Stephen Fry.  Mark Rylance. 

   As I Like it 

Shakespeare's Twelfth Night with an all male cast from the Globe Theatre in London (officially opening Nov.10) is terrific.  If you like your Jacobean jesting served with crisp comic timing, vaudevillian swagger and unsentimental intelligence --get thee to the Belasco Theatre and grab a $27 on-stage seat and thank me later.  Come opening night there won't be a ticket to be had for less than a Duchess's dowry cause the critics are gonna wet their Breeches over this one.

And yes, I said on-stage seat.  On both wings of the stage are stacked Globe-like seating pews with bench seats.  We sat in the upper one (about 12 feet up) and it was like sitting on top of the backboard for a Knicks game. Why are they selling for 27 bucks when orchestra seats are $137 you ask?  I have no idea--the benches have cushions and unless you require back support, they're fine. You're literally on top of the action...and within winking distance of the fine musicians playing brilliantly on period instruments.    When Shakespeare is this good, I'm moved to tears--and I think I cried about 5 times during this one.  The Bawdy Bard at his best...

And by my troth, he is bawdy...
A good portion of the play concerns a subplot wherein a mixed bag of drunk, disorderly, and conniving characters play an elaborate practical joke on a stuffy old servant named Malvolio.  They fool him into thinking that the mistress of the house is in love with him by forging a riddle filled letter to him professing her lusty infatuation--and as he reads it and tries to confirm that the letter must be from her--he comments on the handwriting: 

By my life, this is my lady's hand, these be her
very C's, her U's, and her T's, and thus makes she her
great P's. It is, in contempt of question, her hand.

when the line is performed, it sounds phonetically like this:

"These be her very C's, her U's, 'N' her T's. And thus makes she her great P's. 

And he goes on to add after feeling assured that it is in her hand: 

"Alas, later tonight, the hand in use shall be my own."

The cleverness in the spelling out of the obscenity (and though the word did not originally connote what it does today, by Shakespeare's time it was already considered a hard core obscenity)  is funny in itself, but that its coming unwittingly from the mouth of a pompous party pooper--is the real hoot. Shakespeare is having a blast poking his parodic pen at pretentious puritans by having one speak in a manner contrary to his previously professed principles. (and I'm having fun with my alliterative "Ps") 

The entire production never misses an opportunity to savor every drop of wit and wisdom in the text (except for Feste, the fool, who speaks his lines too quickly) --and when the wordplay is as down and dirty and jaw dropping brilliant as it frequently is here, and the frolicsome cast has the rhythm and timing down to the sixteenths notes-- it's like the Marx Brothers meets Mozart at The Henry Miller saloon.

FYI Twelfth Night was a part of the year-end festivities in the British Isles and France. These celebrations originated in the Fifth Century wnen French and English churches created the "Feast of Fools." Temporary Bishops and Archbishops of Fools play-acted, reveled and generally caused mischief. By the Fifteenth Century, such ceremonies were banned from church by the French government due to lewd behavior. A new street festival was created and a temporary "king" for the season known as the Prince des Sots was elected. In England, this king was called the "Lord of Misrule" and, in Scotland, the "Abbot of Unreason." The king's reign began on Halloween and lasted for three months.:

SOURCE: http://www.novareinna.com/festive/twelfth.html

I'm drifting off ...

...and taking a blogging break for a while to see if I can make some headway on a book I started many moons ago and abandoned too many times to count.

A hearty and heartfelt thanks to all my followers and regular readers here-- it's you I always aimed to please.  And thanks to everyone else who stopped by now and then for what I hope was time well spent.

And spasibo to my faithful fans in Russia.  I still don't know what you see in me (unless its your job to keep tabs on American Pink Diaper babies who have long since outgrown their inclinations to follow in their parents' footsteps) but in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, I'll assume that you too enjoyed reading what you found here.

And special thanks to my sis Debby, who often let me know when she enjoyed a post and provided much needed inspiration by her support. 

And very special thanks to Ellen for putting up with my surliness whenever she called with real life issues requiring my attention while I was preoccupied with the nursing of my digital digressions.

Eureka!  I'm sure it's a wildly popular diversion for millions, but I just   discovered how much fun, and enlightening it is.  Just type the beginning of a question i.e.:  How many...Where is...Why do...Is there...and then see what Google intuits about where the question is going.  Aside from providing instant amusement, its a window on the world of "what's on peoples' minds". Okay, maybe I'm the last to play this game, and now I look like a Luddite from Mars, but I had so much fun doing this, that I just had to mention it. Republican Norman Rosenblum is the incumbent and is seeking reelection as Mayor of Mamaroneck.  I generally avoid the political arena on these pages, but I once I read this, I couldn't resist posting... This is from a Q. & A. published in a local newspaper, http://mamaroneck.dailyvoice.com (this is copied exactly as it appeared)  What is your favorite location in Mamaroneck to spend time with your family? Mamaroneck in general is great source of enjoyment at the numerous offerings of the VOM restaurants, retail stores, Parks and cultural institutions, i.e. Emelin, Sandbox Theater and the fabulous new Library. It also offers an opportunity to get direct feedback from the residents, business and visitors. The events like St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Mamaroneck Shares, Fireman’s Parade and Carnival, Spooktacular are reason why we have a conservative estimate of over 2,000,000 visitors a year to our Village. Where is your favorite restaurant in the area? Anytime I am in one of the numerous restaurants that are throughout our great Village along Mamaroneck Avenue, Halstead Avenue, Boston Post Road or Palmer Avenue. All are one of the many reasons the Village of Mamaroneck is the No. 1 destination in Westchester.

Thank You Mr. Mayor...

perhaps we'll skip the "What's your favorite color" question. 

IT'S OUT. ALREADY. AGAIN.   THE YIN / YANG OF GRAND CENTRAL STATION 
IS BACK IN BALANCE. GOT A REFUND ON THE 3 WEEK POWER OUTAGE BUT THE STAIR-MASTER CLASSES ARE BACK IN SESSION. 

I never Metaphor I didn't like...part III. 

Eureka!  I'm sure it's a wildly popular diversion for millions, but I just   discovered how much fun, and enlightening it is.  Just type the beginning of a question i.e.:  How many...Where is...Why do...Is there...and then see what Google intuits about where the question is going.  Aside from providing instant amusement, its a window on the world of "what's on peoples' minds". Okay, maybe I'm the last to play this game, and now I look like a Luddite from Mars, but I had so much fun doing this, that I just had to mention it.

Republican Norman Rosenblum is the incumbent and is seeking reelection as Mayor of Mamaroneck.  I generally avoid the political arena on these pages, but I once I read this, I couldn't resist posting...

This is from a Q. & A. published in a local newspaper, http://mamaroneck.dailyvoice.com

(this is copied exactly as it appeared) 

What is your favorite location in Mamaroneck to spend time with your family?

Mamaroneck in general is great source of enjoyment at the numerous offerings of the VOM restaurants, retail stores, Parks and cultural institutions, i.e. Emelin, Sandbox Theater and the fabulous new Library. It also offers an opportunity to get direct feedback from the residents, business and visitors. The events like St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Mamaroneck Shares, Fireman’s Parade and Carnival, Spooktacular are reason why we have a conservative estimate of over 2,000,000 visitors a year to our Village.

Where is your favorite restaurant in the area?

Anytime I am in one of the numerous restaurants that are throughout our great Village along Mamaroneck Avenue, Halstead Avenue, Boston Post Road or Palmer Avenue. All are one of the many reasons the Village of Mamaroneck is the No. 1 destination in Westchester.

A hospital bed is a parked taxi with the meter running.

Groucho Marx

“Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.” 
― Joseph Campbell

“Reality is a cliché from which we escape by metaphor.” 

― Wallace Stevens

“Using a metaphor in front of a man as unimaginative as Ridcully was like putting something very annoying in front of
someone who was annoyed by it.” 
― Terry Pratchett

“Who was it that said, “Men are but wheat, and the government is the bread”? Ah yes, that was my grandfather, who shouted that shortly before hurling a loaf of bread at President Hoover during the great depression.” 

― Jarod Kintz

Watching a Mets game earlier in the season with Ellen, she asked what was meant by "runners in scoring position."  After passing up the sexual reference opportunity, I explained, and it occurred to me that the phrase probably doesn't go back very far.  I don't recall hearing it when I was a kid.  And what was wrong with "runners on second and/or third"?  Runners in scoring position only means that a single will most likely drive them in...but not necessarily. So why use it?  And let's face it, when Prince Fielder or Lucas Duda is on second, neither is in scoring position with anything less than a stand-up double.

And ...
...when did "Fielding" become "Defense"?  
(Was it a desire to make the game sound more like Football and Basketball?)   

And when did pitching speed become velocity?  

And when did Regulars become Position Players? 
(and isn't The Pitcher a position?)  
And when did Substitutes (or Subs)  become Role Players? 
(...like the starters don't play a role?) 

And when did "control" become "location"?  

And when did "game ending home-run" become "walk off home-run"?  

I guess every era invents new jargon to keep things fresh, but not every era is wracked with the statistical gibberish that pervades the game today and generates endless meaningless correlations like the one they showed in game 3 of  the series that stated: Xander Bogaerts is the 3rd youngest player to hit a triple in a World Series...after which they didn't tell us who the youngest and second youngest were, which would have at least reduced the "who cares?" factor a wee bit.  


So I thought it might be fun to find  some other Data driven drivel  and found something from a few years back by Frank Deford and posted on NPR website.  And you can find the answers to the the ones below at: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98016313

He was the second pitcher in the last 83 years — 83! — to win 13 more games than he lost for a team finishing 13 games or worse under .500.  Come again?

He's the only pitcher in — get this — the last 4,113 to debut with 10 strikeouts and no walks. Wow, how many before the last 4,113?

He's the first player since 1912 with 50 doubles and 50 stolen bases in one season.  Cool,  but how 'bout hit by pitch and sacrifice flies?

He's the first catcher over the age of 35 to hit .330 with 20 homers and 85 runs batted in. So, did some other plus-35 catcher have 25 home runs and 80 RBIs?

Here's what happens when a computer starts playing a six-degrees of separation game: He is only the third player to hit .300 with at least 15 triples, 10 home runs, 20 doubles and 50 stolen bases.

Only five clubs in the wild-card era have trusted 15 starts to three 23-and-under pitchers. Really? So how many 22-year-olds with 12 starts?

BONUS STAT

Only 3 time all-star career .285 hitter, multi-time sexual assaulter and convicted felon who... hit a tree while driving drunk; was cited for juicing in the Mitchell Report, was arrested and charged with 25 misdemeanor and felony counts including  grand theft auto, identity theft, filing false financial statements and when indicted on bankruptcy fraud charges, was bailed out of jail by Charlie Sheen.

* ANSWER AT END OF POST

Below.  Practically a Norman Rockwell Painting come to life.  

Men, women, old, young and all reacting in such a specific (and archetypical) manner that it almost appears that the shot was staged. 

 * Lenny Dykstra.

Since 1998, The Edge: http://www.edge.org has hosted an annual question and answer forum with one question per year...and the questions have included: 

2001 : WHAT QUESTIONS HAVE DISAPPEARED? 

2008 : WHAT HAVE YOU CHANGED YOUR MIND ABOUT? WHY? 

2002 : WHAT IS YOUR QUESTION? ... WHY?

2013 : WHAT *SHOULD* WE BE WORRIED ABOUT?

The 2005 Question: 

What do you believe is true even though you cannot prove it?  

...resulted in book above...the query generated 120 contributions from leading figures in multiple fields of (mostly) science and it caught my attention the year it was posed 
And I believe (and can prove) that I  posted something last year about it as well. 
 The complete archive of answers can be found at: 

http://www.edge.org/responses/what-do-you-believe-is-true-even-though-you-cannot-prove-it 

I recommend checking it out. It's food for thought, served in generous portions. 

And though I'm just an untrained lay person, I'm also, as every blogger knows, under constant pressure to post -so for better or worse here's a few swipes at that which...

I believe, but cannot prove...

No matter where you choose to sit, the tallest person in the theater will eventually be seated in front of you. 

All meetings specifically promoted and organized to establish consensus, will end in contention and acrimony.

The severity and complexity of a malady is always in inverse proportion to the length of time spent in the physician/hospital waiting room.

One bag of microwave popcorn will always be just a little too much for one person and not quite enough for two. 

