eLizabethan ePistle

Famous First Words: O for a Muse of Fire...William Shakespeare Henry V

This is Shakespeare Week (March 20-26). Knock, Knock. Who's there? The Earl of Oxford. The Earl of Oxford who? Exactly.

..........My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun.........Sting …..Sister Moon (Sonnet 130)

Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. --William Shakespeare

It is a warm (67°F), windy Friday morning. The sky is covered with giant, gray cotton balls smoosched together and driven to the northeast by 16 mph breezes. Under them small wisps are tortured into other shapes: dragons and darts. The clouds mute the rising sun and make it seems as though it is earlier in the day. There is bird song aplenty but none has made it to the backyard. Alas, when the trash truck grinds its way down the street the sweet music disappears altogether. Pax and Puck share perimeter duty pacing the fence barking at Kirsten as she rides her bike off to work and at the man across the street who has the audacity to walk to his car. The world has begun to show color: greens, of course, some deep, some frivolously pastel and trees flowering in white and more slowly with greens and yellow formal flowers and purple lawn cover. A lovely world. I sniff the air for the smell of rain, but cannot find it. Ah, the din departs and the bird song returns; how pleasant. Puck and I return indoors out of the wind into the aroma of fresh coffee and left over incense. The Northwest Blend decaf, properly processed, sparkles on my tongue and kisses the morning with spice. Good morning, ePistliers.

Hope your weekend is a thing divine, ePistliers.                  (The Tempest)

Dr Seuss meets William Shakespeare: From Hamlet Hears a Hoof: Art thou my mother? Neigh. / I ask to be, or not to be. That is the question, I ask of me.

..........I'm not even acquainted with my old desires.........Bob Dylan …..Bye and Bye (As You Like It)

Trivia Questions: Happy Name Day, Pluto!

^ What was Pluto god of, anyway?

^^ How long would it take a ray traveling at light speed from the surface of Earth to reach Pluto?

^^^ What is unique about the rotation of Pluto and Uranus?

^^^^ How much would one weigh on Pluto?

^^^^^ Know anything about Pluto's moons?

Fake Library Statistic of the Week: Top librarian responses to any situation: -45% chocolate -28% tea -25% cake -15% loud sighing https://www.facebook.com/FakeLibStats/?fref=ts

Moonbeam: and I am awaiting perpetually and forever a renaissance of wonder --Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Walmart meets William Shakespeare: Now is the winter of our discount tent. / Green Hops in Beer

..........And I want to be free..........October Project ….Ariel (The Tempest)

Lenten Message of the Week: Forgive other people as quickly as you expect God to forgive you.

Big Hello: Witéj – Kashubian (Poland)

Weekend of the Week American Crossword Puzzle Weekend (March 24-26) -

Science Fiction Convention of the Week: MidSouthCon (March 24-26, Memphis, TN) - The area’s longest running Science Fiction Convention celebrates its 35th anniversary! http://midsouthcon.org/

Shall I compare thee to a winter’s night?
Like icy snow, the blistering winds doth blow
Thou art just as cruel, and filled with spite
Those cold, cruel seeds reaped, in thy soul hath sowed

..........Let's kill all the lawyers..........The Eagles …..Get Over It (Henry VI)

^ Pluto was the King of the Underworld; a sort of Hades 2.1.

Almanac: It is Friday, March 24, 2017. The moon will be new on Monday and is in Aquarius. The UN has declared this World Tuberculosis Day (World Hehalth Organization) and International Day for the Right to the Truth concerning Gross Human Rights Violations and for the Dignity of Victims (A/RES/65/196). It is also National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day and Agriculture Day.

Among those born on this day were Georgius Agricola (1494), Rufus King (1755), Joseph Liouville (1809), Elisa Felix (1821), John Wesley Powell and William Morris (1834), Andrew Mellon (1855), Emile Fabre (1869), Harry Houdini (1874), Fatty Arbuckle (1887), Arthur Murray (1895), Wilhelm Reich (1897), Thomas Dewey (1902), Malcolm Muggeridge (1903), John Cameron Swayze (1906), Lucia Chase (1907), Clyde Barrow (1909), Fritz Liebert and Joseph Barbera (1911), Lawrence Ferlinghetti (1919), Gene Nelson (1920), Normal Fell (1924), Steve McQueen (1930), Patti Labelle (1944), and Lara Flynn Boyle (1970).

