Hail fellow, well met! Hie thee to www.talklikeshakespeare.com for a rollicking romp in celebration of the Bard's 445th birthday. Take the quiz of Shakespeare-coined words and phrases (I scored a dismal 29%, though would've done better if I'd gone with my gut) and watch a young, fresh-faced Fab Four run through a comedic poke at A Midsummer Night's Dream. I always crushed on the other three, especially George and Ringo, but watching this clip I'd have to agree: Paul really was the cute Beatle! Another gem on aforementioned site: the cast of Gilligan's Island doing Hamlet. Alas, poor Mary Ann! (You were expecting Yorick?) Ginger of course got to play the beauteous-but-soon-to-be-bedraggled Ophelia, whereas Mary Ann got stuck with a man-wig and had to play Hamlet's brother alongside the Skipper as Hamlet's father. (Me being a not-so-willowy but-at-least-I-was-brainy brunette, I always sympathized with/related to Mary Ann.) Gilligan as Hamlet was weirdly wonderful, of course.
And in other Bard News: I twittered about "Talk Like Shakespeare" day today, and collected a follower named "William Shakespeare, theBardofAvon." We'll see where that goes. Meanwhile, prompted by TLSD's Web site, I've been ruminating on my earliest "Shakespearience." How's this: My sibs and cousins had a neighborhood bicycle club when I was growing up in idyllic SW Portland in the 70s, called "The Boneshakers" after the big-wheeled bicycles of the 19th century (my sister Rose was studying them in school, at the time). Each of us had a club name that had to link to either "bone" or "shake." My name, of course, was "Shakespeare." And with that, adieu: I bid you good morrow..!
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