To Beer or Not to Beer - That is a Stupid Question

Today's post is dedicated to things Ella loves.  Besides spanking, that is.  Since woman does not live by spankings alone, I thought it was "high time" I shared a few of the things that make me feel so blessed in this life.  The title reveals several top contenders for Ella's Happy Place.

There is an old country song named, "I Like Beer" by Tom T. Hall. and I have been known to even sing it, usually if I have had "too much of a good thing."  Beer, that is!  Years ago I drank wine, but gave it up when I discovered it aggravated a certain type of headache from which I suffered as a young woman.


There are so many types of beer to explore and so many locations countrywide and around the world with their own breweries.  If I am ever "in a pickle" over a holiday gift to give, I just may choose a "Beers Around the World" sampler and then help you drink it.  If Ella was skipping down her own Yellow Brick Road in the Land of Beers, she would be singing,  


                         "Lagers and Pilsners and Ales, Oh My!"

Other than stouts and porters, I pretty much love them all.  My current favorites are the IPAs; India Pale Ale was originally brewed in England with extra hops to survive the journey to British troops stationed in India.  Drinking a pint in London and noshing on a steak and kidney pie means Ella has reached the Promised Land.  "If the truth were known," she might do this for both lunch and dinner.

"For a quart of ale is a meal for a king"

              
                          "For a quart of ale is a meal for a king."

One of thousands of memorable quotes given to us by William Shakespeare, who is another one of Ella's great loves.  And not just because this author enjoyed his ale!  His plays were meant to be

performed - not read.  You cannot force a high school student to read Shakespeare and expect him or her to appreciate the genius.  It wasn't until I was almost 18 and saw one of his plays onstage in Stratford, Ontario, that the love affair began.


It has continued my whole life long.  When doing my undergrad work, I had a double major in education and English.  My Shakespeare classes and even the essays were always my favorites.  Many people never get past the comedies and a few of the more famous tragedies.  I have studied every last play - even all the histories.  The best professor I ever had would read certain passages in a big Texas drawl.  

                                    Imagine this, if you will.

                       "I would challenge y'all to a battle of wits, 
                                 but I see y'all are unarmed." 

I adored that man.  He even encouraged us to perform scenes by excusing us from an essay.  And, yes, I did.


I jump on any chance I get to see them onstage.  I had an extensive library of Shakespeare stories for children when I taught, and you have not lived until you have seen 9 year old kids perform A Midsummer Night's Dream or TheTempest.  You would have "laughed yourself into stitches."  I have been fortunate enough to have attended The Merry Wives of Windsor at the rebuilt Globe Theatre in London.  There are not very many things on my bucket list, but one wish I have always wanted to realize would be to attend a summer Shakespeare class at Cambridge or Oxford.  "..Perchance to dream," and it doesn't cost anything to dream.

 
There is no one person who has had as big an impact on the evolution of the English language as William Shakespeare.  Chances are you quote him at least once a day.  Did you notice all the highlighted words and quote marks in this post?  Those are all gifts from Will over 400 years ago.

• Have you ever said an object "vanished into thin air?"
• Have you ever felt you didn't sleep "one wink?"
• Have you ever praised someone as a "tower of strength?"
• Have you ever sold a car that had "seen better days?"
• Have you ever pleaded "to give the devil his due?"
• Have you ever said, "good riddance" to a difficult person?
• Have you ever heard he was as "dead as a door nail?"
• Have you ever told a child that his room was an "eyesore?"
• Have you ever known a person who was the "laughing stock" of the whole town?

       Well, "for goodness' sake," you are quoting Shakespeare!

 

And don't forget that it was The Bard who wrote such perfect dialogue for the most memorable onstage spanking you ever hoped for.  When Petruchio bellows, 
            
                       "For I am he am born to tame you, Kate," 
                                    she has met her HOH.

When fair Kate delivers her speech in Act V, she preaches to two other women....

                "Such duty as the subject owes the prince,
                 Even such a woman oweth to her husband;
                And when she is froward, peevish, sullen, sour,
                And no obedient to his honest will,
               What is she but a foul contending rebel,
               And graceless traitor to her loving lord?
                I asham'd that women are so simple
               To offer war where they should kneel for peace,
               Or seek for rule, supremacy, and sway,
              When they are bound to serve, love, and obey."


                 And there you have the oldest known TTWD post.
                                              Genius.
                         So I raise my glass and rest my case.