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John Jackson

Mike, regarding "a plague on both your houses"  that sounds like a reference to "...trouble in River City" .  Was the play "Music Man"?

David Mitchell

how about Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof?

Lawrence Foster

Mike,  

Finally a trivia question I think I know!   

The speaker is Mercutio in Romeo and Juliet. He just got stabbed by Juliet's brother Tybalt and he dies. He is Romeo's good buddy so Romeo fights and kills Tybalt. 

Mary Clare Hummer (Bauer)

Shakespeare?  Gotta' be Romeo and Juliet. Don't think either of them said it. They were too busy on the balcony. I think somebody else died before them. Mecurio?  Tragic event. Maybe that Friar guy said it. I think it was way back as freshmen in 1962-63 that we had to read that. Do kids still have to read Shakespeare in high school?  
Clare

Joseph D. McCarthy

Before the lights (electricity) is turned off in Sonoma County I better try and finish my travelogue.

Wanting to get started departing Cheyenne, WY early (approximately 7:00 A.M. local time) I waited for my Co-Pilot (read wife) to finish breakfast.  So at 7:53 A.M. we started West on I-80 heading , eventually, to Nevada.  Recently we have tried to drive beyond Cheyenne to Laramie because of the possibility they will close the interstate because of snow in the about sixty mile stretch.  We were in luck; the only snow we witnessed was on the tops of the mountains.  However, the scenery really starts to change as you leave Cheyenne.  We drove alongside some beautiful mountain sides.  The colors of the rock were gorgeous, and also just feet from the side of the interstate.  We continued through Wyoming where I saw many interesting sites; the Co-pilot, not a Navigator, was watch Facebook listings of pictures sent by friends.  There is one amazing factor about this portion of the drive.  We crossed the Continental Divide about six times.  Eventually we crossed into Utah.  Within an hour or so we were at Park City, Utah, former HOME of a Winter olympics.  After the Olympics one could purchase a condo for a tenth of what they were selling for before the Olympics; prices have gone back up.  From Park City it is about twenty miles down hill on a twisting interstate that is eight lanes (four West and four East).  Otherwise it is still some beautiful scenery.  Then Salt Lake City which I find very easy to drive through; in fact I find it easy to drive around in Salt Lake City.  We continued West on I-80 past the Great Salt Lake and the operations of at least three companies mining the salt for sale (think Morton's, etc.).  It is about two hours before you reached the Bonneville Salt Flats, but you can see the salt fields for the last hour.  We drove through this area at approximately 4:45 P.M. and the temperature had already droppped to 99 degrees.  Just past the Bonnevile Salt Flats you leave Utah and enter Nevada.  I might have mentioned it before, but, at the state line are two towns.  East Wendover (Utah) and across the main road the separates them is Wendover (Nevada).  We have often stopped for the buffet at the Red Lion Hotel/Casino; its not too bad.  Leaving the Wendovers, we continued West to Elko, NV, arriving at approximately 5:45 P.M. (Local time - having passed through the one last time zone) and having completed 667.6 milesfor the day.    The forebodding was still there with me.

Michael McLeod

Well John this just isn't your day. First the doctor has to take you down a notch and now you're not only flunking English lit but I don't like your attitude and I've got my eye on you as a behavioral issue. Congrats to Larry and Clare for being ideal students although they will have to split the White Castles. 

David Mitchell

Joe,

You should be filming these trips so you can get a show on the "Travel Network" - or is it the "Food Network".

(Should one of us call Rick Steves and put him on notice?)

-----------

Oh, and Clare,

Just curious - Is "busy on the balcony" anything like the "casting ponds"?  

James Hamilton, M. D.

Hey, Mike,

As I recall, Shakespeare was big on "curses" and wasn't one of them also "a pox be upon you" or something like that.

Gives me an idea for another quiz on pox diseases... 😁

Jim 

Michael McLeod

Yes Jim In some of the old folios pox is used in that quote rather than plague. They were synonymous 

Joseph D. McCarthy

In response to Dave.  Phleet!!!!   I ain't no journalist; in case you couldn't figure that out by yourself maybe Mike can provide help.

