to live merrily, and trust to good verses

signs that fandom and fivethirtyeight.com have collectively eaten your brain
You have a dream in which you are writing RPF about the Kennedy brothers armchair-quarterbacking the Coakley / Brown special election from the afterlife.

What the hell, subconscious?!

ETA: Reassuring proof that someone out there has an even weirder brain than mine: Holden's History of the United States, probably the world's only J.D. Salinger / Howard Zinn crossover. Read it, for it is a thing of beauty.

Merchant of Venice fic, "A Wilderness of Monkeys," Part 1
I, um, have no good explanation for this, and I think

ticklethepear is probably right that this is the Shakespeare fandom equivalent of Hagrid / Giant Squid. It just happened.

Those who prefer their Shakespearean-comedy fic to be a little more respectful of the canon should definitely check out

lareinenoire's A Truth Universally Acknowledged, which is a wonderful series of missing scenes from The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Title: A Wilderness of Monkeys
Rating: PG-13
Pairings: Shylock / Portia (!), implied Antonio / Bassanio
Summary: Shylock travels to Belmont looking for revenge. He finds something more complicated.

( Part One: Who Chooseth Me Shall Gain What Many Men Desire )

Snoo!
It's snowing in Virginia! Looks like we're getting at least a foot, maybe as much as two feet. Oh, so beautiful. It will probably be very annoying after a day or two, but there's something magical about snowy nights, especially here in my hometown -- it reminds me of the excitement of waking up and finding out that school was cancelled, and going out sledding.

this is so, so wrong, and yet so impossible to resist
I ought to be doing Serious Scholarly Work, or at least writing syllabi for next semester or something.

I am writing Merchant of Venice fic. WITH SHYLOCK / PORTIA HATESEX. I really think I might need a brain transplant, or something.

Thank you for the virtual snowflake cookies (

jetamors,

celandineb, and

dharmavati! (I must confess to being Slightly Bemused By The Concept, but ... uh, cool.)

recipe help?
Can any of y'all recommend a good recipe for vegetarian lasagna? I think I prefer tomato-based to cream-based, but I'm willing to consider either.

Something that will allow me to use up a fair amount of fresh basil would be a plus.

NaNoWriMo: Bah humbug
AAARRGHH, why does NaNoWriMo have to be in November? That's pretty much an impossible month for students and academics. Also, why do I suddenly have a spanking first line in my head now*, when I most assuredly don't have the time to do anything with it?

Oh well. Good luck to everyone on the f-list who's buckling down and making the attempt. I don't think I ever will.

* For the curious: Jonathan first realized they were different from other children on the day they went to see the woolly mammoth calf at the zoo. And yes, I do have a plot to go with it, sort of.

Netflix, WTF?
Why does Netflix think that because I rented the BBC Taming of the Shrew and a performance of Beowulf on the Anglo-Saxon harp, I will also enjoy Madea's Family Reunion and Deepak Chopra: Soul of Healing?

I thought I'd reached the ultimate in weird recommendations when I rented Bleak House and Slings and Arrows and they informed me that I would also like Sponge Bob Squarepants: Who Bob What Pants, but I think this beats all.

I have NO time to write anything...
... so why am I getting a completely daft urge to write Shakespearean comedy / Golden Age mystery AU fic with Benedick and Beatrice as proprietors of Messina's first detective agency? Particularly when I haven't got an actual plot?

new fic
Finished my

femgenficathon fic. Whew. The Supervisor's Tale, Minerva and Hermione, the story of how Hermione came to translate The Tales of Beedle the Bard.

a drabble, apropos of nothing in particular
Downstairs, Ron was taking a call over the Floo network. “Hello, HERPES, how can I help you?”

“Ron! How many times do I have to tell you it’s not HERPES, it’s the House-Elf Rehabilitation Program and English School!”

Hermione sighed and turned back to the task before her. “Now, Winky,” she said with a strained smile, “let’s try it one more time. Repeat after me: I am; you are; he, she, or it is...”

Winky frowned in concentration. “Mistress Hermione am; Winky are... Oh no! Winky is ... Winky are muddled again!”

It was going to be a long school term.

Shakes-fic: The Player Clowns
Because apparently, when I teach Hamlet I spend my time writing gloomy fanfic about the players instead of actually prepping for class. For a much more amusing take on the same general idea, see

angevin2's The Late Innovation; Or, Forty Times in Open Streets and Houses

( The Player Clowns )

a thing that I hate about smalltown life
Why is it apparently impossible for the supermarkets here to carry produce that is actually fresh? I'm not looking for anything terribly exotic, just, you know, asparagus that doesn't have the tips rotting off, and salad greens that aren't wilted, and fruit that looks like you might want to eat it.

I am really starting to hate our local Kroger. It depresses me. It depresses me even more that it's the best of the stores in town; the others are absolutely dire.

(And yeah, this is my own fault for not dragging myself out of the house in time for the farmer's market, but the farmer's market only operates five months a year anyway. Besides, this isn't Alaska; it shouldn't be that hard to get food here in an edible condition.)

cookery for single girls
Lesson One: Possibly, one should think twice before doing things that result in, like, ten pounds of lasagna.

But then again, where would be the fun in that?

yo, I actually finished writing something...
Granted, it is a 300-word flashfic for

mctabby's Cats' Birthday Drabblethon, but since I seem to be constitutionally incapable of finishing any writing projects these days, I'll take what I can get.

Wand of Elder, Never Prosper. Written for

miramiraficfic, who wanted a short history of one of the less distinguished owners of the Elder Wand.

Come and check out all the other drabbles as well!

ETA:

mizbean wrote such a charming Dean-and-Luna ficlet for me! Go and check it out here.

this is what I do when I'm avoiding writing a book
Assorted summaries of Shakespeare fic, courtesy of ff.net. I think it's rather refreshing that some Mary Sues are into Saturninus.

( Why, this is very mid-summary madness )

yet more photos
Am back at home. Shall I work on next semester's syllabi, or start the massive task of reworking the Magnum Opus into an actual Manuscript? Nah, not yet. I think I shall post yet another set of vacation photos, this bunch from my trip to South Carolina with my parents.

( Beaches and wildlife )

inspired by Recent Events
Are the Republican governors trying to have a contest to see who can give the weirdest press conference?

A) Y
B) YYY
C) No, clearly the Democrats are in on it too, you partisan hack.

If the governors are having such a contest, who will be next?

A) Charlie Crist comes out on national TV.
B) Bobby Jindal demonstrates exorcism.
C) Arnold Schwarzenegger announces that he is going to make a new movie called Kindergarten Governor and donate the proceeds to balance the state budget.
D) Something even weirder, which I will describe in the comments.

My Trip to England, part 1: The Long-Ass Shakespeare Post
Will do a proper travelogue / photo post later; this one is for the Shakespeare geeks. This will definitely be a quick-impressions post rather than a formal-review post, since I'm not much good at the latter, but I figured at least some of you would be interested.

( The Comedy of Errors, Shakespeare's Globe touring production, 5/29/09 )

( Romeo and Juliet, Shakespeare's Globe, 6/10/09 )

( All's Well That Ends Well, Royal National Theatre, 6/10/09 )

( As You Like It, Shakespeare's Globe, 6/11/09 )

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