- February 15 – On this day in 1564 Galileo was born, two months before William Shakespeare.
- February 18 – On this day, two months before Shakespeare was born, Michelangelo died.
It's lucky there was something to report from the Almanac because there haven't been so many sightings and some of them are a bit odd:
Shakespeare sightings:
- Steven Pinker in his book Words and Rules continues to refer to Shakespeare and his language and he astutely notes, among other things, that, “We do not speak like Shakespeare (1564-1616), who did not speak like Chaucer (1343-1400), who did not speak like the author of Beowulf (around 750-800)” (p.47) He's not just stating the obvious, he's making a point against language police who don't want language to change.
- In the movie Bobby, about the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Anthony Hopkins' character says to Harry Belafonte's character about their daily chess game, “Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow.” Anthony Hopkins has undoubtedly said these very words on stage in their original context in...well, which play? Contest time! First to comment correctly on the blog gets the big prize!
- In the old sci-fi novel The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (the author of Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep upon which the classic movie Blade Runner was based), an obscure reference to Shakespeare is made and I quote: “Commit suicide by drowning himself on an ocean voyage? Maybe I ought to do that. But here there was no ocean. But there is always a way. Like in Shakespeare. A pin stuck through one's shirt front, and good-bye Frank” (p.35). There, did you get that? I didn't. Please explain if you can!
That's it for this week.
