Althouse: "So awesome how they put [William] in brackets before 'Shakespeare' so that we know they are talking about William Shakespeare and not Fred Shakespeare."

July 30, 2015

"So awesome how they put [William] in brackets before 'Shakespeare' so that we know they are talking about William Shakespeare and not Fred Shakespeare."

"Way to respect your audience NPR."

First comment on the same NPR interview with Woody Allen that's linked in the previous post. Woody, asked what he wants to "be remembered for," says he doesn't care, because when you're dead "You're extinct," and — as it's transcribed at the NPR site: "You and I could be standing over [William] Shakespeare's grave, singing his praises, and it doesn't mean a thing." The comment amused me. Sorry to do 2 posts on the same Woody Allen interview. I know you want me to talk about Hillary Clinton, Cecil the Lion, and fetal body parts. In fact, I am about to do a couple more posts, on 2 out of 3 of those topics. So hang on, and sorry in advance for those who are eager to get to the fetal body parts. That's not on the red-meat menu tonight.

40 comments:

Gahrie said...: So hang on, and sorry in advance for those who are eager to get to the fetal body parts. That's not on the red-meat menu tonight.

{in my best Gomer Pyle voice}

Surprise surprise surprise.; 7/30/15, 8:33 PM
Gahrie said...: My 40 year old best friend managed to graduate from college without ever reading any Shakespeare.

I know for a fact that none of the 11th grade English teachers at my school teach Shakespeare.

I find it entirely plausible that a sizable part of the NPR audience would not recognize Shakespeare's name.; 7/30/15, 8:36 PM
Levi Starks said...: It's ok, you don't have to do one on the fetal body parts now Josh Earnest has assure us that the video is fraudulent; 7/30/15, 8:41 PM
Big Mike said...: I had the same immediate reaction as Gahrie.

Maybe if PBS would put on "Titus Andronicus" it would resonate with the NPR audience, since that play's all about killing children and serving them in meat pies. (Though they might be upset about the portrayal of a real (though offstage) rape when it's been drummed into their heads that rape means "I woke up next to him???); 7/30/15, 8:46 PM
Chris N said...: The Customs Of The Noble African Savage And Oppressed Colonial Victims Of the White Power Hegemony Meet The Wild Innocent Endangered Wise Disney Beast Crushed Underfoot By the Bad Thoughtless Greed Machine And The Macho Suburban Safari Dentist.

The Herky Jerky Outrage Machine Seeks RightThought, Deepfeels And Meaning, Purpose and Group Membership.

Something to be, something to feel, something to do.; 7/30/15, 8:51 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I think NPR is just doggedly following a style guide that says to add the first name in brackets when a quote refers to someone by their last name. It's easier to just do it exactly the same for everyone than to put some people in the category of one-namers. I bet they put [Barack] in front of Obama, for example. It doesn't prevent confusion, it's just uniform adherence to a style guide.

But I still found the comment funny.; 7/30/15, 8:53 PM
Archilochus said...: Yes, that is insulting to the readers.; 7/30/15, 8:54 PM
Chris N said...: Gloomy grammarians in golden gowns, or soft activist mainstreamed Liberal Left NPR-ites taking a slightly Morally didactic tone?

Living in Seattle, I'm quite familiar with the condescension and the 'let's all learn about the hoot owl today boys and girls...' But I appreciate the grammatically inclined in a mostly competitive market.; 7/30/15, 9:01 PM
Sebastian said...: Also in the NPR style guide:

[Jesus] Christ
[Oh My] God; 7/30/15, 9:01 PM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: Fetal Body Parts. The other red meat.; 7/30/15, 9:16 PM
Ann Althouse said...: If only there were a celebrity fetus! Then people might care. A doctor becomes the Hitler of the day when he kills Cletus the Fetus. Suddenly, the empathy crowd cares!; 7/30/15, 9:36 PM
CWJ said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/30/15, 9:39 PM
traditionalguy said...: Je suis fetal body parts, and mine came with a warranty that has lasted me way more than 20 weeks and are going on 3650 weeks now.; 7/30/15, 9:42 PM
CWJ said...: Gahrie wrote -

"I find it entirely plausible that a sizable part of the NPR audience would not recognize Shakespeare's name."

