The Complete Deaths: all of the Bard’s 74 scripted deaths in one new play.

Over the past four centuries, the brutality of Shakespeare’s plays has become the subject of endless academic study, but his contemporary critics didn’t approve of the on-stage gore. Michael Dobson,  director of the Shakespeare Institute, said that Elizabethan drama was known for being gruesome: “The English drama was notorious for on-stage deaths; they were thought crass.…

Recording Christmas Stories for WAOB Audio Theatre

For WAOB Audio Theater, my family spent an afternoon recording “The Little Match Girl,” “Papa Panov’s Special Day,” and a new story, “The Executioner.”  Already online — Ozma and the Little Wizard, and The Monkey’s Paw. Similar:Epic Game of Thrones pun battle. Carolyn Jerz Vs. Greg KerestanHere is the transcript the girl provided…AmusingChecking out of…

CNN Holds Morning Meeting To Decide What Viewers Should Panic About For Rest Of Day

Kicking around ideas ranging from an uptick in child kidnappings to a new link between laptops and cancer, senior CNN staffers held their regular daily meeting this morning to decide which topic viewers should panic about for the rest of the day.  —The Onion Similar:You’re Just Gonna Be Nice by A. LangeIn a study, over…

The Post drops the ‘mike’ — and the hyphen in ‘e-mail’

When I announced these style changes, another Twitter user wrote, “wait, it’s 2015 and there are still people who write e-mail?” Not everyone is on Twitter, of course. For every online Post reader snickering at mike, there might be a longtime print subscriber baffled by mic. Because it would be impractical to edit each article separately…

Shakespeare’s Choose-Your-Own Adventure

If meeting three strange ladies in the swamp Seems ample cause for murthering the king To take his crown, turn to page 86. If this seems kind of sketchy, turn to 12. Shakespeare’s Choose-Your-Own Adventure. Similar:Hanging with the rude mechanicals @setonhilluniversityA Midsummer Night’s Dream.CultureWhy ‘Cats’ the Movie Fails So FlamboyantlyI can’t seem to get into…

“This paper is going to read like smooth jazz.”

  Similar:Amusing Ourselves to Depth: Is The Onion our most intelligent newspaper?Greg Beato, from Reason Magazine Online…BusinessMary Rodgers, Composer of Once Upon a Mattress and Daughter of Broadway Royalty, Dies at 8…Mary Rodgers, composer of Once Upon a Ma…CultureHas life in the age of casual magic made moviegoers numb to the amazing?This is one of…

After lights out, the girl is knitting.

Similar:The Forsaken (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 17) Lwaxana Troi and the station c…Rewatching ST:DS9 Bashir is hosting t…CultureNature walks 2012 and 2018.AestheticsIn July 1999, I was blogging about Dante's ashes, Apollo 11, gender-neutral language, and …In July, 1999, I was blogging about: …CultureThis is Ralph. Ralph is a concept, created by you while…

Irrational Geographic : snopes.com

Boosting the signal. This is a real National Geographic cover, but this issue was likely planned and implemented months before Murdoch purchased the franchise. No, National Geographic hasn’t begun covering nonsense since their merger with Fox. Source: Irrational Geographic : snopes.com Similar:Blaze of Glory #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 23) Sisko needs imprisoned traito…Rewatching…

Smith College Protesters Bar Journalists From Covering Sit-In Unless They Support the Cause

Reporters planning to cover the sit-in arrived at the Massachusetts college’s student center on Wednesday only to find that the protesters intended to keep them out. Alyssa Mata-Flores, a Smith senior and a sit-in organizer, elaborated on the decision to The Republican: “We are asking that any journalists or press that cover our story participate and articulate…

Why Is Othello Black?

To us today, the word “black” carries with it a specific cluster of associations informed by history, culture, stereotypes, and literature. Othello may have started in conversation with Shakespeare’s definition of blackness, but today, he speaks with ours. A much more interesting question, really, is: Why is Othello black? Why did Shakespeare write a domestic…