Sometimes a smile will make your day. Usually, it takes money or sex.

Bah. How frustrating that the interpretations of the dig are behind a pay wall.

Beej, that must just feel awesome.

That's beautiful Beej.

I think I have become a flake. Or I have to turn in my literacy card. I was supposed to be in Oakland for a 'new employee orientation' today. Somehow I decided that I needed to be there at 10. umm, no. 830. ( that is insane). I wasted my time. I look like a flake. There were public tears ( not in front of real people, but still) of anger. Then I got angry at DH , because I called him just to bitch - and he tried to fix the unfixable. Then I had to leave a message for my boss, just in case this matters to her( it shouldn't, this all happens on what is usually a non-working day) . I am sure that this will make no big deal difference in the long run, but I so rarely flake that this is really bugging me .

Congrats, Beej! That must feel really good.

Talk about psychic income, Beej!

Erin, my step-mother has had her high school students do a Shakespeare performance pretty much every year for the last 20 years - I could hook you guys up via email if you want; I'm sure she'd love to help.

I did R&J with 9th graders, about half of whom were ESL, but we just did scenes, not the whole thing. It was easier for them to learn their lines if they only had to learn manageable chunks. I made them responsible for learning lines and doing the preliminary blocking, costuming, and props, and then during class each group would perform their scene for feedback from the other students, basically workshopping. That was all before moving to the theater for the "real thing." It helped them with the stage fright to perform for small familiar groups first.

Also, what juliana said about stage fighting. Do not give these people swords or yardsticks or tennis rackets. (Although, the prep-school Hamlet with Laertes and Hamlet dueling with tennis rackets the seniors did was pretty good). Even if they can maintain in rehearsal (ha!) they'll get wired during performance, unless you have a professional, or a scary PE coach, or something.

R+J used guns for the weapons, but I don't recommend that either, as much as it would fit your idiom.

aw, beth, I'm sorry. I hate that flaky feeling... it really sucks.

Just keep telling yourself what you already know, that in the long run, this really doesn't matter. Everything's OK. Nothing is ruined.

That's great news, Beej.

Here's an overview on slavery as it was practiced in different eras.

eta: But written in the 1930s, so it's got all kinds of weird biases about American slavery that are kind of fascinating if predictable.

Yipe!

The most hideous aspect of the trade in Sudanese was probably the making of eunuchs. The operation was performed in the Sudan before the caravan trip, and about one out of ten survived. Once these valuable slaves had reached the Mediterranean, they were generally well treated. Of course the eunuch is a familiar figure in the history of the ancient Near East, of the Roman and Byzantine empires and even of Christian western Europe -- the practise he represents was not originally Moslem in any sense.

One in ten!

ita, is profile address good? I can email the article.

flea beat me!