One of the things I overlooked on yesterdays adventure story was that I-80 is a better route if one just wants to get from one Eastern/Midwestern location to the Bay area of California.  Taking I-70 only as far as Indianapolis and turning West/North on I-74 to the quad cities to connect with I-80 is the fastest way to I-80.  The only major cities you have to drive through, or around, are Indianapolis, Des Moines, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Reno, and the worst, Sacramento, CA.  The scenery is generally very beautiful.

The Alternative is taking I-70 West to the Utah border and shifting to Highway 50.  Unitl you reach Denver most of the land (plains) are flat and un-interesting.  However, once you hit Denver and start the drive West there are some fabuolus sites and views.  But it is a longer drive with few cities for miles and miles (think no gas).

James Hamilton, M. D.

Plague Quiz Answers

1.  B.  Fleas

2.  D.  Enlarged Lymph Nodes

3.  C. Pneumonic

​​​​​​Mark, 

2 out of 3 ain't bad!

Final plague thought: a nursery rhyme

Ring around the rosie, 

​​​​​​Pocket full of posies. 

​​​Ashes! Ashes!

​​​​​We all fall down. 

Jim 

Michael McLeod

that's like the most morbid nursery rhyme in history. All the images reference the plague = the circular lesions it caused, the flowers people used to mask the smell of decaying bodies, we all fall down speaks for itself, and I am guessing on this one - burning infested buildings

HOWEVER; After writing this from memory I just checked on this (starting with snopes) and apparently more recently folklorists have called this interpretation into question  - that people just like to come up with unfounded theories. Hmmm perhaps there is a lesson here. Perhaps the tendency isn't restricted to nursery rhymes.

Joseph D. McCarthy

I break in on this down day at the forum with Earth UN-Shaking news.

This is the Second time the Electric Utility (PG&E) has turned off power to people throughout parts of the San Francisco Bay Area.  An area from South of San Jose (approximately 60 miles South of San Francisco) to North of Healdsburg (approximately 75 - 80 miles North of San Francisco).  

In the First there was barely hours notice till they turned off the power.  In this latest they provided about a day; however, you had to keep checking their website to see if you would be affected.  As of the present we are NOT affected, and have full power.

What happends when the power is shut-off in your area.  Oh of course no lights, no heat or air conditioning, and possibly no water (especially to flush toilets).  But don't forget- no computer, no TV, no REFRIGERATOR, and No land-line phones OR cell phones.  This mornings paper reported the death of a Viet Nam veteran who was on oxygen for numerous reasons including lung cancer.  Without electricity he couldn't work his oxygen system.

Also the area is going through another major fire North of us, and one that has jumped I-80 (at the point where it is a eight to ten lane highway that is SouthEast of us.  Other than that the authorities have called for Mandatory evacuations.  Last night Highway 101 heading towards San Francisco was a slow moving Parking Lot.  I think it's the same this morning.

John Jackson

Mike, this whole sorry episode has left me with a really bad taste in my mouth.  I can’t help thinking your “plague” challenge was just a trick question designed to sucker in and embarrass poor engineers like me.  I confess that I cheated and Googled your quote and it came back – “Music Man” (I swear!).  Or was I just a victim of that “Fake News” stuff that everyone's talking about?

After flaming out in such an inglorious manner (and to try to rehabilitate my image as someone who only posts tiresome anti-Trump diatribes), I’ll mention that Carol (my wife) and I usually take some type of fall trip  and this year we’re going to Ottawa, capital of our great neighbor to the north.  We’ve been there a few times over the years and it’s a lovely city, very green and park-like with both the Ottawa River and the Rideau Canal system (built in 1827 to connect Ottawa to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence) winding through the center of the city.  The city is small and walkable  - wherever you stay you can easily walk to Parliament Hill or along the canal (now devoted strictly to recreation) or you can even cross the river on a footbridge and you’re in Quebec.    

Normally we go when the fall colors are at their peak but this year we’re going a bit later to see a concert by Loreena McKennitt, a Canadian singer, at the National Arts Center (which I assume is Canada’s version of the Kennedy Center in Washington).  She got her start writing/making music for the Stratford (Ontario) Skaespeare Festival but has been on her own for the last 30 years or so.  She writes most of her own songs (a few are traditional) and they mostly have ancient Celtic themes but some also have Middle Eastern/Moorish influences (it sounds odd but it works).  I thought of her now because she’s put some excerpts from Shakespeare to music as well as  classic English/Irish poetry including Tennyson’s “Lady of Shallot” and  Yeats’ “The Stolen Child”.

