The only thing I hate about his works is that a lot of English teachers try to introduce kids to the really boring stuff because they worry about the SEX or the murder.

Huh -- all of my English teachers brought up the sex and murder as selling points! I think they figured teenagers are more likely to do the required reading if you tell them it's dirty in advance.

Huh.

I just found--buttoned into one of my cargo pants' pockets--a small, orange rubber ball.

I have never seen it before and have no idea how it ended up in my pants. Is this a new ING marketing ploy?

Yes, Nora, I'm looking at you.

I have never seen it before and have no idea how it ended up in my pants. Is this a new ING marketing ploy?

Yes, Nora, I'm looking at you.

Heeeeeeeeee.

Of course, the rubber ball makes me think of The Prestige.

I found an $1100 check in the recycling bin a few days ago. Luckily, it was mine.

Cash, do you have any suggestions for a good "First Shakespeare", especially for 4-6th graders?

eta: or anyone else.

Shaw also thought that sex was icky, and that in the future we'd evolve into perfect beings that wouln't have sex.

Snerk

We got R&J as freshmen in high school, then Julius Caesar as sophomores. Then the wimps went to Mrs. Berryhill for average English class and the ones who thought themselves smart took on Mr. Berryhill, who xeroxed off his own supply of detention slips and had no problem in telling his students they were idiots. His reputation was well known, and you had to request his class. Damn, I loved the man. Hamlet, Macbeth, Merchant of Venice--all read aloud and debated. Plus he made us read The Hobbit.

Yes, Nora, I'm looking at you.

Guess again.

especially for 4-6th graders?

Midsummer's Night's Dream? It's fairly light but might be too obscure.

She insisted on starting freshmen off with Julius Ceasar. SNOOOORE.

BAH! Julius Ceasar is one of my favorites! Cassius deflating the myth of Ceasar with his story of their swim across the Tiber. The poor, insistent Plebecite coming so close to giving Ceasar the warning note.

"Friends, Romans, coutrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Ceasar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

"If we do meet again, we'll smile indeed; If not, 'tis true this parting was well made."

Midsummer's Night's Dream? It's fairly light but might be too obscure.

Puck is fun, and so are the Rude Mechanicals.

She insisted on starting freshmen off with Julius Ceasar. SNOOOORE.

But it's fun to point out the glaring anachronisms!

"You mean they had giant clocks in ancient Rome?"
"They sure did!"