lucius septimius 12/31/2021 5:24:35 AM

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Occasional Reader 12/31/2021 6:08:12 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 1:

Oh, stop rubbing it in….

But seriously, glad to see you were getting a nice break.

Meanwhile, it is gray and rainy here in DC. Not too cold, however.

Occasional Reader 12/31/2021 6:11:56 AM

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And to state the obvious: if you had told me on New Year’s Eve last year that on New Year’s Eve THIS year we would still be saying “gosh, I sure hope in the new year we can put this whole coronavirus thing behind us, I would not have been happy.

On the bright side, at least the democratic party poll numbers are crashing like mad.

On the even brighter side, Little OR continues to be a loving, healthy, brilliant, happy little boy.

Occasional Reader 12/31/2021 6:44:03 AM

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This was published over seven years ago, but I found this review of “Hamlet“ very interesting:

https://www.city-journal.org/html/inexhaustible-hamlet-13676.html

buzzsawmonkey 12/31/2021 7:09:02 AM

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buzzsawmonkey 12/31/2021 7:26:25 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 4:

Very interesting indeed---but Dalrymple is wrong about Hamlet and Ophelia.  It is quite clear from the text that Hamlet has raped---or at least had sex with---Ophelia, that Hamlet has subequently spurned her, and that she goes mad and kills herself because she is pregnant with his child.  It is clear in the language that both Hamlet and Ophelia use, and clear also because in Shakespeare the only people who tell the truth are comic menials and the insane.  Indeed, the reason that they are considered insane is that they tell the truth, which the other characters invariably refuse to believe.

Kosh's Shadow 12/31/2021 7:49:01 AM

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The COVID booster hit me for a while. Not as bad as the 2nd shot did (I could still function) but I was still tired and sore.

Kosh's Shadow 12/31/2021 7:55:00 AM

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BTW, there was an article on Fox about how "Let's Go Brandon" stores are expanding - in Massachusetts.

"A customer came into one of our locations [Tuesday] and bought a Let’s Go Brandon sticker and went out to his car and stuck it over his Biden sticker," Lambert said. "And that was it, he was just like, ‘I’m done with this guy.’"

"People have buyer’s remorse," he added. "Business is very, very good right now."

Occasional Reader 12/31/2021 8:10:10 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 6:

I had forgotten about that theory. Some elaboration on it here:

http://www.craftyscreenwriting.com/ophelia.html

Occasional Reader 12/31/2021 8:17:57 AM

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Reply to Kosh's Shadow in 7:

if I have a superpower, apparently it is resistance to side effects of Covid shots. So far all I’ve had from any of the three was a moderately sore arm for about a day.

buzzsawmonkey 12/31/2021 8:39:23 AM

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Reply to Occasional Reader in 9:

A fairly-good summary---I particularly applaud the author for catching the reference to rue---but it leaves out a great deal:

a) Ophelia tells Polonius she has been sexually assaulted by Hamlet: "Oh, my lord, I am so affrighted!" and then she tells of him coming into her room with his stockings undone, etc.  By speaking of Hamlet as if he'd lost his mind, she can mention their dalliance (and her pregnancy) without seeming to be at fault.

b) Polonius asks Hamlet, "Do you know me?" and Hamlet replies, "Excellent well; you are a fishmonger."  "Fishmonger" was Elizabethan slang for a pimp or whoremaster.

c) Hamlet tells Ophelia to "get thee to a nunnery."  "Nunnery," again, was Elizabethan ironic slang for a whorehouse---in part because actual nunneries were the homes for unwed mothers of the day.

d) Drowning was, in song and story both, the traditional way of indicating that a young girl had been seduced and abandoned.  Furthermore, Ophelia "falls" into the river from a willow tree, and the (weeping) willow tree was a symbol of both virginity and lost innocence.  There are lots of songs where this appears, such as "On Top of Old Smokey" ("Never place your affections on a green willow tree"), "Bury Me Beneath the Willow, 'Neath the Weeping Willow Tree" ("When he hears that I am sleeping, maybe then he'll think of me"), and, of course, the Steeleye Span song "All Round My Hat I Shall Wear the Green Willow," in which the woman tells of her "false deluded young man" who tries to bribe her to sleep with him without offering marriage, and announces she will "wear the green willow for a twelvemonth and a day"---to show that she is not pregnant and has kept her virtue.