It may sound kind of ethereal and high brow, but IMHO she takes some fairly esoteric musical themes and really pulls you in.  The links below are all from a concert she gave at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain in 2006.  PBS showed it as a special (maybe some of you saw it).  As usual, YouTube video quality leaves a lot to be desired, but I have the DVD (remember those?) and when it’s played on a big-screen TV hooked up to a decent sound system it’s pretty awesome.  For this concert she’s accompanied by three musicians (playing electric fiddle, cello, and guitar/mandolin/electric guitar) who have been with her since the start and another half dozen local musicians playing ancient/exotic/really obscure instruments (any oud or hurdy-gurdy fans out there?)

The first link below is to one of her own compositions and Halloween-appropriate, “All Souls Night” and  the second is Yeats’ “Stolen Child”.  The last, my favorite, is “The Bonny Swans” an ancient song with many, many versions – details vary from version to version but all tell the story of a young woman who drowns her younger sister in a fit of romantic jealousy.  The song has a fantasy/fairy tale aspect – the older sister gets her comeuppance when the drowned sister’s body is transformed first into a swan and then into a harp.  The harp somehow makes its way to the court of the king (who happens to be the father of the sisters) where it starts to play and sing on its own, telling the story of the older sister’s treachery. Are you all with me on the story line?  Ok, even if you’re not, listen to the guitar riffs - Led Zeppelin devotees might scoff, but for my money the guitar work approaches “Stairway to Heaven” territory.

All Souls Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp2cOUb_Wgo

Stolen Child:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2DcrSGl9E8

Bonny Swans: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdRsRuGqDC8

Lawrence Foster

A Little More Shakespeare.

Mike,  I appreciate being able to share the White Castles' prize for the Romeo and Juliet Shakespeare quote.  But, I am giving it all to Clare so she can take the grandkids out and spoil them rotten that way.   After all that is what we are supposed to do as grandparents.

I have just made a long post over on the User Forum about Shakespeare and added some photos and scans (a dozen) most of which are from my great aunt's visit to Stratford in 1904.  But here is one of them to tempt you all to go look at the others.

Below is a charcoal rubbing from Shakespeare's grave when she was there in 1904.  It now hangs in my home.  The security folks in Stratford said they don't allow rubbings to be made and originally said that rubbings don't exist.  When they found out it was from the early 1900s (115 years old now) they said that maybe one does exist.   If you have time to go over to the User Forum I hope you will enjoy the read.   

The poem written by Shakespeare says:

Good friend for Jesus sake forbear,

To digg the dust enclosed heare!

Blest be the man that spares these stones,

And curst be he that moves my bones.

There is a story that at one time Shakespeare's remains were going to be moved to Westminister Abbey and buried in the Poet's Corner where now are buried writers and poets like Browning, Chaucer, Dickens, Kipling, Tennyson, and many others.  But when the workers came and read the curse they refused to exhume the remains.     

Michael McLeod

Had breakfast with MC Hummer and Brian McNamara today.

Forgot to bring her the White Castles.

Guess this means I need to come back soon. Back to Orlando tomorrow am.

John: all you have to do to get me back is to ask me a simple nuts and bolts engineering question. Or watch me try to change a tire, Thanks for the music. Glorious.

Larry: I have seen that rubbing in the lobby of the Orlando Shakes. Love it!

Mark/Jocko: Brian and I regaled Mary Clare with our tale of the state fair escapade.

Jeanine Eilers (Decker)

On a lighter note...David Barbour came through Phoenix last Thursday and stayed the night with us.  We had a great time considering we really didn't know each other from a hill of beans.  But the WHS veins run deep so the conversation was constant.  Hope your ears were burning.  David is on his way home with a couple of stops left so we wish him safe travel.

David Mitchell

Damn!

I thought I had gone to a Loreena McKennitt chat room, but a Shakespeare Festival broke out!

Yikes!  English majors commin' outt'a the woodwork. 

