"He was not of an age, but for all time." (Ben Jonson)

Today is William Shakespeare's 444th birthday, also my cousin Eddie in Las Vegas is celebrating his 85th or 86th, I'm not sure which. But I'm mostly celebrating Shakespeare's. After all, I taught almost every one of his plays and sonnets in my career; and I taught several classes here in Condoland. I think my senior students (age wise, not H.S.wise) were the most learned and most fun to teach, and they were eager to participate in our discussions. WS lived until he was 52. Would he only have lived longer, we really would have had some masterpieces. The Bard died on April 23rd, 1616, but the nature of his fatal illness is not known. In 1623 his monument was erected in Holy Trinity Church. A few months later John Hemminge and Henry Condell--two of his friends and principal colleagues in the theater-- published his collected plays. But for them much of his work would have been lost. I don't teach anymore because I'm kind of "burned out." My teaching methods somehow wear me out because when I'm doing something that I enjoy and know something about, I get hyper and passionate and intense. It gets passed on to the students. But when my classes are over, I'm ready for a Xanax. It was great while it lasted. An education is not complete without having read some of Shakespeare's plays. That goes for everybody everywhere in any country and in any language.

As promised, I am including another installment of my son Bobby's stay in the County jail in 1987. He was just a foolish young man back then, but now he's older and much wiser. He and his wife, Sabrina, have raised Katrina without her birth mother and now he is a top sales agent for Harley Davidson in Virginia. His story needs to be heard:

MY LIFE IN THE COUNTY JAIL: Part II

There were two types of people in there. The ones who had short time and the ones who had long time. I had long time and the thing of it was, whenever I made a good friend, it was time for them to leave.

Being given a sentence of one year, I should have been in medium or maximum security facility. In those places, you had a cell. You might have shared it with another in bunk beds, and had your own toilet and sink. I had a really good lawyer and was able to do my time in minimum. I got out early (ten months I think) because of "good time/work time". I wasn't caught fighting or stealing or making apple wine, and showed up to work every day without any sick days. Yeah, I got into a couple fights and took food from the kitchen, but stayed out of the spotlight mostly.I remember I was working out with the free weights (the only thing a white guy could really do) and an "SA" (South American) came up to me and said "get lost". I told him I would in about 1 hour and he shoved me up against the fence. I bounced back off the fence (on purpose) with extra energy and flattened him! His buddies came over and started to box with me and I landed a shot you could hear clear across the field. I think it was more my knuckles cracking, than the slap my closed fist made against his cheek. All the "wedos" (white guys) backed me up and the ruckus was over. I went back to pumping iron and they left me alone for a while.All the "sports" were outdoors and in the winter very little went on out there. The Black guys played basketball, the Mexicans (SA's) played baseball and the White guys (wedo's or peckerwoods) worked out with weights. There was no mixing unless you were really good! I played a little "b-ball" and baseball until I was asked to leave.

There's more of this to come, of course, and I know that out there people are wondering and guessing the reason for Bobby's stay in jail. That will come--eventually.