Forget the economy. Forget the, what is it now, 4 wars? Or 5 wars? Forget about the high level of unemployment. Forget the high level of taxes.
Some people want to know about the things that are really important. Like if William Shakespeare was a stoner.
There have been articles at Time, Fox News, and other places, about this. And they want to dig up the Bard of Avon to find out.
But really, all you have to do is look at his body of work, compared to the work others, and determine if this is a fool’s errand.
Compare this passage:
To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more.
To this passage:
Dave’s not here.
Okay, let’s compare Shakespeare’s work to something more recent than Cheech and Chong. Like this:
We are such stuff As dreams are made on; and our little life Is rounded with a sleep.
To this
Hope and Change!
Which of these were more likely to have been written … or repeated … by a stoner?
There’s more.
Which is more likely to have been written by a stoner? This:
Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal’d by the same means, warm’d and cool’d by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge?
Or this:
The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines
I don’t think it’s Shakespeare they need to be testing.
The high-functioning addict is a fiction composed by addicts before they cease functioning. Dude.
Well, one thing’s for sure: Obama is testing our patience. And those scientists sound like jerks. (Wait, that’s two. Coffee!)
Also, off topic, but I read the the State of Minnesota is shut down! We need a guest post by ussjimmycarter on the state of things there! Hey, ussjimmycarter! Could you export that shut down to the Soviet State of Washington?!
Aha! They will even apply the Alinsky treatment to a dead guy if it means they can make Western civilization look bad.
Wow Dude! That’s intense analysis!
Except for the first example, I can’t really see much difference.
Mad Jack:
You sure that’s oregano you’re using in your recipes?
Is it just me or do most folks think obama (no caps out of respect for the USA) would be functioning at a higher level if he WERE stoned?
C. of E. to stoner scientists: sod off!
Burmashave to C. of E.: Power to ya.
For the life of me, I can’t see any political motivation to investigate potential drug use by the Bard. Mebbe scientists could expand their research to determine if he was a homosexual. Crack science researchers have posited that Shakespeare and Lincoln were lovers.
We would be better off studying the long tern effects of crak cocaine on cognitive ability in commanders in cheif.
“Crack science” researchers?
Dave’s not here man
If Shakespeare had been a stoner, his works would have been very different.
“To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles And by opposing end them. To die—to sleep, No more,” would have been:
“To like be…or not…ya’ know what I mean? I don’t know if I can deal with this stuff…God, it’s like totally freaking me out, you know what I mean? Dude, are those Cheese Puffs?”
Basil, I used to hate those tests on Shakespeare in 11th grade.
Jimmy:
In high school, one teacher had the class read aloud “Julius Caesar.” I read Caesar’s role, plus 3 other characters at various times, each during the scene where that character was killed. Yes, my teacher had me killed off 4 times in a single play. I’m wondering if maybe she didn’t like me.
E tu, Basil?
Get thee to a nunnery.
Not sure how it fits.
I just like that Shakespeare line.
“My conscience hath a thousand several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a several tale,
And every tale condemns me for a villain.”
William Shakespeare, King Richard the Third
“One Pinch, a hungry lean-fac’d villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,
A threadbare juggler, and a fortune-teller,
A needy, hollow-ey’d, sharp-looking wretch,
A living-dead man.”
William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors
“I like not fair terms and a villain’s mind.”
William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
“O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain!
My tables – meet it is I set it down,
That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain!”
William Shakespeare, Hamlet
I didn’t know Shakespeare knew obama!
Dammit, exhume Obamas’ corpse Now.
Just cuz he’s still alive don’t mean squat. Let’s gut him and see what makes him tick.
“Remove funny bone.” Sorry, he don’t have one.