This n' that

Been having some trouble lately with my palm pilot. It should have backup power or something in case I don't replace my batteries fast enough. I was sure that I had recently backed up my information on Dad's computer, and that the files were synchronized, but I had forgotten to check my date book. Anyway, I found this fascinating link (or at least, fascinating to me) about whether Shakespeare was really a racist and anti-Semite. I was taught that he was, but according to this article, both Shylock and Othello were fully fleshed out characters and not full blown, one-dimensional stereotypes. Others wrote that way at that time, but those beliefs did not really have a chance to develop until much later. Shakespeare was, well, I hate to use the word 'liberal' here, but he was not a bigot. At best, he believed in racial and sexual equality (Taming of the Shrew). Othello was painted as a gentleman whose main flaw was gullibility, and that was also the main fault of Marcus Brutus. Shylock was partly a stereotype, being a Jewish moneylender, and overall he was not a nice person, but he was no less than human, and there were earthly reasons he was the way he was.

And here's Woody Guthrie, with all his human failings. I've grown to like Pete Seeger better.

Mocking the Holocaust, from a Jewish perspective.

Lastly, I went to my childhood home where they were having a yard sale. I didn't bother to tell them that I used to live there, I just bought a CD off them. And it was on that day I went over to Mom and Dad's current abode and did what I thought was a complete updating of my Palm in case of emergency.