Sunday

We see Falstaff at The Globe last night with Natalie and Justin - fun! I read Merry Wives in the 8th grade and Sonnet and I debate afterwards where Falstaff ranks on Shakespeares merry list of characters - I place him Top Five but she points out Macbeath, Otello, King Lear, Romeo and Juliet... ok ok- I desist but I still give the fop a Top Ten. At least I remember the fellow from Junior High which deserves something, Dear Reader. Falstaff appears over again in Western literature and my favorite reincarnation is John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius J Reilly in Confederacy of Dunces. Ignatius loves to eat, and his masturbatory fantasies lead in strange directions. His mockery of "affronting" images is portrayed as a defensive posture to hide their titillating effect on him. He has an aversion to ever leaving the town of his birth, and frequently bores friends and strangers with the story of his sole, abortive journey from New Orleans, a trip to Baton Rouge on a Greyhound bus. He has extreme flatulence and wears his hunting jacket - regardless of the heat. Brilliant.

Cal beats Washington State 66-3. Wow- I can't remember the last time the Bears took such a lop-sided victory. Sonnet notes "that's not very sporting" proving once again that women don't get football.

Another sure sign that the planet is dying: one pound of cod- Britain's staple and the fish in in fish 'n chips - now sells for £25 a pound. That is $50 a pound. Even the lowly mackeral, disliked for its fishy taste, is going for £15 a pound. We are an island surrounded by sea, chanel and Ocena, for Pete's sake. If we are having problems getting fish - oh boy.

"I have a kind of alacrity in sinking."
John Falstaff

"When my brain begins to reel from my literary labors, I make an occasional cheese dip."
Ignatius J. Reilly

"I think it was in the Rose Garden where I issued this brilliant statement: If I had a magic wand -- but the president doesn't have a magic wand. You just can't say, 'low gas.'"
George W. Bush, Washington D.C., July 15, 2008