In that case, I don't see where adding "William" does anything to solve the problem.; 7/30/15, 9:46 PM
Gahrie said...: If only there were a celebrity fetus! Then people might care.

If only the MSM would cover the atrocity, people might care.; 7/30/15, 9:48 PM
CWJ said...: Also,

[] Cher
[] Charo
[] Twiggy
[] Madonna; 7/30/15, 9:53 PM
traditionalguy said...: His friends called him Will. And he survived being a genius in public until his death when the jealous assholes tore him down and stole the credit for educated elites. London does not like country boys.; 7/30/15, 9:54 PM
Brian said...: I promise that if someone vivisects Althouse I'll wait at least a couple weeks before I make a dumb joke about it.; 7/30/15, 10:21 PM
Anonymous said...: It is insulting to folks like Ann and me. It is very helpful to people like ARM and garage who are so easily befuddled.
Clearly NPR knows its audience.; 7/30/15, 10:45 PM
Mark Caplan said...: Some people once used the knowledge of their earthly extinction as an incentive to leave a lasting positive mark on the world that would persist long beyond their own lifetime.; 7/30/15, 10:46 PM
Deirdre Mundy said...: African lions v, sale of baby parts is the classic Mrs. Jellaby problem. As [Charles] Dickens pointed out, it's much easier to feel deeply about a tragedy far away that makes no demands upon your daily life then it is to feel deeply about one in your backyard that would force you to take action beyond impassioned tweets.; 7/30/15, 11:02 PM
Katrina said...: About 10 years ago, I met a woman who was majoring in education at Reed, if I remember correctly. She wanted to become a high school English teacher. She told me she had never read anything by Shakespeare. Her high school teachers had assigned works by Toni Morrison and Alice Walker rather than Shakespeare and her college profs weren't that big on Dead White Males either. She also had never read any Dickens. She wasn't at all embarrassed about admitting that.

I imagine there are more than a few out there like her. We've had 30 years of Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, Western Civ has got to go.

That's why NPR has to specify that it's William they're talking about.; 7/30/15, 11:03 PM
Katrina said...: "As [Charles] Dickens pointed out, it's much easier to feel deeply about a tragedy far away that makes no demands upon your daily life then it is to feel deeply about one in your backyard that would force you to take action beyond impassioned tweets."

In one sentence, you summed up exactly what I took many more words to say in another thread. Cheap virtue - it's all the rage these days.; 7/30/15, 11:05 PM
William said...: Some time back they made a movie based on one of Shakespeare's plays. The credits stated "Additional dialogue by William Shakespeare".......it's a historical inevitability that some rapper will call himself Shaq Spear someday.; 7/30/15, 11:20 PM
Matt Sablan said...: Other possibility: Woody Allen said something other than William [maybe called him Bill, maybe he stumbled over the name because sometimes smart people forget things, whatever,] so instead of making him sound stupid, they chose to just bracket off William and move on.

I don't think it is a big deal. After all, there really ARE a lot of people out there who don't know who William Shakespeare is.; 7/30/15, 11:21 PM
richard mcenroe said...: I knew a [Harry] Chaucer when I worked on the docks in Staten Island. His prose was nearly unreadable.; 7/31/15, 1:08 AM
BudBrown said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/31/15, 3:38 AM
Jim in St Louis said...: [Deidre] Mundy- I think you are spot on.; 7/31/15, 4:55 AM
tim maguire said...: That's not on the red-meat menu tonight

So awesome how you describe the reading preferences of a large portion of your audience using the dismissive terminology of their preening political opponents. Way to respect your audience profesor!

(Just kidding, sort of.); 7/31/15, 5:54 AM
Goju said...: NPR was just trying to avoid any of its viewers confusing William Shakespeare the writer of limited fame with the much more famous Shakespeare sporting goods company,makers of fine fishing rods and reels.; 7/31/15, 7:25 AM
Gahrie said...: Way to respect your audience profesor!

Hey...she didn't even call us splooge stooges!; 7/31/15, 8:31 AM
Peter said...: The usual style here is "Shakespeare, the Elizabethan playwright, ..."

