Sexiest Shakespeare Yet

I have to admit that while studying Shakespeare throughout high school and college, I never conjured a particularly attractive image of the man himself. Brilliant? Certainly. Enviable genius wordsmith? Indeed. Handsome? Not so much. Not even the rumors that some of his sonnets were allegedly written for male lovers was enough for me to give The Bard a second thought as a man.

Then, in 1998 I saw the film Shakespeare in Love. Actor Joseph Fiennes made me rethink my image of Will. He was young and handsome and, well, hot. (And his character was friends with another actor Ned Alleyn, played by ViewAskew alum Ben Affleck. Two hotties for the price of one movie.)

Alas, handsome as he is, Fiennes doesn't really trip my trigger, so Shakespeare was relegated to the back of my mind once again.

Until yesterday. Yesterday I got a DVD in the mail from a friend of mine in the U.K. with the first two episodes of the third "new" series of Doctor Who. The second episode was entitled "The Shakespeare Code" and featured an actor who will now be burned into my memory as the permanent image of The Hot Bard: Dean Lennox Kelly.

Kelly's Shakespeare is a fully bearded, hairy chested, bear of a man. His rock star swagger as The Bard is engaging and um... arousing. Of course, once I finished watching the episode (I love the new Who series, by the way -- RTD is a genius!) I hit the 'net to learn as much about him as I could. I leave you to do that for yourself, dear reader.

But do yourself a favor: when Sci-Fi starts showing the new Doctor Who episodes, make sure you catch "The Shakespeare Code." The story, full of witches and historical references and fun, is reward enough. But Dean Kelly is the reward within the reward.

"Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate,"
-Sonnet 18

Another Glorious Spring Weekend

Today is fabulous. The weather is sunny, but neither too hot (mid-70's F) nor too humid. I finsihed my yard work yesterday, so this morning I had breakfast, drank coffee (Stewart's Hazelnut, my latest caffeinated obsession) and read the newspaper on my patio.

As part of my Sunday routine, I filled my bird feeders, although with Jake and me nearby, only the most courageous of birds fed until after we went inside. Usually, I see blue jays and cardinals and sparrows and thrushes, perhaps the occasional morning dove. Today was unusual. I was sitting at the table on my patio, Jake beside me, and suddenly a duck -- a mallard -- drops into the yard, waddles over to the feeder (quacking all the while -- in my experience, ducks are never silent,) and nibbled at some of the sunflower seeds and grains that had fallen to the ground. I restrained Jake from chasing it off, and to his credit he never barked or charged. I was fascinated that a waterfowl would come to ground so far from any body of water, let alone in such an urban setting. (A few years ago, a deer visited my backyard, but that's another story.) Eventually, the duck finished nibbling and started to exhibit leaving behavior, so I "released the hound" and Jake made his dominance known.

Then I did some trimming/pruning of the apple tree in my yard to make it easier to perform lawn care beneath it (and encourage grass growth,) then came in for a cool shower (glorious!) and a cold beverage. It seemed like a good time to post a blog, as well.

This week, I started teaching a sign language class at the Stow-Munroe Falls Public Library with my deaf friends Beverly and Bob. Nothing gives me greater joy than teaching sign. Truly.

Oh, and through persistence and the expenditure of more money on eBay than I care to think about, I finally completed my set of Legion of Super-Heroes figures. Check it out:

Have I mentioned that one of my favorite LSH websites is hosted right here on Blogger? I read The Legion Omnicom religiously. It reminds me of reading The Legion Outpost in my younger days.

Enough indoors, already! I think I'll go out and wash my car. Peace.