Alice in Dairyland 12/31/2021 8:51:53 AM

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Plymouth rings in New Year with 15th annual Sartori Big Cheese Drop

Only in Wisconsin do we do things right!  Of course, they drop the cheese at 10:00pm because I guess people here don't stay up until midnight unless there's been some kind of tragedy in the family.  At least the music goes until 12:30am for those who make it past midnight.  I've eaten this cheese and it's spectacular! 

Occasional Reader 12/31/2021 9:05:13 AM

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Reply to buzzsawmonkey in 11:

very interesting, thank you.

One thing the piece I linked to mentions that I had never known, assuming it is in fact true, was that in the phrase “conscience doth make cowards of us all“, the meaning of the word “conscience“ at the time meant something more like consciousness, or self-awareness; not morals or scruples.  That certainly changes the meaning of the phrase.
 

(On the other hand, thinking of the other phrase in the same play, “the play’s the thing where  I’ll catch the conscience of the king“, the word seems to be used more in the sense of scruples. Hmm.)

buzzsawmonkey 12/31/2021 9:18:30 AM

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In #13 Occasional Reader said: the meaning of the word “conscience“ at the time meant something more like consciousness

I noted that too; I'd never heard it before.  I'd suggest, however, that there's room for both meanings in the word---certainly in Elizabethan times, and possibly even today.  

I'd draw a parallel between that portmanteau/dual meaning and the use of the term "gay."  "Gaiety," or "being gay" traditionally has meant "being happy/celebratory"---even up to the oft-cited "gay old time" line in the Flintstones' closing song.  But celebratoriness/happiness is a function of unconstrained behavior, which meant that "gay" also carried the meaning of "rambunctiousness" and of being loose, licentious, or wanton.  "To get gay" means to get quarrelsome in both Sherwood Anderson's short story "I'm a Fool," from the 1920s, and the Louis Armstrong/Mills Brothers song "W.P.A.", from the early '30s, where they sing, "Don't mind the boss if he's cross when you're gay/He'll get a pink slip [be fired] next month, anyway..."   "The gay life"---the unconstrained life---stood in contrast to the strait life (as in "strait and narrow") respectable life, going back to Victorian times; the "gay life" encompassed theatre people, prostitutes (at a time when there was heavy overlap in these professions), "bohemian" types (artists or not), drug-takers and drunks, and homosexuals.  It is from this far-more-expansive slang term of "the gay life" that its present application to homosexual behavior derives.

With this in mind, I see no reason why "conscience" could/would not have embraced both meanings in Shakespeare's time.

lucius septimius 12/31/2021 10:07:42 AM

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Reply to Alice in Dairyland in 12:

How very midwestern.

buzzsawmonkey 12/31/2021 10:50:07 AM

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Alice in Dairyland 12/31/2021 10:52:15 AM

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Reply to lucius septimius in 15:

Maybe Merle Haggard can write a song about us - "Sconnie from Argonne". Oh wait, he's dead.  Buzz will have to do it for us.

JCM 12/31/2021 11:52:46 AM

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vxbush 12/31/2021 12:24:21 PM

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Reply to JCM in 18:

Aw. We knew it had to happen some day, but what it shame it was today. 

And a Happy New Year’s Eve to you all. I’m afraid I’m being terribly productive, what with the temperatures being in the 50’s here and I’m having no problems breathing. I’ve barely been online today. I may or may not be back, but may you have a safe and wonderful end of year celebration. 

lucius septimius 12/31/2021 4:32:29 PM

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So my sister has decided to be a total bitch.  I'm so sick of this shit.  First she tells me to handle something; I attempt to handle it; then suddenly I'm "interfering."  

Why the hell do people think they can treat me like shit?