“TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION…”
(Hamlet: Act 3.1)
This is the most quoted phrase in the English Language! So says Norrie Epstein, in “The Friendly Shakespeare”. But I have since learned that the quote or Shakespeare’s plays might never have ‘been’ if not for two actor friends. Shakespeare never had any of his plays published. Except of course he probably had scripts, which were used in the performances. He died with his plays unpublished and so his plays died with him. The two actors and friends of Shakespeare were John Heminge and Henry Condel. But for them the plays might never have been known today! There are some 38 plays and none of them are ‘one’ act! It took them seven years after Shakespeare’s death to put together the “First Folio”. They had the help of the play writer Ben Johnson “To be or not to be? Much of Shakespeare wouldn’t be, if not for two devoted fans” noted author Epstein. So when those high school students and others who dislike reading Shakespeare’s plays, now know not be angry at him, but his two actor friends!
Speaking of plays reminds me of our attending them. We subscribe to a certain number of plays each year performed at the American Stage Theater. It is a small theater sitting maybe 100 to 200 viewers. It is also an arena like stage, i.e., viewers look down not up on the performance. I sit on the same level, eye to eye, with the performers because of my walking disability. So the performance is literally for me like it was in my living room! (But of course a great deal larger than our living room!) The last show we saw was on the last Sunday of June. It was titled “November” and it was hilarious.
The main character is the President who is about to lose the office since his reelection seems out of his reach. The play involves civil marriages, gambling casinos, lesbians, American Indians, presidential libraries, questionable pardons and campaign contributions The F-word flies fast and furiously in the play. The main character, the now reigning President finds he is on a sinking ship and he brings out something like a jackhammer spewing political incorrectness in all directions. He keeps trying to make a deal with the sellers of Turkeys since he did so one time before. But now he wants the payment higher or he’ll just propagate that we have discovered that the Pilgrims ‘ate pork’ on Thanksgiving Day. His speechwriter is a woman and she writes him great speeches. But when he finds out she is a Lesbian and wants to marry her partner he is really thrown. He refuses to consider marrying her since it is illegal Especially since she wants to do it on national TV right after the President performs his Turkey ad! All of course from the Presidential Library!
I recall reading about whether Turkeys being eaten at the “Thanksgiving Day” of the Pilgrims. I read that the Pilgrims took a turkey with them when they went to meet with the Indians and talk of peace, but the Indians didn’t want the turkey. So the Pilgrims took it back with them and then allegedly ate it in Thanksgiving for the success of the meeting. Some how in creating a ‘Thanksgiving Day’ turkey ended up as the meal to be served?
In the play the President calls on a chief of the Indians and rather than getting his support the President ends up in arguments and threats. In the last act the Indian Chief shows up and attempts to kill the President with a blowgun emitting a poisonous dart. However what happens the President’s speechwriter, now in her wedding dress, happens to step in front of the President. The dart strikes her. She falls apparently killed. I say ‘apparently’ since few minutes later she gets up. It happens that the dart struck a medallion she was wearing that was on a chain around her neck and hung in front of her chest area. The play ends with all of them walking out to the library for the wedding, the Turkey ad, and the President and the Indian Chief talking about a casino. The President is wondering how much money he could make with a casino! If you get the chance to see do so and you’ll laugh for at least three hours!
Last month I wrote about Charles Lindbergh. One of things I made note of was that there was no evidence, despite the media’s claim, that he was a ‘Nazi’, or even a Nazi sympathizer. Unfortunately today that is all some people, out side of this flight from N.Y. to Paris, can recall. Added to that I came across a novel written in 2004 by Philip Roth entitled “The Plot Against America” It’s about a family and they’re living in an American city after the election of Charles Lindbergh as President in 1940 instead of Roosevelt. In the book Lindbergh establishes diplomatic relations with the Nazi regime. The family in the book suffer from sever anti-Semitism. When I first wrote about the novel in my Jottings of October of 2004, I thought it was just a good fictional twist of history. But having learned that it is not only fictional but that despite that many people still thinks of Lindbergh as a Nazi. It is even true today, 2010. All his other achievements are forgotten and ignored. It demonstrates once again the power of the media to propagandize even something that is false.
In the year 2000 my very good friend, Bill King, now in heaven, sent me an article from the Atlantic Monthly Magazine on ‘placebo’ and its meaning and effect. The word ‘placebo’ is defined as: a pill, medicine, etc. prescribed more for psychological reasons that any physiological effect or a placebo used as a control in testing new drugs, etc. The word comes from Latin where it means “I shall be acceptable” Sounds simple enough but it isn’t. There are scores of tests and articles written about what it does and doesn’t do. On the web there is an article of six or seven pages and at the end of the article a listing of books and other articles of at least a dozen. So it apparently is a matter of much conjectures and thinking.
For example there is no scientific evidence that vitamins prevent colds or cold sores. Nevertheless many people including myself have taken vitamins believing they prevent colds even if there is not evidence scientifically of such results. Some people believe that the placebo effect is mainly due to physical changes that promote healing and feeling better. Some think it is the process of administering it when given by a doctor. Apparently the belief in itself becomes a process and provides hope and triggers if necessary any physical changes required. In any event for me if taking vitamins is a ‘placebo’ so be it. If it works and it has worked then I shall continue to take them.
The article Bill sent ends with these thoughts: “The next time I got a cold, I took vitamins. And I didn’t get a cold sore. I started taking vitamins whenever I felt the slightest symptoms of a cold, and I haven’t developed colds or cold sores since. Did the vitamins work? Did my belief in vitamins work? Or have I just been lucky this year? I don’t know and I don’t want to know.”
I can’t think about the month of July and not think of the Jersey shore. I spent all my summers till college graduation there. Dad sold the property in Sea Isle around that time. During law school I worked in the city, most of the time as an ‘elevator operator’. Those were the days when elevators were not run automatically and needed an operator! In the early eighties June and I brought a condo in Avalon and the regular visits began again. We even enjoyed spending time in the months not listed as summer. So July is a month of memories at the “shore’.
Until next time Pax Tecum!