Saturday Shakespeare

Hence, broker-lacky! Ignomy and shame
Pursue thy life and live aye with thy name.

The Tragedy of Troilus and Cressida
5.10.34-35

This is the type of writer I am?

I stole this from Cindy and, appropriately, received the same score.

You Should Be A Poet

You craft words well, in creative and unexpected ways. And you have a great talent for evoking beautiful imagery... Or describing the most intense heartbreak ever. You're already naturally a poet, even if you've never written a poem.

What Type of Writer Should You Be?

However, I took out the picture of the young woman with the missing pants that was supposed to represent my secret self.

Ahem, yes well.

The mighty Bob

Saturday afternoon The Woman and I packed Chaos and Mayhem off to their aunt's house and hurried off to a nearby city to see Bob Dylan in concert.

Yes, Bob Dylan.

Yes, we do have cities out here.

Okay, we have one, and it's pretty small. But it did have Dylan on Saturday night, and that makes up for a lot.

The tickets were an early (as in months early) birthday gift from my brother and his girlfriend. They are the best people in my world right now.

The show was really good. The venue Dylan played in is pretty small (and air conditioning free), so even our balcony seats were quite close to the stage. No opening band played, but Dylan was on time. And he played for a solid two hours with practically no break.

Dylan stuck to keyboards and (some) harmonica, opening with "Things Have Changed" and tearing through new arrangements of every song older than those on Love and Theft. He seemed to be in a good mood for the show too, which (I hear) helps a lot with the performance, dancing around a bit while he played and teasing the crowd a bit about the band's steel guitar while he introduced the band. But that was near the end of the show.

The crowd was extremely well behaved as concerts in that hall go-- no police, only two ambulances-- and pretty diverse in ages and backgrounds considering that the area is almost exclusively white and conservative. Even the dancing was pretty sedate. For that matter, the drunks were merely drunkenly talkative and drunkenly friendly.

Now I get to spend another week yelling at desk monkeys. Things have changed indeed.

Saturday Shakespeare

"A plague on thee...."

The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
2.1.23

Join the resistance

Garret Keizer has an interesting idea to combat the practice of torture.














Join the resistance.

But this could be evil

"We have an alien-possessed mammoth on the loose, and if we don't stop it the government's going to kill all of us."

From
Summer Glau's new movie, "Mammoth"

Where's that prophet when we really need him?

The target of God's wrath

Apparently, the focus of evil in the world is the school where I teach, at least according to some anonymous local prophet.

As I was trudging into the building this morning, I noticed that someone had scrawled a message in chalk in front of the new gymnasium that the school district is building. The old one began to fall in one day in March of last year. The story is complicated, but we had to spend the end of the school year in local churches and the town community center. The community passed a bond, barely. The school tore down the gym. Now a new one is going up.

I would never have suspected that God hates our gym. Nonetheless, someone had written in front of the gym, "The shaky walls are going to fall. Eze. 10:1-5."

Take a moment to look that up. Ezekiel 10:1-5 is a description of angelic beings in the presence of God that Ezekiel saw in a vision by the river Chebar.

I'm not sure how that connects, but I am pretty sure that this deep thinker has a pretty poor ability in reading comprehension. I'm giving him an F-.

A bad sign

I was walking past the school kitchen this morning when I noticed that all of the cooks were gathered around one large pan. They were all staring into it and frowning.

No one went home sick, but....

Cookie cookie cookie cookie cookie

Stolen from Jennifer

You Are a Black and White Cookie

You're often conflicted in life, and you feel pulled in two opposite directions. When you're good, you're sweet as sugar. And when you're bad, you're wicked!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Face it

Stolen from Claire Elizabeth

What Your Face Says

At first glance, people see you as warm and well-balanced. Overall, your true self is reserved and logical. With friends, you seem dramatic, lively, and quick to react. In love, you seem like a huge flirt. In stressful situations, you seem selfish and moody.

What Do People Think Of Your Face?

Well okay.

Birthday fun

I saw Dawn's example of this (based on Jeremy's) and was charmed. What a fun idea. Just click here and type in your birthday (without the year).

June 17 is the 168th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (169th in leap years), with 197 days remaining.

