By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Mar 14, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
The real Shakespeare controversy.
For centuries, commentators have debated whether Shakespeare really wrote Shakespeare’s literary works.
The recently released movie, Anonymous, which I saw last week, examines the evidence in depth and comes to some interesting conclusions.
Perhaps it was Christopher Marlowe.
Perhaps it was someone else.
But I’ve decided there is an even a bigger and more profound way of asking the question:
“Should it even matter if Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare since most individuals who claim to have read Shakespeare, really haven’t read Shakespeare— and are only pretended to?”
When I was asked in college what Shakespeare plays I had read, I answered Macbeth, Hamlet, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello.
But that wasn’t true. I had seen the movies for those plays with the exception of King Lear, which I read. But even with Lear much of my reading was done by relying on Cliff Notes.
So, until we get to the bottom of whether people who claim they have read Shakespeare are real people who have actually read Shakespeare (and aren’t just pretending to), we should hold off investigating the authorship question altogether.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Mar 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
A friend on Sunday I hadn’t seen in a while said to me, “Hey, you’ve put on some weight recently, haven’t you?”
It was a gentle, friendly comment. Not insulting.
I said, “Well, I’m involved in a international protest and am on a “diet strike” until justice prevails. This is day 14 of not going on a diet.”
My friend paused for a moment and then realized it was safe to laugh–and did.
“What protest?” he asked?
“Well, that’s sort of fluid right now….I haven’t exactly decided yet. But I was ready to commit to my form of protest and wanted to get a head start.”
“You ain’t right” came back the answer.
I get that response more often than I care to report.
The important point is “You ain’t right” isn’t the insult it seems at first blush. In fact it’s kind of a back handed compliment.
Anyway, that’s my status update. And I’ve narrowed my choices for protesting. And today is day 19 of my “diet strike”—and there is no turning back at this point.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Mar 9, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Need help with advice.
Etiquette question..I can’t find an entry for this in Ms Manners and hoping there is a ready formula for dealing with this awkward situation.
OK, you walk into a social event and see someone you’ve known for several years and never had trouble recalling their name, but suddenly blank out.
You quickly run through the alphabet in your head as they are walking toward you but to no avail.
You have a family member with you and don’t have time now–after wasting precious seconds on the alphabet –to tell the family member to introduce himself first to this “good friend” bc you can’t remember his name. Or even the letter his name might begin with.
So, you quickly grab your Blackberry and run a check on what you think his first name is.
You are correct, look up, and eagerly greet and introduce your friend to your family member….just before your “good friend” glances down at your Blackberry to see his name staring back at him.
He pauses to ask, “Were you going to call me?” but then realizes what “probably” happened and starts to say something sarcastic but stops.
What is the socially appropriate thing to say in this situation?
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Mar 7, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
A Facebook secret.
Facebook is a place where millions of people seemingly give advice to millions of other people daily but are really just using others as an excuse to give—and hopefully take—their own advice.
And I think that’s a very good thing.
The advice is communicated in status updates containing inspirational quotes, wise advice, clever slogans, and touching stories. Which seems lately to be on the rise.
We are telling ourselves that we need to adopt that particular thought or this mindset or take that action. It’s always easier to take advice ourselves if we can do so under the guise of giving that advice to others. It’s easier to hear, to accept, and ultimately to take. And FB gives us that always ready third-party, i.e. the FB world.
So, maybe, through all the status updates where we are seemingly nudging the world to become a little bit better place is actually working. By allowing us more often to nudge ourselves to each become a little bit better person.
And so maybe that isn’t so much a Facebook secret as much as it is the secret to Facebook.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Mar 6, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Great fails in family myth making opportunities.
All families need stories that make them better than they really are. The key is that the have to be believable (or willing to be believed) and told by a credible elder of the family.
Usually repeatedly.
When I was about 14 and felt about as confused and insecure as, well, a 14 year old should, I was alone with my grandmother (Mamaw) and struck up a conversation that had great potential.
We were watching TV at her house and she was eating a PB&J sandwich and half paying attention to me. I loved her more than about anyone. She told things like they were. She lived in Muhlenberg County and although she never finished high school, I always felt she was smarter and wiser than my other grandma who was Phi Beta Kappa.
Plus, I was her favorite grandchild.
I’d been hearing about other kids at school who were making straight A’s and were National Merit Scholars and geniuses so on.
“Mamaw,” I asked, “You know how some kids are gifted intellectually?”
“Oh, I suppose. Your Uncle Jim Bob was.” (Jim Bob was her son and she liked him more than even me.), she replied predictably.
“What about the grandchildren, though?” Mamaw?
“What do you mean?” she asked. “Well, when we were younger did any of us seem, you know, kinda gifted or especially bright or special in some way?”
