"With too much blood and too little brain, these two may run mad." (Troilus and Cressida)

.....Well, here it is, at last; Shakespeare's birthday--also the day he and Miguel de Cervantes both died on April 23, 1616.  I always like to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday in some way, and tonight I believe I will treat RH+ to dinner out.  Perhaps we will toast him with a glass of wine--or, at least, a diet coke.  It happens to be a sad day also even though I have finally gotten over my grief at his death.  One of my very favorite cousins who died recently was also born on April 23rd--but not in 1616.  William died at a very young age; if my math is correct, he was only 52.  He was born in 1564.  How many more great plays and sonnets might he have written if he lived a longer life.  He was a knockoff of Nostradamus; able to predict the future. (Check out the title above!) Weird. Anyway, I always thought that if I was stranded on a desert island I would like to have a book of Shakespeare's plays, and perhaps the Bible--not to read as a religious book, but as great literature.  Kudos to those who helped write it.  I attended the Dramatic Arts club here in Huntington Lakes, and never heard anyone try a soliloquy from one of Shakespeare's plays.  I always maintained that if one were serious about learning to act, they would have to read aloud a piece from Shakespeare. I wonder if any celebrities were born on my birthday? 

 

.....The day of the Boston Marathon and it's aftermath was amazing.  It was almost hypnotic to keep watching the TV news and listening to events as they occurred. The speed at which these two brothers were apprehended from film taken at the scene of the explosion by Boston police, CIA and FBI agents should make other would-be terrorists think twice about their sadistic enterprises.  These two dummies were on a college campus to do who-knows-what when they hijacked a van and killed a policeman.  That shut Boston down and led to the death of one of the brothers in a car chase, and the other brother was shot and captured in a boat resting like Noah's Ark in the back yard of a resident.  Perhaps he thought it was already on the ocean for him to make his escape.  If he looks like a nut, and acts like a nut, he must be a nut.

 

 

"Render me worthy of this noble wife" (Julius Caesar)

.....I wonder what percentage of inhumans (I call them "inhumans") there are in the world.  I don't know what Darwin might call them, but anyone that kills babies in school as in Newtown or who kills and maims innocent people out to have a good time and to celebrate "Patriots' Day" at the marathon in Boston doesn't deserve to be  called "human"; doesn't belong to be a member of the human race.  Doesn't even belong to the Neanderthals; they killed for food.  The Syrians are now killing each other...and to what end? Of course during our Civil War Americans killed each other. Ah, but each side was fighting for a cause; the South to preserve slavery and their economy and the North to preserve the Union.  Good thing Lincoln was around and not the Tea Party.  They would only be concerned with less government.  The Revolutionary War was fought for a cause; WWII was fought for a cause.  The Six Day War was fought for a cause.  But what was the cause of killing people watching a race? Actually there was no cause nor reason for that action; it was perpetrated by an inhuman animal--or animals.  If they catch the animal(s) they should be taken to the Everglades and served as alligator food. 

 

.....I really have to write something that will take away some of the remorse I feel for these people who have suffered horrible injuries including nails in their bodies, nails along with other metals used to maim people.  I need to write something that has some sense to it such as a 10 best of something.  So I'll list the 10 best food I enjoy:

1. Spaghetti and meatballs 2. Lasagna 3. Pork Chow Mein 4. Lobster 5. Florida stone crabs 6. Kashe varniskes 7. Baby back ribs 8. Filet mignon 9. Potato pancakes 10. Spaghetti with butter and pot cheese.  I'm sure that I left something out that I like to eat.  As for the lobster--nothing less than 2 lbs. And the stone crabs have to be large.  For the best Filet steak, I like to go to Longhorns.  And best of all I love RH+'s cooking.  She is excellent at it.  Speaking of RH+, I find it hard to believe we've been happily married for 30 years!  That anniversary occurs on June 19.  I was also married to Thelma for 30 years, but she ran away; couldn't bear another year with me, I suppose.  Who can blame her?  If you are married for 50 years that is counted as your golden anniversary, and 25 is silver; but is there a metal for 2 x 30?

"We have all forgot more than we can remember" (Thomas Fuller)

.....O.K. I can't help it; it's in my blood. I have to write about my 10 best of something.  So this time I'll list the 10 best movies I've ever seen IN PERSON. These are not really in the order I liked them, but they are simply a list of the ten movies I enjoyed the most in my lifetime.  Of course, I've seen many more movies than these ten, but at least they are ten I remember best: 1) GWTW with Clark Gable. I remember that I took my mother to Radio City Music Hall for her birthday to see this film when I was 15 in 1939.  I like films about the Civil War.  That was the bloodiest war ever in America...but historically deep in the psyche of our country. 2) Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs which I saw when I was 13 and I still try to remember the names of the Dwarfs.  Can you? 3) Casablanca with Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.  I saw it in Chicago with my cousin Harold in the summer of 1942 even though its release date was officially in 1943.  In the few months after I saw this film, I enlisted in the U.S.Navy. 4) The Treasure of the Sierra Madre with Humphrey Bogart in 1948. 5) Hamlet with Laurence Olivier.

 

I guess I like Bogart, 6) The African Queen ...but I also like Katherine Hepburn. 7) Tarzan the Ape Man with Johnny Weissmuller who could also teach Phelps a few things about swimming in a jungle stream full of alligators, how to swing along trees like an ape, or yelling like a Banshee while also having the presence of mind to bang Jane once in a while. 8) King Kong sorry, I don't recall who starred in it besides the Gorilla who could climb to the top of the Empire State Building with one hand while holding a gal in the other, and dodging bullets from two-winged aircraft. Can Spiderman do that? 9) Lincoln I imagine if the real live Lincoln stood alongside Daniel Day-Lewis you couldn't tell the difference.  I'm sure that after awhile Daniel thought it was he who wrote the 13th Amendment that freed the slaves.  Not really.  There are still millions of American housewives who slave away each day.  There ought to be a law! And finally, 10) The Godfather, who could forget Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, two of the greatest actors of our time.  Note that Pacino Is "playing" for one night on the stage in the Seminole casino, Hard Rock.  Now, what could he be doing there?  And why?

 

I really did see all these films IN PERSON.  Did I forget anything?