• 1497 - Battle of Deptford Bridge - Forces under King Henry VII soundly defeat troops led by Michael An Gof.
• 1565 - Matsunaga Hisahide assassinates the 13th Ashikaga Shogun, Ashikaga Yoshiteru.
• 1579 - Sir Francis Drake claims a land he calls Nova Albion (modern California) for England.
• 1631 - Mumtaz Mahal died during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spent more than 20 years to build her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
• 1775 - American Revolutionary War: Battle of Bunker Hill - The battle actually takes place on Breed's hill by mistake. British forces take Breed's Hill outside of Boston.
• 1789 - In France, the Third Estate declares itself as a national assembly.
• 1839 - In the Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha III issues the Edict of Toleration which gives Roman Catholics the freedom to worship in the Hawaiian Islands. The Hawaii Catholic Church and the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace is later established as a result.
• 1863 - Battle of Aldie in the Gettysburg Campaign of the American Civil War
• 1876 - Indian Wars: Battle of the Rosebud - 1,500 Sioux and Cheyenne led by Crazy Horse beat back General George Crook forces at Rosebud Creek in Montana Territory.
• 1885 - The Statue of Liberty arrives in New York Harbor.
• 1898 - The US Navy Hospital Corps is established.
• 1930 - U.S. President Herbert Hoover signs the Smoot-Hawley Tariff into law.
• 1930 - Bonus Army: Around a thousand World War I veterans mass at the United States Capitol as the U.S. Senate considers a bill that would give them certain benefits.
• 1933 - Union Station Massacre: In Kansas City, Missouri, four FBI agents and captured fugitive Frank Nash were gunned down by gangsters attempting to free Nash.
• 1939 - Last public execution in France. Eugene Weidmann, a convicted murderer, is guillotined in Versailles outside the prison Saint-Pierre.
• 1940 - World War II: Operation Ariel begins - Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany's takeover of Paris and most of the nation.
• 1940 - World War II: Sinking of the RMS Lancastria by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
• 1940 - The three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fall under the occupation of the Soviet Union.
• 1944 - Iceland becomes independent from Denmark and forms a republic.
• 1953 - Workers Uprising: In East Germany, the Soviet Union orders a division of troops into East Berlin to quell a rebellion.
• 1960 - Ted Williams becomes the fourth member of the 500 home run club with a home run at Cleveland Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio.
• 1963 - The United States Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 in Abington School District v. Schempp against allowing the reciting of Bible verses and the Lord's Prayer in public schools.
• 1971 - Representatives of Japan and the United States sign the Okinawa Reversion Agreement, setting out a plan where the U.S. would return control of Okinawa.
• 1972 - Watergate scandal: Five White House operatives are arrested for burglarizing the offices of the Democratic National Committee, in an attempt by some members of the Republican party to illegally wiretap the opposition.
• 1987 - With the death of the last individual, the Dusky Seaside Sparrow becomes extinct.
• 1991 - Apartheid: The South African Parliament repeals the Population Registration Act, which had required all racial classification of all South Africans at birth.
• 1992 - A 'Joint Understanding' agreement on arms reduction is signed by U.S. President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin (this would be later codified in START II).
• 1994 - Following a televised highway chase and a failed attempt at suicide, O. J. Simpson is arrested for the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman.

