They Say I Have a Dark Side

I've been doing my reading, and this was too funny to pass up. Yes, it's a death scene, but humorous! Let me set the stage. Anthony has received word that Cleopatra has killed herself, and he wants to die. He asks his friend Eros to do him the favor and kill him. Eros decides to commit suicide rather than kill Anthony. Anthony then, has to do it himself.

ANTONY. Thrice nobler than myself!
Thou teachest me, O valiant Eros, what
I should, and thou couldst not. My queen and Eros
Have, by their brave instruction, got upon me
A nobleness in record. But I will be
A bridegroom in my death, and run into't
As to a lover's bed. Come, then; and, Eros,
Thy master dies thy scholar. To do thus
[Falling on his sword]
I learn'd of thee. How? not dead? not dead?-

For those of you who don't "do" Shakespeare, here's what happens. Anthony dramatically falls on his sword to kill himself...a falter, a pause...then the audience hears him say, "How? Not dead? Not dead?"

How is that not funny?

Chaucer's the name, writing's the game

Okay, so everyone's heard of Chaucer, yes? The writer? Geoffery Chaucer? Good. You should have. He wrote The Cantebury Tales in the 14th century. The 14th century was a long long time ago, long enough for us to not understand the English, but not long enough for teachers to admit we don't understand the English. It's fun. Try with me.

Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote
The droughte of Marche hat perced to the rote,
And bathed every vyene in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;

Makes loads of sense. Luckily some sane people out there made a modern English translation:

When in April the sweet showers fall
That pierce March's drought to the root and all
And bathed every vein in liquor that has power
To generate therein and sire the flower;

Those are the first four lines of the introduction. Apparently back in the day they tortured students and made them memorize the first eighteen lines, a single sentence.

As much as I don't recognize the language as my own, I do see that Chaucer had quite a skill at writing. He was hardly a boring fellow. Richard II loved him so much, that in 1397 he granted to Chaucer a tonel, or 252 gallons, of wine a year for life.

While I was discovering just how interesting this author was, I found out that a movie had him as a major character in which the director had done loads of research. Not only is there a good depiction of who Chaucer might have been (please understand the character is not actually who Chaucer was, just a guess), but also great work on courtly love, chivalry, jousting, sexism, classism, and loads of stuff. So this week I am proud to say I went above the call of duty and did extracurricular work for class. I watched A Knight's Tale.

The knight and his herald, Geoffrey Chaucer.

I'm here!

I fear the blog is slowly turning into pet photos. It's just that I'm busy, I swear.

Jackie Robinson Day

April 15, 1947. Jackie Robinson stepped onto the field and played for the Brooklyn Dodgers for the first time, breaking the color barrier.

Robinson after his first home run as a Dodger

Jackie faced a real threat every time he stepped up to the plate. Opposing pitchers threw at him all the time. That was a given. It was hard to hit Jackie because his reflexes were so good and he could get out of the way. But how many times did I see Roy [Campanella] lying on the ground after being hit? He was one of the first in baseball to use hard plastic insert on his cap. They threw at him because he had black skin, and they couldn't hit the other guy with black skin often enough to satisfy them.

--Don Newcombe

Robinson stealing home

That's why you have to keep looking back on the things that Jackie Robinson went through, because it all comes back to the same thing. They just kept beating on him, beating on him, beating on him. They were thinking they could cut the head off the snake. And Jackie couldn't fight back. That's the first thing Branch Rickey told him: You can't fight back. If Jackie hadn't been strong enough in his mind, he'd never have made it. The whole thing would have been set back years. If he'd made one mistake, if he'd crossed the line Rickey laid out for him, everybody would have said, "Told you so. He can't do it."

And if he hadn't done it, you'd never seen a Henry Aaron. You'd never have seen a Willie Mays. You'd never have seen an Ernie Banks. What I went through was basically the same thing that Jackie went through. They hounded him because they knew he could play baseball, and they didn't want him to. They hounded me because they knew I was going to break Babe Ruth's record, and they didn't want me to. Cut the head off the snake.

-----

I can remember being a kid in Mobile, Alabama, sitting on the back porch when an airplane flew over. I told my father, "When I grow up I'm going to be a pilot." You know what he said? He said, "Ain't no colored pilots." So I told him I'd be a ballplayer. And he said, "Ain't no colored ballplayers."

There were a lot of things blacks couldn't be back then. There weren't any colored pilots. There weren't any colored ballplayers in the major leagues. So it was hard to have those dreams.

Then Jackie came with the Brooklyn Dodgers to Mobile for an exhibition game in 1948. I went to hear him talk to a crowd in front of a drugstore. I skipped school to meet Jackie Robinson. If it were on videotape, you'd probably see me standing there with my mouth wide open. I don't remember what he said. It didn't matter what he said. He was standing there.

My father took me to see Jackie play in that exhibition game. After that day, he never told me ever again that I couldn't be a ballplayer.

I was allowed to dream after that.
-- Hank Aaron

*quote excerpts from "I Was Allowed to Dream After That." ESPN The Magazine 10.08 (2007): 78-81.

Bunny Love

I am supremely busy, but I write to tell you this.

My rabbit loves my cats. My cats haven't figured out what to do about this yet.