And now I'm thinking about Mark Knopfler's "Romeo and Juliet," its weariness and yearning and nostalgia for that electric too-stupid-to-live time. I can't root for their doom; fuck, I was them. I never even had a boyfriend until I was 19, but I was them anyway. And I hope to God Matilda lives to be them, and lives beyond it, and lives to look back and say, "When we made love, you used to cry. You said I love you like the stars above, love you till I die" and know that it's gone, but remember exactly what it felt like, what it was to live in the eye of that storm. And R&J never get to outgrow it, smarten up, look back and regret and yearn.

This is lovely. And makes me think of My So-Called Life, which I know you also love so much.

I like it, although Claire Danes was a little too old for Juliet

I haven't seen that version. But once you've seen the Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer version of R&J, nobody else will seem too old, ever again.

We watched the Zeffirelli version in junior high. All I remember is Olivia Hussey's cleavage.

We watched the Zeffirelli version in junior high. All I remember is Olivia Hussey's cleavage.

I showed this to my classes, and every showing, right on time, my neighboring teacher would appear as if by magic to watch that scene.

When the Zeffirelli version came out I was in my teens ... and I wasn't allowed to go see it because of whatshisname's bare backside.

I'm trying to remember if they fast forwarded or if the teacher put her hand over the screen in the (in)appropriate place.

I do remember the song, too, though (so damn earnest), but, then, I was not an adolescent boy.

I still like A Midsummer Night's Dream and I've seen it staged many times by vast ranges of talent. I only loathed one version. I'm usually fine with the Atlanta Shakespeare Company's resetting of Shakespeare into mobsters, flappers, flower children and the like, but the one in which they made Puck into Oberon's executive assistant, glued to a phone and blackberry, was truly annoying.

you teach my kids the victorians and I'll teach yours Morrison. No?

Hmmm..... well, given that my Victorians would be heavy on Carlyle and Darwin and light on Dickens...perhaps.

There should be a unit by unit teacher swap program.

In contemporary lit news, I'm reading the newest Junot Diaz books, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and I have to say I'm not loving it. Anyone else read it?

In contemporary lit news, I'm reading the newest Junot Diaz books, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and I have to say I'm not loving it. Anyone else read it?

I am reading it right now and absolutely loving it!

Really, lisa? I keep picking it up and putting it down and picking it up again. I feel an urge to finish it. The changing narrative voice is sort of offputting, and the one thing that remains true is my deep and abiding love for the badassness of Lola. But as a whole? It is so much slower than Drown was.