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Showing posts from March, 2014

"Much Ado About Nothing"

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My favorite comedy by Shakespeare is hands-down "Much Ado About Nothing". It's an easy read with memorable characters, a good balance of drama and comedy, and has some of the best monologues and pithy statements Shakespeare ever came up with. It's also interesting because the story at first seems to revolve around two certain characters, then you realize that it's actually about two others. There are several minor characters that lend to the humor, or evil, of the story but all the storylines converge and like the title suggests, the drama all ends up a big fuss over nothing. In 1993 a movie version of the play was made by Kenneth Branagh. With an all star cast and beautiful filming locations in Italy, it was an instant hit. So, let's delve right in! As per Shakespeare's style, we'll introduce the Dramatis Personae (cast of characters) first. Kenneth Branagh as Benedick Benedick is a soldier from the city of Padua in Italy. He is a fightin

Sunflower Blogger Award

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I've had a blog for about two weeks now and Ivy and Hamlette have both nominated me for the award. How sweet of them! So, here are the rules: Rules : 1.) Share 11 facts about yourself 2.) Answer the questions set by your nomination blogger. 3.) Nominate 11 bloggers (I'm only going to have two since I'm so new here and don't know too many people) 4.) Set questions for the nominated bloggers. 11 facts: The only country I have been to outside of the US is Ukraine. My Ukrainian name, Sonyashnyk, means "sunflower". My favorite Bible character is Joseph. My favorite girl's names are Anna and Klara. I can't stand tomato sauce. It literally makes me sick to my stomach. My favorite flowers are tulips. I love comic books, particularly X-Men and Thor. I own a first edition copy of Ben-Hur (the book, not the movie). My all-time favorite Shakespeare story is "Macbeth". My favorite comedy is

70/20

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70 degrees, sun shining, windows open, breeze blowing...that was the weather yesterday. 20 degrees, gray skies, house closed up, heat blasting...that's the weather today. It has been a cold winter this year in Southeastern Virginia with snow, biting wind, and record cold temperatures. And I'm over it! The cold and I have a very terse relationship to begin with and right now it has greatly overstayed its short welcome. Maybe it's because I tend to get sick when it's cold or maybe it's genetic. My parents hail from The Great White North (South Dakota/Minnesota) where they remember snowfall in every month of the year. No kidding, my dad said he remembers when it snowed on the 4th of July one year. Yeah, that's too cold for me. Hence why I like Virginia. Snow is a rarity most years, but this year Mother Nature decided to make an exception. This is not a picture of snow on our deck. It's ice. Sleet to be specific. It's been sleeting all day and now it's s