Better late than never

This blog has been up and running for nearly four years (come March). In all that time, I've gone off on various jags about Dante, Homer, mythology, philosophy, etc., aside from all the links and comments about current events.

But, while Shakespeare has shown up here quite a few times, he hasn't gotten any extended attention. I'm not sure how that happened given my love for the Bard and his sheer greatness, but I intend to remedy it right away.

For the next stretch, I intend to give him a bit of his due, with a special focus on Hamlet, my personal favorite and a character Harold Bloom referred to as "the intellectual's Christ." I don't know about that and I'm no literary critic, thank the gods, but like the guy said I know what I like.

For starters, I like the tragedies better than the comedies (the way to tell them apart, by the way, is whether there is a wedding or a bunch of dead bodies at the end). I'm not sure why this is, but I even find the funny parts of them to be more amusing than those of the comedies. I think one reason Hamlet works for me is its dark humor.

More on that to come.

SPEAKING OF WHICH, a screenwriter is attempting to combine Shakespeare's Two Gentlemen of Verona with The Big Lebowski. This could be a sign of the apocalypse. But...I'm calmer than you are.

EUROPE, the new USSR according to conservative fantasies, isn't exactly an economic backwater.

RECESSION PROOF? One business that seems to be doing OK in hard times is dog walking, according to this NPR story. It occurs to me that if I paid someone to do it, I'd be contributing to GDP.

ANOTHER SIGN OF THE TIMES from the same source: in the wake of the recession, the number of unclaimed bodies has increased because survivors can't pay for funeral expenses.

GOING TO SEA. Early humans may have done it way sooner than previously thought.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Hanging day

John Brown keeps showing up on this blog from time to time, but today he's here for a reason. This date marks the 150th anniversary of his execution in Charles Town, back when it was still part of Virginia.

Brown was a real Captain Ahab whose white whale was slavery. His monomania, to use a favorite 19th century term for an abnormal fixity of purpose, matched that of Melville's character. And unlike the captain of the Pequod whose quarry escaped, Brown was ultimately if posthumously successful.

As he was leaving the jail for his execution, he handed this message on a to an attendant:

I John Brown am now quite certain that the crimes of this guilty, land: will never be purged away; but with Blood. I had as I now think: vainly flattered myself that without very much bloodshed; it might be done.

It is also said that as he sat on what would be his coffin on the wagon ride to the gallows he looked around at the scenery, saying "This is a beautiful country. I never had the pleasure of seeing it before."

NOT GOOD. This item from The New England Journal of Medicine looks at the consequences of failure to pass health care reform.

CHAMBER OF WHATEVER. WVU-Tech professor and Gazette columnist John David takes the WV Chamber of Commerce to task for urging senators to hold health care legislation hostage over coal mining regulation.

GETTING WARMER. This Reuters article looks at WV's role in making or breaking climate change legislation in the US Senate.

LONELINESS CAN BE BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH and it might be contagious.

HOW'S YOUR INNER CHIMP? Bill Moyers talks with primate researcher Jane Goodall here.

OLD EUROPE. Here's a look at a lost civilization that thrived in the Balkans around 5,000 years ago.

ACTION ITEM. If you are in the Charleston area Thursday and want to publicly oppose military escalation in Afghanistan, WV Patriots for Peace is sponsoring a vigil from 5:15pm - 6:15pm at Brawley Walkway (across from Chili's on Court St).

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED