We are, of course, past the Aughts here in 2024, but I never seem to get past the Oughts. I guess you could say I’m an oughtsalot, which reminds me of an old joke* that a friend back in college used to love. Regardless, there sometimes hangs over my head the sense that insofar as people might read my writing, it is incumbent upon me to occasionally write things that might nudge the world ever-so-slightly towards being better — which often means addressing the various awfulness of the day.

But I already posted a column about Gaza last time, and the awful news gets overwhelming quickly, and so of late my columns have been a little sillier. But sometimes a laugh makes things better too, right? Or as Shakespeare once said, “Laugh it up, Fuzzball.”**

And speaking of Shakespeare, he was the topic of my favorite column I’ve written since my previous post two months ago, so please enjoy some of

Shakespeare’s First Drafts

As usual, after I have finished all my paid work, I have just about enough motivation to keep up with writing my free semi-monthly newsletter and consequently this blog has been lying fallow.*** I sometimes think I “ought” to post monthly****, but obligations need to be to someone and no one is obligating me to write this blog*****.

But that’s as it should be. After all, what’s the point if it’s not going to be fun? It certainly “ought” to be.

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* “How do you titillate an ocelot?”

** Just saying, no one has ever seen Han Solo and Shakespeare in the same place.

*** And may as well have been bricked up. “Fallow, fallow, fallow, fallow, fallow the yellow brick road.”

**** Instead of just posting weakly

***** Maybe one day I’ll make enough money to afford to hire me to write my blog regularly, but right now I’m out of my price range.

Yes, it’s April, which means that there is even more foolishness going on than usual, and you can come join in. Tonight I’ll be at The Alley in North Adams at 8:30 for their free open mic comedy. This weekend is also the Fools Fest in Pittsfield, a celebration of foolishness that contains many many events. The two I’m involved with are the free open mic comedy at Mission on Friday night, and the Royal Berkshire Improv Troupe dinner theatre at Dottie’s on Saturday (tickets by advance reservation only).

I’ve been celebrating the foolishness at home as well. Yes, in addition to simply living like I normally do, which many would say is foolish enough. But I recently finished Christopher Moore’s new novel “Fool”, which follows the behind-the-scenes skullduggery* of possibly my favorite Foole** of all time, King Lear’s. For those of you who enjoyed “Lamb”, or who are Shakespeare buffs, I highly recommend it. I’m currently reading “Ship of Fools” by Katherine Porter, a classic book which like too many classics seems to be starting rather slowly, and has buckets of POV racism. Still, I will inevitably finish reading it anyway, as I am incapable of not finishing books once I start them.

Blog posts, on the oth–

*Apparently WordPress is attempting to fool me into thinking skullduggery is not a real word by underlining it in red. But then again, it dislikes “Foole”

**I cannot type “Foole” without thinking of George Carlin, whose routine “Occupation: Foole” no doubt had some effect on me.