Category: Uncategorized
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Me and the early moderns
So, I promised to look back at why I’ve embarked on a self directed study of the Early Modern dramatists in English, Shakespeare’s contemporaries. I think my first exposure was back in high school when I had about Doctor Faustus and I read Marlowe’s play. I recall being actually frightened by it. It must have…
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Glasses provoke memory
These are the glasses I wore in Sleuth all those many years ago. In Act 2, I returned as Inspector Doppler, a costume change, stippled makeup, some crepe hair, a west country accent and these glasses. Although the film was well known and so, audience members should have known that my character was in disguise,…
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Notes on Oedipus Rex at Stratford- July 16 opening
This is not a review, just assortment of points, mostly personal. While I didn’t enjoy this production, it did give me much to consider. I have read published reviews and comments and am surprised by the favorable ones. I think what I am reading is people sensitive to and commenting on the excellence of Sophocles’…
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First thoughts on Go Set a Watchman
Still suspicious that it’s a hoax. No overt anachronisms (unless Uncle Jack’s use of “white supremacist” was one). That it is so closely tied to TKAM in theme and even who the characters are, that there are so few additional characters–it’s the kind of work a person tasked with creating an explanation for why Harper…
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Owen Meany says about teachers
I have mis-remembered this. I can’t find this in the book again. I thought that in John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany there was a passage where Owen tells the narrator to be an English teacher. Owen goes on to say that it’s the easiest job in the world because all you have to…
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Canada’s spies and the law
I happened to be reading John Sawatsky’s 1980 book, Men the Shadows: The RCMP Security Service when the government introduced their anti-terrorism bill C-51. The book provides a history Canadian security work in the 20th century until the creation of CSIS, an agency that grew out of people’s upset with exactly how the RCMP was…
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My week to get things wrong
Oct 22 2014 +Spent last weekend in Ottawa while Lesley attended the CODE conference. We were downtown, and when I walked the mostly empty streets I thought how dull the town was, and there was nothing for a weekend tourist in October. I felt proud while passing the American Embassy that here was a spot…
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Extant and the American Mythos
Before launching into space to save mankind in a perilous mission, Hailey Berry’s character gets suited up. An authoritative voice intones over the scene, explaining the purpose and plan and the import. He finishes with ” If you’re the praying type, say a prayer for Dr. Woods. If you’re superstitious, cross your fingers, throw a…
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Thought occassioned by Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen
One of the ideas presented in the play is that of a student seeking praise or affirmation from his former teacher. I think that’s a powerful motive for many people, and that operates in a very unexamined fashion. But what terms do we define success? Well, one is the judgement of teachers and how many…