Friday Miscellany

In response to my review of It's a Boy, Melissa of Melissa's Disjointed Ramblings has written about how being a military wife affects her view of her boys. She writes,

About a month ago Eric told me he wanted to be in the Army just like his dad. How am I supposed to feel about that? Do I want my son to go to war? Of course not. I want to know he is safe. How can I say that though and also say I am a proud Army wife? The reality is that I hope he goes to college. I have funds started for all three of my kids, there is no reason they wouldn't be able to go. Is it bad for me to pray that my son will not follow my husband's career path?

You can read the rest of her post here.

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Thanks to Ben at Open Switch, here's my blog name spelled with letters from flickr.com:






Go here to make your own words.

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A group of Chicago teenagers has reinvisioned Hamlet as Hamlet in the Hood thanks to a grant from the Illinois Violence Prevention Authority.

"Shakespeare is timeless. He set the path for me, I just made it modern. It was already there, so I didn't have to do much," said McDuffy, 18, who drew inspiration from the anger he felt toward his mother's new boyfriend after his parents split up. In his case, though, the boyfriend became a friend.

As a former English teacher, I love to see students engaging with Shakespeare, and I'm always a sucker for updated productions that show how human nature hasn't changed since Shakespeare's day. To fit with the theme of violence prevention, the group added a second "rewind" ending in which Hamlet discovers some alternatives to violence--and they play ends with a much lower body count.