legal WritingI’m not a student.  I found your we…BusinessFirst Day in the Theatre for Twelfth Night (May 3-12) Daughter: (is sad her “first day in …CultureCitizen Journalist Thrown…

[Harvard] English Dept. Approves Overhaul of Undergraduate Requirements

Harvard redesigns its English major, removing required entry-level surveys and sophomore seminars. In their place, courses in the four new categories–“Arrivals,” “Poets,” “Diffusions,” and “Shakespeares”–would interweave literary history with textual analysis. At a gathering for prospective concentrators on Tuesday, English professor Stephen J. Greenblatt said that these courses will most likely be small seminars. […]…

Hugh Laurie and Rowan Atkinson: Shakespeare’s Editor

A short comedy sketch that emphasizes the importance of finding the right editor.   Similar:It's such a privilege to introduce these young people to Shakespeare's body of work.After starting my 200-level “Shakespeare…AcademiaWriting Effective E-MailTop 10 Tips:  Write a meaningful subject…BusinessCopspeak, "the past exonerative" tense, and punching NazisIn the Constitution, any suspect is inno…CultureCNN Holds Morning…

Shakespare and Star Trek

With all the gratuitous use of Shakespeare language and imagery in the series (including its four spin-offs, a successful franchise of feature films and a short-lived animated series), is there an underlying reason to the use of the Bard’s works? Does the combination of classic literature and pop-culture sci-fi result in something greater than the…

Shakespeare hates your emo poems

—Shakespeare hates your emo poems (Threadless) Interesting cultural phenomenon… sell a T-shirt, then create a website that lets customers upload photos of themselves wearing the T-shirt. The result turns the rebellious and snarky T-shirt designs into the uniforms of conformist consumer zombies. Similar:Ironic QuotesAmusingVulcan mind-melds from Star Trek: The Original Series, in the order that I…

A Dish Best Served Cold

“It’s almost always the first play I teach,” she said. “I do that because very often students have only encountered Shakespeare in high school and have a misunderstanding of him as safe, moral, and dull. This one really dislodges the idea that Shakespeare is full of eternal moral truths. It takes place in a different…

An Estimate of the Number of Shakespeare's Atoms

About one in seven of the Shakespearean atoms in your body originated from his excrement. —An Estimate of the Number of Shakespeare’s Atoms (Jupiter Scientific) Deep thought of the day. Similar:Fast-paced, articulate cast shines in Viking-themed OthelloI saw my first Food for Groundlings show…CultureMom’s Fears About Daughter Leaving For College Channeled Into Fight About Storage BinsImpatiently…

'The Little Book of Plagiarism' by Richard A. Posner: Theft or imitation? A respected judge considers the possibilities.

“The Little Book of Plagiarism” is inspired by several recent literary scandals, starting with the Kaavya Viswanathan affair. At 17, Viswanathan was paid a $500,000 advance for a deal that included a “chick-lit novel,” but when that novel was published, attentive readers noticed that she had copied at least 13 passages from a novel by…

Fooled by Cybermum!

I can never resist a challenge and this one, posed by a mischievous friend, was a humdinger: could I befriend one of my own children on one of those ‘social networking’ websites for teenagers without being caught out? Could I make a convincing youngster and engage my son in online conversations? While it was an…

Goodbye, Mr. Keating

So, why do you want to study literature, knowing what you now know?” I wondered if studying a century of cynicism had altered their motives in the slightest. They were all considering graduate school, but their answers had little to do with what I knew they would need to write in their application essays. Sitting…

Flesh and Blood

Meaning Usually refers to one’s family. Sometimes used (as in Shakespeare’s original) to denote all living creatures. Origin From Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Clown: I have been, madam, a wicked creature, as you and all flesh and blood are; and, indeed, I do marry that I may repent. —Flesh and Blood (The Prhase Finder) Er, no, that’s not…

Hamlet Finger Puppets

These fabulous finger puppets are the perfect medium for children of all ages to relive the story of the “melacholy Dane.” Includes Hamlet, Ophelia, Gertrude, and Claudius. —Hamlet Finger Puppets (Shakespeare’s Den) OPHELIA You are as good as a chorus, my lord. HAMLET I could interpret between you and your love, if I could see the…