Births

• 1239 - King Edward I of England (d. 1307)
• 1603 - Joseph of Cupertino, Italian saint (d. 1663)
• 1682 - King Charles XII of Sweden (d. 1718)
• 1691 - Giovanni Paolo Pannini, Italian painter and architect (d. 1765)
• 1693 - Johann Georg Walch, German theologian (d. 1775)
• 1703 - John Wesley, English founder of Methodism (d. 1791)
• 1704 - John Kay, English inventor (d. 1780)
• 1714 - Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten, German philosopher (d. 1762)
• 1714 - César-François Cassini de Thury, French astronomer (d. 1784)
• 1718 - George Howard, British field marshal (d. 1796)
• 1808 - Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian author (d. 1845)
• 1810 - Ferdinand Freiligrath, German writer (d. 1876)
• 1811 - Jón Sigurðsson, Icelandic independence fighter (d. 1879)
• 1818 - Charles Gounod, French composer (d. 1893)
• 1832 - Sir William Crookes, English physicist and chemist (d. 1919)
• 1881 - Tommy Burns, Canadian boxer (d. 1955)
• 1882 - Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer (d. 1971)
• 1888 - Heinz Guderian, German General (d. 1954)
• 1898 - M.C. Escher, Dutch artist (d. 1972)
• 1898 - Carl Hermann, German physicist (d. 1961)
• 1900 - Martin Bormann, Nazi official (d. 1945)
• 1904 - Ralph Bellamy, American actor (d. 1991)
• 1907 - Charles Eames, American designer and architect (d. 1978)
• 1909 - Elmer Lee Andersen, Governor of Minnesota (d. 2004)
• 1910 - Red Foley, American musician (d. 1968)
• 1914 - John Hersey, American author (d. 1993)
• 1915 - Karl Targownik, Hungarian psychiatrist (d. 1996)
• 1915 - David "Stringbean" Akeman, American banjo player and actor (d. 1973)
• 1917 - Atle Selberg, Norwegian mathematician
• 1920 - François Jacob, French biologist, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1923 - Elroy 'Crazylegs' Hirsch, American football player (d. 2004)
• 1927 - Martin Böttcher, German conductor
• 1929 - Tigran Petrosian, Georgian chess player (d. 1984)
• 1930 - Brian Statham, English cricketer (d. 2000)
• 1933 - Christian Ferras, French violinist (d. 1982)
• 1933 - Harry Browne, American free-market libertarian writer, politician, and investment analyst (d. 2006)
• 1940 - George Akerlof, American economist, Nobel Prize laureate
• 1942 - Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian International Atomic Energy Agency director, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize
• 1943 - Newt Gingrich, American politician
• 1943 - Barry Manilow, American musician
• 1945 - Tommy Franks, American General
• 1945 - Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
• 1945 - Eddy Merckx, Belgian cyclist
• 1945 - Anupam Kher, Indian actor
• 1945 - Frank Ashmore, American actor
• 1946 - Peter Rosei, Austrian writer
• 1957 - Jon Gries, American actor
• 1958 - Jello Biafra, American musician and activist
• 1960 - Michael Monroe, Finnish singer (Hanoi Rocks)
• 1963 - Greg Kinnear, American actor
• 1964 - Michael Gross, German swimmer
• 1965 - Dermontti Dawson, American NFL, center
• 1966 - Jason Patric, American actor
• 1969 - Paul Tergat, Kenyan athlete
• 1970 - Jason Hanson, American football player
• 1970 - Sasha Sokol, Mexican singer and actress
• 1971 - Bif Naked, Canadian punk rock musician
• 1971 - Paulina Rubio, Mexican Singer
• 1975 - Chloe Jones, American actor (d. 2005)
• 1977 - Branko Tomovic, Serbian actor
• 1978 - Kumiko Aso, Japanese actress
• 1979 - Nick Rimando, American soccer player
• 1980 - Venus Williams, American tennis player
• 1983 - Peter Bard, American drummer(Girth)
• 1983 - Lee Ryan, singer - formally of British boyband Blue
• 1985 - Marcos Baghdatis, Cypriot professional tennis player.
• 1987 - Nozomi Tsuji, Japanese singer (W (Double You), Morning Musume, and MiniMoni)

Deaths

• 1025 - Bolesław I the Brave, first king of Poland
• 1091 - Dirk V, Count of Holland (b. 1052)
• 1463 - Princess Catherine of Portugal, writer (b. 1436)
• 1565 - Ashikaga Yoshiteru, Japanese shogun (b. 1536)
• 1694 - Philip Cardinal Howard, English Catholic Cardinal (b. 1629)
• 1696 - John III Sobieski, King of Poland (b. 1629)
• 1719 - Joseph Addison, English politician and writer (b. 1672)
• 1734 - Claude-Louis-Hector de Villars, Marshal of France (b. 1653)
• 1740 - William Wyndham, English politician (b. 1687)
• 1762 - Prosper Jolyot de Crébillon, French writer (b. 1674)
• 1775 - Major John Pitcairn, British marine (killed in battle) (b. 1722)
• 1797 - Agha Muhammad Khan, Shah of Persia (b. 1742)
• 1813 - Charles Middleton, 1st Baron Barham, English sailor and politician (b. 1726)
• 1898 - Edward Burne-Jones, English artist (b. 1833)
• 1904 - Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov, Russian politician, Governor-General of Finland (assassinated) (b. 1839)
• 1940 - Arthur Harden, English chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1865)
• 1952 - Jack Parsons, American rocket-fuel pioneer and renegade occultist (b. 1914)
• 1956 - Paul Rostock, German doctor (b. 1892)
• 1957 - Dorothy Richardson, English writer (b. 1873)
• 1961 - Jeff Chandler, American actor (b. 1918)
• 1979 - Duffy Lewis, baseball player (b. 1888)
• 1981 - Richard O'Connor, British general (b. 1889)
• 1982 - Roberto Calvi, Italian banker (b. 1920)
• 1987 - Dick Howser, baseball player and manager (b. 1936)
• 1996 - Thomas Kuhn, American philosopher of science (b. 1922)
• 2001 - Donald J. Cram, American chemist, Nobel Prize laureate (b. 1919)
• 2002 - Willie Davenport, American athlete (b. 1943)
• 2002 - Fritz Walter, German footballer (b. 1920)
• 2004 - Gerry McNeil, Canadian hockey player (b. 1926)
• 2005 - Karl Mueller, American bassist (Soul Asylum) (b. 1962)