Well, not that one guy. He wandered under the shade of a "Golden Dome" and got seduced by quadratic equations. I guess he went on to do okay at something. Personally, I never thought slide rules were all that much fun. To each his own, I guess.

But I knew him way back when he got straight A+s in English. And he thought Peter, Paul & Mary was cool music. To bad about him. Oh well, stuff happens! 

Damn Liberals, they'll listen to just about any kind of music.

(his parents should have taken those Cheiftains and Mary Black albums away from him years ago)

As any intelligent person wood know, what the world reely needs is morr Joe Cocker, Jerry Jeff Walker, or George Straight.

James Hamilton, M. D.

All,

Unbelievable! Who would have thought that a simple topic like the plague would have led to such a great discussion of the Bard, William Shakespeare? What great historical and literary posts, as well as Larry's classic turn-of-the-twentieth-century photographs, resulted. Our classmates never cease to amaze me with these historical musings.

O.K., you will soon be challanged with yet another quiz regarding a long forgotten, but still present, disease, to see if you can connect it with any of your historical and literary knowledge.

Think: armidillos!

Jim

Michael McLeod

Not sure if this is where you are headed Jim but I remember many years ago seeing something about one of the weirdest creatures on earth being studied in connection with a possible cure for a terrible disease with longstanding historical roots.I'll say no more but I hope something has come from that research.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

You are barking up the right tree... 

Jim

Michael McLeod

well don't keep me in suspense. Leprosy cure come through? This was at least 20 years ago when I saw an article about it.

Boy it was great to be in Columbus on a football weekend. Just got home.

James Hamilton, M. D.

Mike, 

Be patient, quiz will be coming later today! 

​​Just got in from shoveling and snow blowing 7-9 inches of wet, heavy snow. Need some coffee and rest first. My 33 year old, trusty, all metal, Ariens snow blower still works! 

​​​​Glad you got home safely. 

Jim 

Mark Schweickart

John --- Thanks for introducing us (maybe I should just say "me")  to Loreena McKinnett. I had never heard of her. However, as fascinating as her musical accompaniment is, and her unusual choice of lyric material, nevertheless, I must admit that (especially in the Bonny Swan song) I could not follow the words at all. I am assuming you had some sort of lyric sheet to follow along with since you summarized the plot for us.

Mike -- appropos what I just said to John above, and since you and I seem to be the two biggest Springsteen fans in the group, I am wondering what your take is on his new concert film, Western Stars, that just hit the theaters. I hate to say this, but I was not overwhelmed... not underwhelmed, I guess I was in the middle (I was going to say "whelmed" but that seems to mean the same thing as "overwhelmed" -- had to look that up). Anyway, it was a huge departure for him, backing himself not with a rock band but with a full orchestra, and the musical arrangements were very pleasant to listen to, but the lyric writing left me cold, if not confused, more often than not. His in-between song comments which acted as lead-ins to the songs were often helpful (often poignant, even profound, as he is so good at doing), but the songs themselves felt too vague to me. There was much to like about the film, the setting in this 100 year old cathedral like barn, the photograghy of the American Southwest, the use of home movie footage from the 50's, and of course one cannot help but admire him daring to try something this different. But it certainly did not pack the wallop that his Springsteen on Broadway did that was on Netflix earlier this year, which, I might add took the exact opposite approach. There, the musical accompaniment, was minimal--just an accoustic guitar, or piano, and the power came from the lyics and his performance. This time, although the lyrics were generally understandable, I thought their vagueness just didn't convey much of a recognizable story or emotional message.

Mary Margaret Clark (Schultheis)

"Pardon the interruption"......I hate to barge in on the the current topics, but I came across this video of a presentation given by Tim Tebow, and although I had watched it some time ago, I was once again reminded that there are very few true coincidences in life.  Looking back into my own past, as I often do nowadays, I understand more fully that those "aha moments" which I once considered "conincidences" were, in fact, those times when God was revealing His presence to me through this very physical world in which we live.

I have also provided a link from ESPN verifying the statistics spoken of in the video. 

 https://youtu.be/nyxjRcyrj8s

https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/10spot-divisional/tim-tebow-phenomenon-gets-eerie--adam-schefter-10-spot