On March twenty-fourth the Peace of Boulogne was signed (France & England, 1550), King James VI became King James I of England (1603), Williams was granted a charter to colonize Rhode Island (1664), Britian enacted the Quartering Act (1765), Aleksandr Romanov became emperor of Russia (1801), Canada granted suffrage to blacks (1837), Manhattan Kansas was founded (as New Boston, 1855), the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company formed (1868), the first telephone call between NYC and Chiacgo was put through (1883), the first automobile was sold (1898), Greece became a republic again (1924), the then planet Pluto was named (1930), Major Bowes' Original Amateur House went national (NBC Radio, 1935), Rockefeller donated the East River site to the United Nations (1947), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof opened (1955), Elvis joined the army (1958), the Kennedy half dollar was issued (1964), and Isabel Peron was deposed (1976).

This Week: Saturday, March 25 – Earth Hour & Tolkien Reading Day

Night Sky (3/15): Venus, by virtue of orbiting closer to the Sun than Earth, also moves faster. Periodically, it "laps" our planet and passes almost directly between us and the Sun. This is known as "inferior conjunction," and for several days around that time, Venus may be too close to the Sun to be visible in our skies at all (March 25, 2017, 10:00 am EDT).

Sunday, March 26 – Purple Day and Spinach Day

Night Sky (3/16): This is the time of year when the dim Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) juts to the right from Polaris (the Little Dipper's handle-end) during late evening. The much brighter Big Dipper curls over high above it, "dumping water" into it.

Monday, March 27 – Mule Day & Quirky Country Music Song Titles Day

Night Sky (3/27): The moon is new in Aries.

Tuesday, March 28 – Be Mad Day & Weed Appreciation Day

Night Sky (3/28): Mars (magnitude +1.4, in Aries) is the brightest "star" moderately low due west in late twilight. The orange stars Alpha Arietis and Alpha Ceti in the same general area are fainter. In a telescope, Mars is a hopeless little fuzzblob 4.4 arcseconds across.

Wednesday, March 29 – Little Red Wagon Day & Texas Loves the Children Day

Night Sky (3/29): Saturn (magnitude +0.5, in Sagittarius upper right of the Teapot) rises in the early morning hours and glows in the southeast to south before and during dawn. Redder Antares (magnitude +1.0) twinkles 18° to Saturn's right

Thursday, March 30 – Pencil Day & World Bi-polar Day

..........As merry as the days were long..........The Smith …..You've Got Everything Now (Much Ado About Nothing)

^^ A radio signal moving at the speed of light takes about 4 hours to reach Pluto from Earth.

Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: Laura Palmer was a coke-addicted hooker fighting off literal demon possession but she still supported Meals on Wheels. --Submitted by cc of ks

Moonbeam: ...a few dead minds in the higher places..........Lawrence Ferlinghetti The world is a beautiful place

Late Night Snacks: Today was the start of March Madness. That’s right, President Drumpf released his new budget today. --Seth Meyers / You guys have all been watching the March Madness games — that’s why we’re on a little later tonight. So, drunk people just getting home: Welcome to the show. And senior citizens sitting down to breakfast: Good morning. --James Corden / They say American businesses will lose more than $2 billion in productivity because of the tournament. If that’s true, we should probably get rid of it, right? Can you imagine if Donald Drumpf canceled the NCAA tournament? Then we’d see some marches. --Jimmy Kimmel / El Chapo’s lawyers say that while in US custody, his health is deteriorating. El Chapo has lost so much weight, he’s down two tunnel sizes. --Conan O'Brien / We were supposed to get up to 2 feet of snow, but it turned to sleet early — just cold and brittle, right in your face. It reminded me of Kellyanne Conway. --Stephen Colbert

When lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner. --William Shakespeare

..........and my daddy said, 'Stay away from Juliet'.........Taylor Swift …..Love Story (Romeo & Juliet)

^^^ Like Uranus, Pluto rotates on its side.

Worthless Fact of the Week: A group of New England Free-Staters traveled to Kansas Territory under the auspices of the New England Emigrant Aid Company to found a Free-State town. Led by Isaac Goodnow, the first members of the group selected the current Manhattan location for the Aid Company's new settlement.

Weird Word of the Week: Artilect - used as a term for devices that exhibit autonomous learning behavior, a blend from artificial intellect. It was apparently coined by Professor Hugo de Garis, head of the Brain Builder Group at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute in Kyoto, Japan. Prof de Garis, who calls himself an intelligist (another word he seems to have invented), argues that by 2050 we shall indeed have computers of superhuman intelligence. http://www.worldwidewords.org/turnsofphrase/tp-art1.htm

Wicked Funniest Thing I Read of the Week: May you live to be so old that the mere sight of you horrifies young children and ex-lovers. --submitted by bb of ks ~~Been there, done that.