Just Read Again

From time to time I reread selections from my small collection of Endo in English. Alas that I cannot read him in Japanese. While he examines themes nearly identical to those McKillip examines in the Riddle Master trilogy, his unflinchingly existential approach makes for a much more difficult, but more compelling read. Each time that I read the book, I feel that I have read something completely different from the last reading. The differing reactions of the three priests to their circumstances, and the protagonist's explanation for his behavior, requires me to confront my own ideas of goodness and faithfulness.

The priest raises his foot. In it he feels a dull, heavy pain. This is no mere formality. He will now trample on what he has considered the most beautiful thing in his life, on what he has believed most pure, on what is filled with the ideals and the dreams of man. How his foot aches! And then the Christ in bronze speaks to the priest: 'Trample! Trample! I more than anyone know of the pain in your foot. Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I was born into this world. It was to share men's pain that I carried my cross.'

The priest placed his foot on the fumie. Dawn broke. And far in the distance the cock crew.

Luke Reinsma, professor of English at Seattle Pacific University, has written an excellent review. Now go buy the book.

Just Read

Patricia McKillip's Riddle Master trilogy.

I picked it up because I was looking for something light and escapist. I didn't find it here. Although the characters' development definitely places the book in the young adult fantasy category, McKillip's themes are as difficult as any in literature. Does God exist, and what does God's silence mean? What do the answers to those questions mean to individuals?

If you haven't read these books, go get them.

Happy Easter

John Chrysostom, bishop of Constantinople; sermon, ca. 400

Let no one grieve at his poverty,
for the universal kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again;
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.
Let no one fear death, for the Death of our Savior has set us free.
He has destroyed it by enduring it.

Easter walk

I took a walk yesterday morning, thinking about lesson plans and Easter plans. I took some pictures too. The Ozarks are always beautiful, but spring, in particular, is a lovely time of year.



First, I saw a tiny frog. It was hiding in the shallows of the cattle ford north of the house.

I also found some May Apples.



They weren't far from the neighbor's barn.


The Dogwood and Redbud were blooming in the woods.


Dogwood, of course, is traditionally associated with Easter because of its cruciform blossoms.



The Redbud, though, were awfully pretty too.



I startled two ducks that were paddling around in this creek.



On the way back home, I found a really big bullfrog.


I suddenly had an urge to find out when frog season opens.

Saturday Shakespeare

Scorn and defiance, slight regard, contempt,
And anything that may not misbecome
the mighty sender, doth he prize you at.

The Life of Henry the Fifth
2.4.123-125

More politics

I was a little surprised yesterday to learn that a nearby community college censored its student newspaper over interview questions e-mailed to several people interviewing for the position of president at the school. Even more surprising was the apparent belief of the board president that she could get away with such high handed behavior toward college level journalism students and not have the act exposed for what it was in the local newspaper. The city newspaper's offices are less than ten minutes from the school's campus by car. Did she think that she could intimidate these young adults and their instructor into keeping quiet? If she did, she was seriously mistaken. Instead, she has profoundly embarrassed herself in the area's educational and journalistic communities.

Ironically, as a high school journalism teacher, I sometimes have to kill stories from my own students. Usually they are libelous and/or obscene. Frankly, I wish I had more students who could think of the serious and professional questions that the staff of The Eagle posed. But, The Eagle's staff is considerably older than mine. I would have thought that their professionalism would have been encouraged by the school's administration.

Politics

I stole this from ETC, shamelessly I might add. It's no surprise to me, but having proof is nice.

CENTRIST

The RED DOT on the Chart shows where you fit on the political map.

CENTRISTS espouse a "middle ground" regarding government

control of the economy and personal behavior. Depending on

the issue, they sometimes favor government intervention

and sometimes support individual freedom of choice.

Centrists pride themselves on keeping an open mind,

tend to oppose "political extremes," and emphasize what

they describe as "practical" solutions to problems.

So what are you?