You"ve seen one, you've seen em all...
Blue Agave field. Jalisco, Mexico. 

There is a single giant underground vat set deep beneath the mountains of Jalisco Mexico, where all the Tequila in the world is created in one batch and siphoned off into a network of tubes leading to all the different "Branded" bottling plants. 

There is no such thing as decaffeinated Coffee 

The next hot thing in telecommunication will be "alibi" apps ...that will automatically send various credible looking malfunction or "error" messages to whomever one wishes to ignore or avoid. 

No one actually knows how Marshmallows are made. 

 Everything in every Hollywood movie is created with computer generated graphics-- including the actors. All actual humans are chosen merely for their resemblances to the CGI characters and are required only to appear on talk shows and provide photo-ops for paparazzi.
The only two things in the universe that can significantly decelerate the passage of time are; travel at (or approaching) the speed of light and the end of an NFL Football game. 

and...NOT A BELIEF, BUT A FACT 
(provided by the highly esteemed and formerly introduced Dr. Mauskop)
The greatest number of surgeries are performed where the greatest number of surgeons live. 

The Drifter Goes Debunking 

All info found on the internet, ergo factual and dependable.

Dogs age at seven years per one human year...Not according to experts. The general consensus is that dogs mature faster than humans, reaching the equivalent of 21 years in 2, and then aging slows down to more like four human years per year. "Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan recommends calculating thus: Subtract two from the age, multiply that by four and add 21.

Searing meat does not "seal in" moisture.... and in fact may actually cause meat to lose moisture. Generally, the value in searing meat is that it creates a brown crust with a rich flavor via the Maillard reaction

Ye Olde Stoppe and Shoppe.
People during the Old and Middle English speaking periods never pronounced or spelled "the" as "ye".  Confusion derives from the use of the character thorn (þ) in abbreviations of the word "the", which in Middle English text () looked similar to a y with a superscript e.

Eating nuts, popcorn, or seeds does not increase the risk of diverticulitis. These foods may actually have a protective effect.

Willie "Stretch" McCovey

You should stretch before exercise
Everyone seems to do it,  … but researchers have been finding that it actually slows you down. Studies reveal that stretching before a run can result in a 5 percent reduction of efficiency;  Furthermore, there has never been sufficient scientific evidence that pre-exercise stretching reduces injury risk.  But stretching after exercise is another story...and probably advisable. 

Ronald Reagan shrank U.S. government.

The man whose legacy is associated with reducing government size and spending consistently did the very opposite: Federal spending grew by an average of 2.5 percent a year, adjusted for inflation, The national debt exploded, going from $700 billion to nearly $3 trillion. The number of federal employees grew by 200,000.  

Bonus Debunk...
There is no such thing as the "real you."
If you behave like an asshole, you cannot also be "really a good person on the inside."   Or as a friend advised his daughter..." If the guy is nice to you and rude to the waiter, he's not a nice guy."  

Answers to yesterday's crossword clues. 

1.Radar Unit (4)  MASH

2.Brightened with Peruvian ancestry? (12)  INCANDESCENT

3.Famous tower (3)  AAA  (pronounce Tower with long "o")

4.Wicked source of light (6)  CANDLE

5. hijklmno  (5) WATER (H-to-O) 

6.Amundsen's forwarding address (4)  MUSH

7.New Jersey (4)  CALF

I've been doing all the DON'Ts ... wonder how many chefs and waiters I've offended all these years. 

Hair on bottom of your toga...seven letters. *

My enjoyment of a crossword puzzle is always in direct proportion to my appreciation of the clues.  I've tried my hand at constructing a few and quickly discovered how difficult (actually, virtually impossible for me) to make one in the standard 15x15 rotational symmetric (mirror image) form but I soldiered on (albeit slowly) because I was so eager to enjoy the final challenge of creating the clues.  Here are some clues collected from various online sources that I thought were pretty (pret-ty, pret-ty, pret-ty) clever.

Tell-tale

weapon...CROSSBOW 

English passage...ACT OF PARLIAMENT 

Jazz scores... BASKETS 

Ones with steady work... ACROBATS 

They may be pulled... ALL-NIGHTERS 

Singularly tired.... WHEELIE

Where to see the writing on the wall?....FACEBOOK PAGE

Volcanic sex scandal.... BIMBO ERUPTION

Guy: 

I've been trying to think of a word for two weeks! 