My grandmother took a bite of her sandwich and without ever looking away from the TV responded lovingly (in her own way), “Well, none of you were retarded or anything like that, if that’s what you mean.”
That ended the conversation as well as my hopes of being gifted at anything. I never got to tell her that wasn’t what I meant. But I always loved her—even after that. And sometimes the gift of loving candor is better than being gifted at some random skill anyway.
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Mar 5, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Always liked this song, wondered what the meaning was….and felt I could somehow relate. In some profound way.
You know what I mean? You feel you can related to a song without having any idea what the meaning is?
I speculated it could be stuck in the middle of life or middle of an important metaphorical dilemma or just stuck and waiting for some existential meaning or spiritual breakthough and learning to make the most of it (and grateful to have the person next to you to help make the journey worthwhile, a sort of Waiting for Godot)
Well, turns out the lyrics are based on an actual negotiation at a restaurant where the singer/songwriter was stuck between two others who were part of the negotiation.
Much like the video.
Oh well. I can relate to that too.
Was just hoping the song, and my life, had more profound meaning that this. But the older I get, the more I’m beginning to realize it may not.
And that I better enjoy the music, the good food, the conversation with the joker and the clown.
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Mar 2, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Biblical origins of Democrats and Republicans?
A few years ago I had the honor of sitting next to former Ohio Representative Tony Hall who spoke at Kentucky’s prayer breakfast.
He’s a faithful and inspirational leader and we discussed a range of serious topics before I inevitably had to try to inject some humor into our heavy topics.
Rep. Hall had a wonderful sense of humor and inevitably the discussion turned to the bitter partisanship that was dividing our country.
There was a mix of Republicans and Democrats at the dinner. Actually more Republicans…and we wondered aloud where this division started.
I offered my theory that the Biblical story of the Prodigal Son may help answer that question.
The Prodigal Son was wasteful and extravagant and disrespectful but returned home humbled and wiser and was embraced and forgiven by his father who welcomed the lost son back and called for a celebration at his son’s return.
The Prodigal Son also had a brother–an elder brother–who had stayed home, worked hard and was respectful and not wasteful but who watched on with jealousy and bitterness as the father embraced the formerly wayward younger son.
My theory is that Democrats descended from the Prodigal Son. And Republicans descended from his brother.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Mar 1, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Sometimes when I’m in a long line at Starbucks and in a hurry, I wonder to myself, “Who was the annoying customer who kept complaining that the Barista never asked if he wanted ‘room for cream?'”
That person was probably the cause of the blanket Starbucks policy to ask every customer ever time that same question ad nauseum.
That question, repeated millions of times a day seems to take a lot of time for the Barista to ask, the customer to think about, the customer to answer, the Barista to process and the Barista to respond to. And I’m not sure it’s an important enough question to ask millions of times daily.
I think Starbucks should post a “Room for cream opt out” policy.
In other words, it will be assumed that all Starbucks customers want room for cream unless the order otherwise (e.g. “No room for cream, please” or “I don’t need room for cream” or “I’m utilizing the ‘opt out’ policy for room with cream”—or something like that).
I suggest a pilot project for Louisville. I suspect we’ll see a lot of freed up time to Starbucks customers that is currently time being drained from our local economy. And wouldn’t it be interesting if we discovered that this inane question asked of everyone passing through Starbucks turned out to be the primary cause of our current recession?
Of course, I don’t really believe the “room for cream” question contributed to the recession.
Just aggravated it a little.
I do think that the new additional –and more complicated—Starbucks question, “Would you prefer light or dark roast?” has the potential to seriously undermine out economy.
By John Y. Brown III, on Wed Feb 29, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
“Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good!”
Remember the old saying, “I feel like a million bucks!”?
That was very popular a few decades ago and meant you felt good physically and were on top of the world.
I have done an economic analysis based on when that saying was at the height of popular usage and have adjusted for inflation.
In today’s monetary terms, the proper saying should be “I feel like $2,435, 721.32”
However after adjusting for what each individual on average owes over their lifetime based on our national debt, the new adjusted number is roughly “$6.48.”
So, if you are feeling especially good today…and especially positive about the future, cock your head, put back that gleam in our eye and say, “Hey there, pal! I’m feeling like roughly $6.48 today, adjusting for inflation and my portion of the debt!”
It’s not quite as catchy as the original line, but spirit of that expression is still in there somewhere.
On the other hand, if you aren’t feeling especially good today physically or about your personal future, you will need to adjust further downward if someone asks you to estimate your dollar value based on your frame of mind today.
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of wiggle room. I guess what I’m saying is I hope everyone is feeling, as Larry David likes to say, “Pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty good” about things. Figuratively speaking. ; )
The real Shakespeare controversy.
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