Argh

Briefly I drag myself free from the clutches of the Missouri Assessment Program. Yes, yearly standardized tests are under way. So are last minute yearbook sales, ad sales, requisitions, grades, ball games, and so on.

I'm missing church tonight, and I haven't spent real time with my kids since, um, Sunday (?).

By the way, happy Holy Week.

A bolt from the blue

Seriously.

You could have knocked me over with a feather.

This afternoon I opened my pathetic little e-mail inbox like I do every afternoon, wondering what extra burdens have been thrown on my quivering shoulders. Little did I expect this:



Yes, it's a movie poster.

It was sent to me by the star's sister, with whom I graduated from high school. I don't think I've seen Brian, who is a few years younger than me, in 20 years. I haven't seen his sister in 15, although we occasionally e-mail. Of course I was thrilled to learn that Brian (who formerly portrayed John Lennon) would be on TV playing Jesus on Good Friday.

How cool is that?!

The movie airs on TBN (channel 40), at 1 a.m. on April 14. Sadly for me, I don't have cable. Alas and alack.

Sunday Bible Meme

David tagged me, on the first of this month, with a Bible meme. I am only now getting round to responding.

This must be the world's slowest game of tag.

1. How many Bibles are in your home?
I can actually find seventeen. We probably have twenty; the girls have three (they think) that they cannot locate. Philistines.

2. What rooms are they in?
They all tend to migrate. As of this moment, two are on The Woman's desk in the dining room, and two are in the bookcase in the dining room. One is in the living room (on the hope chest). Two are in the master bedroom, and the rest are in what we optimistically call the study. Well, it's where my desk is.

3. What translations do you have?
We have, mostly, the New International Version, New American Standard, and the Authorized Version. We also have one in Greek (NT only), one in French, and bits of the Latin from a reproduction of parts of The Book of Kells. I don't read those much.

4. Do you have a preference?
I prefer to read the Revised Standard Version, but I gave away my copies of that. I usually read from the NASB because that is the translation in my Hebrew-Greek study Bible. I like it pretty well, but the poetry seems to suffer compared to some other translations.

5. Nominate an interesting verse.
"Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather." (Matthew 24:28)
That one brings me to a mental halt every time I read it.

I'll tag The Woman, Randy, Jennifer, Claire Elizabeth, and Dawn

Saturday Shakespeare

"...And, lozel, thou art worthy to be hang'd...."
The Winter's Tale
2.3.132

Musical Adrenaline rushes

A few days ago, David tagged me for a meme about songs. Specifically, this is a list of "top ten musical adrenaline rushes. They may or may not be exactly co-extensive with your top ten musical pieces, period. They are the ones that give you the biggest sensation of giddiness & make you feel like turning the car stereo all the way up if they should happen to come on. Genre mixing is encouraged. " I've been thinking hard about them, perhaps too hard, but narrowing the list to ten songs is tough. In no particular order, they are:

1. Bob Dylan's "Change My Way of Thinking"
2. Kodo's "Strobe's Nanafushi"
3. Kodo's "Niji No Nagori"
4. Adam Ant's "Goody Two Shoes"
5. Jr. Brown's "My Wife Thinks You're Dead"
6. Kathleen Edwards's "Back to Me"
7. Laura Veirs's "Galaxies"
8. U2's "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
9. They Might Be Giantss's "Lucky Ball and Chain"
10. U2's "Bullet the Blue Sky"
    

Once in a lifetime

Tempting though it is, I probably won't be up tonight for this event.

Storm's over

The storm has passed. We did have some hail here at the school, but it didn't damage my car. I called The Woman, and she said her car was undamaged too.

Whew.

Spring weather

Spring has arrived in the Ozarks with a vengeance. We are under a severe thunderstorm warning, even as I type. This machine should not be plugged in. Hail, according to CNN, is on the way. I really hope they are wrong. I'm at school, getting ready for a week of ACT prep sessions after school this week, with no place to shelter my poor car. The Woman is in town doing some data entry work. She has no place to hide her car either.

This is one more reason why we don't buy new cars.

Saturday Shakespeare

"...that
swollen parcel of dropsies, that huge bombard of sack, that
stuffed cloak-bag of guts, that roasted Manningtree ox with the
pudding in his belly, that reverend vice, that grey iniquity, that
father ruffian, that vanity in years? Wherein is he good, but to
taste sack and drink it? wherein cunning, but in craft?
wherein crafty, but in villainy? wherein villainous, but in all
things? wherein worthy, but in nothing?"

The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
2.4.406-413