Friend: 

Fortnight?

Globe Plotter...IAGO   Dancer Company...REINDEER    It'll get you a date...CARBON    Fit for a Queen...BEDSHEET  Training wheels...LIONEL

Obscured Curse...BLEEP    United, for one...SYNONYM

NOTE TO WILL SHORTZ:  WhassUp up with Friday Puzzle?  The Southeast corner-- fine, but the rest was painfully obscure and impregnable.  Diamond Deal-- a Twin Bill ?  Really?  A baseball pitch is a deal, a baseball trade is a deal, but a double header?  Not even remotely.   It's bad enough I don't know the name of any Reality Show celebs, Hip Hoppers and rap tunes, but this stuff is gonna send me back to The NY Post on Friday and their more populist and vastly underrated challenges. 

Now I know it's not fair without the aid of the grid and intersecting words, but I'll toss these out to you to decode as stand alone challenges and post the answers tomorrow. 

1.Radar Unit (4)
2.Bright Peruvian ancestry? (12)
3.Famous tower (3)
4.Wicked source of light (6)
5.Clue: HIJKLMNO (5)
6.Amundsen's forwarding address (4)
7.New Jersey (4)

Note to sis Debby...  I looked to toss in some acrostic OR puns and anagrams clues, I couldn't understand them even when provided with the answers.  How'd you get all the "smart" DNA anyway? 

*Hemlock

Wayne, Will, and a proven and effective 

treatment for headaches.

It happened more than once...my son Will and I heard just one or two  notes from a saxophone on the car radio and instantly looked at each other and announced in unison " Wayne".  I could (but won't) go on for pages about my love for  this 80 year old and still working Buddhist explorer of  the myriad possibilities within the sonic spheres --and I could post a dozen or so videos and tracks that I love as well, but this is a language driven blog so I'll just leave you with some things he said as only he could say them.

Wayne Shorter

"Jazz is a bumble bee flying from flower to flower, each flower being a different type of music, and the bumble bee says to each of them, 'I dare you.' That's what jazz means: 'I dare you.'"

"The resistance you feel in life is exactly the same as the resistance needed for an airplane to take flight."

 "In my solos, I try to play a story about how I think the world should be."

Ellen and I got tickets to see the highly touted new production of Twelfth Night and-- as I've made it a habit for sometime now with the bedazzling but oft befuddling bard-- I'm reading it first so I can dispense with the inevitable archaic language struggle and just enjoy the performance. At least that's my intent, but truth is, I struggle mightily even when reading him and some sentences just won't yield their sense without the aid of expert assistance. However, this particular excursion into Elizabethan romantic comedy has yielded a few accessible to the lay-person treats along the way--

“In nature there's no blemish but the mind.
None can be called deformed but the unkind.” 

“Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents.” 

“But rather reason thus with reason fetter: Love sought is good but given unsought is better.” 

“Them that dally nicely with words may quickly make them wanton.” 

Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, there shall be no more cakes and ale?


Orsino: And what’s her history?
Viola: A blank, my lord. She never told her love,
But let concealment, like a worm i' the bud,
Feed on her damask cheek: she pin'd in thought,
And, with a green and yellow melancholy,
She sat like Patience on a monument,
Smiling at grief.

and of course...

“If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it; that surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken, and so die.” 



Dr. Mauskop  is a friend of mine.  But even if he was my brother, I wouldn't tout his product unless I was convinced of its value.

Yes, the Migralex site
http://www.migralex.com
looks like too many other dubious direct marketing sales pitches (sorry Alex, but that's how it looks) --but dig deeper into the different sections
( headache info, and  our blog in particular) and you'll learn more about how and why this is the real deal for the vast majority of headache sufferers.   I used to get migraines, and Ellen currently does and uses Migralex to supplement other treatments she receives from Dr. Mauskop.  I've never asked him if he approves, but I take a couple of Migralex when a headache comes on after drinking two Tequilas too many, and it hasn't failed yet to chase away the pain and prevent the next day hangover.  Check it out.