NPR is giving its audience credit by assuming they know who William Shakespeare is. (Whether or not "just knowing" is sufficient, or whether one might actually read some of his work, is a different question.); 7/31/15, 8:51 AM
Bill Peschel said...: This is our future staring at us, folks. We're the last generation, raised on free TV with a limited number of channels, that has seen everything from silent movies to the current stuff.

That's why we have to write [William] Shakespeare, so that those who encounter Shakespeare in other areas -- heavens, maybe even catch a performance -- will know his first name.; 7/31/15, 9:25 AM
furious_a said...: A doctor becomes the [Adolf] Hitler of the day.

There, fixed it for you.; 7/31/15, 9:29 AM
Smilin' Jack said...: So hang on, and sorry in advance for those who are eager to get to the fetal body parts.

[God] Damnit! This blog needs MOAR BABYPARTS! How can anyone talk about anything when BABYPARTS!; 7/31/15, 10:24 AM
Theranter said...: "Hell is empty and all the devils are there [at NPR]" --[William] Shakespeare

Hell would be having to listen to those Prozaced voices 24/7. I bet heaven is livelier.

It's high time they are defunded and the funds used for the poor they and the Pope keep harping about.; 7/31/15, 11:59 AM
Unknown said...: Seems they may be distinguishing between Shakespeare the author, and Will Shakspere of Stratford upon Avon, who were two different people.

Little known fact the operators of the Disney-upon-Avon tourist site won't tell you. Will Shaksper was mocked on the London stage in his own lifetime as an illiterate, braggart, pretender. He didn't write those plays.; 7/31/15, 12:27 PM
Saint Croix said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/31/15, 7:58 PM
Saint Croix said...: For people who like lions and other animals more than babies...

here is an unborn elephant

(and a horse, leopard, dolphin, shark, polar bear and a snake, too); 7/31/15, 8:13 PM
Leigh said...: Just please confirm your "not on the red-meat menu" wasn't an intentional pun. I've been reading you for too long to believe it was more than anything but an oversight. But gosh. Given Stem Express presents its buyers with what it calls a "menu" of body parts, your choice of words was mighty ill-considered ... so I'm going to assume you were just glibly writing on-the-fly and didn't consider them in context, or maybe even at all.

If you're reluctant to discuss the morality of abortion (which I've not seen you shy away from, before) or the sale of body parts ("fetal tissue"), you could approach the topic from the standpoint of informed consent. Because consent from the mother ("donor") to reposition her baby/fetus's body from vertex to breech in order to obtain an intact calvarium appears no where on either the PP or federal consent form. But that's no small wonder; surprise, surprise, surprise: as of today, it is still a crime. Not to mention, it would totally kill the "consent" mood and persuade a good number of women to get up, walk out of the clinic, and not abort at all.

Or you could just point out all the PP inconsistencies used to defend the recordings: "heavily edited" and "fraudulent" or, as said directly on the recordings and in press releases: mom/donor is compensated vs. mom/donor isn't; harvesting costs PP money vs. 3d party lab does all consenting and harvesting and pays all dissection, preservation, and transportation costs.

Or you could take the Margaret Sanger eugenics angle and post the audio of the phone calls from poser financial-donors to PP, inquiring whether their PP donation can and will be exclusively earmarked for minority abortions. The posers say there are too many black children already and several PP staff agree (or pretend to agree, in order to get the $$ -- a difference w/o much distinction, at least that I can see).

It bears reiterating: every leftist I know, to a person, says (1) "blacks & whites are totally equal and I am SO not racist"; and (2) the extremely high, disproportionate number of black babies being aborted is a good thing for the babies because they'd surely be born into hell, what with all the irresponsible, crack-addicted, uneducated black mothers that abound. That said, at least to their credit, they never claim they're not elitists.

Or you could discuss whether CA's anti-recording laws provide a defense to people recording proof of a violent felony.

The possibilities are endless.

But this "it's just a clump of cells" myth that abortionists have sold to mother/donors, we now know is demonstrably false. We know now that PP and other abortionists been lying to women for years. I personally have several close friends who were fed the undeveloped "lump of tissue" nonsense. Now that they can see actual fetal development, they are devastated by their decision to abort, made so many years ago. Whether their aborted fetus felt the pain, they say, may haunt them forever.

Someone is betraying women. That's for damn sure. But it sure as hell isn't conservatives.; 8/1/15, 3:14 AM