Back in the dark ages, when i was first reading Shakespeare--in NYC HS, back when there was a dress code, and pants (heaven forbid jeans, even the boys couldn't wear jeans!) where forbidden, our HS teacher try to get us more interested in reading Hamlet by pointing out the school gave us bowlderize versions of the play (he first introduced bowlderized as a word, and then pointed out "edited" in our text book) but it only got fun when we acted it out, not when i read it at home.

it got more interesting as we compared our school text to the full text of the play, and tried to figure out, why a line or two was edited out.. when I was grown up, and Alistar Cook, on Masterpiece theater, finally explaned what "country matters" were.

So, might i suggest Jackie, that in the future, you keep out of the gutter, but sometime visit the country? it sounds so much more inviting--who wants to wallow in the gutter? but a trip to the country, yes, that would be enjoyable!


my other obsession