Wacky Uses for Common Products: Shine Shoes. To shine shoes, use the cotton tip of a Tampax Tampon to buff. Many soldiers in the US Military buff their shoes and boots with Tampax Tampons to achieve an impressive shine for inspections. http://www.wackyuses.com/wacky/tampax.html

Let me not to the marriage of true swine
Admit impediments. With his big car
He's won your heart, and you have punctured mine.

...........Oh, there ain't no love no, Montagues or Capulets..........Arctic Monkeys …..I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor (Romeo and Juliet)

^^^^ A person on Pluto would weigh 1/15 what they weigh on Earth. The astronauts on the Moon had 1/6 of their Earth weight.

Word Shakespeare Made Up of the Week: Frugal – economical in use or expenditure, not wasteful. The Merry Wives of Windsor Act II Scene I: Mistress Page: I was then frugal of my mirth: Heaven forgive me.

Amazing Thing on the Internet of the Week: Paint like Pollock. Warning – a blank screen with no instructions pops up and you have to move your mouse for anything to happen and you click the mouse button to change colors. http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

Puck the Brave Episode of the Week: Here's our fearless Puck in action in the case of the Running Walker.

Let me not to the secret hiding place,
You put the chocolate cookie, that I love,
Filled with dark cocoa, and  a biscuit base,
With some firm's Label that's printed above

..........No man's a jester playing Shakespeare.........Elton John …..The King Must Die (King Lear)

^^^^^ Pluto has five moons down to a detection limit of about 1 km in diameter. In order of distance from Pluto, they are Charon, Styx, Nix, Kerberos, and Hydra.

Month of the Week: March is Women's History Month …

Famous Kansans: Colleen McMurphy, a lead character from the show China Beach, was from a "small town" in Kansas. http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0041921/quotes

Today's Peace of History, March 24, 1967: In Chicago, Rev Martin Luther King, Jr. led an anti-war march for the first time opposing the Vietnam War by saying: Our arrogance can be our doom. It can bring the curtains down on our national drama . . . Ultimately, a great nation is a compassionate nation The bombs in Vietnam explode at home—they destroy the dream and possibility for a decent America .

All the world's a bar,

And all the men and women merely drinkers;

They have their hiccups and their staggerings:

And one man in a day drinks many glasses.

..........lives after them..........Iron Maiden …..The Evil That Men Do (Julius Caesar)

Masthead of the Week: fRiday ePistle March 24, 2016. eLizabethian ePistle. Online at: http://fridayepistle.blogspot.com/ Not fake, but certainly not real. Exclusive editor: Christine Smith. 1800 Goodell Ct. Lawrence, KS 66046

Moonbeam: No more chanting Hare Krishna while Rome burns. --Lawrence Ferlinghetti Populist Manifesto No. 1

Cost of War:

Tax dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 3/23/17: $766,622,940,811.

Tax dollars spent in Afghanistan: as of 3/16/17: $765,975,573,307.

Tax dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 3/23/17: $820,377,566,100.

Tax dollars spent on the Iraq war since 2001 as of 316/17: $820,318,645,804.

Tax dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 3/23/17: $14,205,580,617.

Tax dollars spent on Daesh conflict as of 3/16/17: $14,106,096,224.

Tax dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 3/23/17: $145,236,882,918.

Tax dollars spent on the Pentagon Slush Fund as of 3/16/17: $144,683,345,247.

Tax dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 3/23/17: $1,750,769,213,183.

Tax dollars spent on all wars since 2001 as of 3/16/17: $1,749,417,403,437.

https://www.nationalpriorities.org/

Corruption wins not more than honesty. Still in the right hand carry gentle peace, to silence envious tongues. --William Shakespeare

..........Oh untimely death..........The Beatles …..I Am the Walrus (King Lear)

How many Henry VIs does it take to change a light bulb? One one, but he has to do it in three parts. / How many Macbeths does it take to change a light bulb? I wouldn't know. Every time he sees a working light bulb, he yells, “Out, out brief candle!” and smashes it to bits.

Famous Last Words: And let's away, to part the glories of this happy day. --Julius Caesar.

May Peace grace your bounteous table

And Joy be your sweet companion

prairie mama

christine

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