The Bard on Cheese.
In which I share a few thoughts on Shakespeare, his place on my bookshelves, and his connection to grilled cheese sandwiches. Plus the usual updates on words written and spoken,
Shakespeare looms large in our lives. Literally, for the framed poster above sits at one end of our library and is the first thing you see when entering our home.
I can’t recall when I fell in love with Shakespeare’s works. It certainly wasn’t at school where they were crammed down our throats in the most boring way possible. In fact the way that he is taught in most schools is almost guaranteed to put anyone off ever enjoying his work again.
I think it was probably not long after we were married, and in those halcyon pre-kid days (sorry Meggan and Erin), we would meet up with a group of like-minded friends and either go out for a good meal, or set out for the weekend to explore different parts of Britain, be it a Cornish coastal fishing village, or go to Stratford-on-Avon to see a play at the Royal Shakespeare Company theater. To be honest I don’t recall which play we saw the first time we went there, but I do recall that Anthony Sher was playing the lead. It was one of those “light bulb” moments in your life. Watching Shakespeare being performed the way it should be was the moment I got it. We ended up making multiple trips back to Stratford over the next few years.
Over the years it wasn’t only Shakespeare’s works that caught my attention, it was the story of his life as well. The result is shelves of books about the Bard, his life, and the authorship question (a subject I may address in a future newsletter), all research for a novel on Shakespeare I’ve been messing around with for well over a decade now, and should really write one day.
So what prompted this musing on all things Shakespeare? It was toasted cheese.
For Christmas last year Gill gifted me a 2023 calendar of Shakespeare Insults. A daily dive into various barbs extracted from the Bard’s works and delivered in his own inimitable style. Often they are fairly esoteric in nature and need a little thinking about. But this was today’s entry.
Which immediately made me smile. For it suddenly conjured up a picture of Shakespeare himself getting the inspiration for that line by hanging out at a certain food truck here in Austin.
The bard himself tucking into the product from a food truck on Rainey Street, now there’s a thought. Maybe I need to find a way to add a scene like that into the novel?
Other Stuff
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Word Slinging & Brabazon Bits
A good week of word slinging. Finished up and submitted to the editor the essay for an upcoming anthology project, plus completed the next column for a new gig writing for a technology website.
I also took the draft of the chapter of the Brabazon book on the Brabazon Committee to my writers group meet-up this week. How do you make a chapter on government committee meetings interesting? However, I got some great feedback and ideas on fine tuning my approach to what had been a tricky chapter to write. This week I continued the deep dive into the research on the Brabazon design process with lots of notes written up. Then there came that moment when you are writing up notes for your current book project and thinking about where the information will fit into the narrative - and realize that two chapters need to be combined, and two other chapters need to be reordered !! - Sort of a literary game of jenga.
Pages and Screens
Books Read in 2023 - “Making History“ by Richard Cohen
What makes a historian? In this expansive volume Cohen tackles this very question by examining the history of writing history.
He takes a wide ranging approach covering not just the traditional historians from the classical age to today, but also considers the role played by dramatists, novelists, politicians, and tv and movie in how we tell tales of our past and how those tales are consumed.
It’s at times an equally fascinating and frustrating read that takes a broad approach to a vast subject. As a consequence I felt some areas maybe didn’t get the spotlight they deserved, while others were bogged down in too much detail.
But if you have any interest in how “history” is really made then I highly recommend this volume.
(And it takes the prize for the most heavily footnoted book I think I’ve ever read.)
Podcast Procrastinations
The Before They Were Beatles podcast - The recent episode on the departure on Pete Best and the arrival of Ringo Starr as a member of The Beatles has proven pretty popular with it achieving around 50% of a typical episode’s regular monthly download volume in just its first week online.
And talking of Before They Were Beatles, just a reminder that if you’d like to keep up with the progress of the work on the 20th Anniversary edition of the Before They Were Beatles book you can sign up for a subscription to the dedicated Substack monthly newsletter HERE. -
Ranking The Bonds made its returns to the On Her Majesty’s Secret Podcast network this week as Van Allen Pelxico and I discussed Roger Moore’s debut as 007 in Live and Let Die. Where did we stand on our views of villains, hench-men, gadgets and more. When will Van feel the need to challenge Alan’s rankings, and how did Alan explain the differences between New Orleans and New York to Van? Tune in HERE to find out.
Weekly Web Round-Up
Forest Comics & Books - We posted another batch of goodies on eBay recently including some fun jigsaws related to the world’s or Agatha Christie, James Bond, Monet and more. And talking of Bond were also selling a selection of Fleming novels from the James Bond Classic Library series. These editions are always popular thanks to their distinctive colorful cover designs.
Batman On The Cover - The journey through Batman’s comics publishing history continues this week as we look at the comics from February1968 published in Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Italy, and Lebanon.
As always, thanks for joining me for this week’s rambles through the Forest. And don’t forget to sign up for a FREE subscription so you don’t miss future updates.
See you next time
Alan J. Porter