Shakespeare Reading Challenge - First Reading

For my niece's Shakespeare Reading Challenge I challenged myself to read 4 plays. My first attempt was the Merchant of Venice but I had to give up on that one. Next I went to Othello and did manage to read it (mostly). Here's my take on that one.

First I think it was incredible that Shakespeare dealt with racial prejudice at that time. It really surprised me. Othello if you aren't familiar with the play is an African Moor who is a well decorated general held in high regard. He marries Desdemona over the objections of her father. His subordinate Iago is rife with prejudice and plots to bring down Othello and break up his marriage. He is successful in the latter only because he sways Othello into thinking his wife is unfaithful so he kills his wife in unfounded jealousy. When he learns of Iago trickery he kills himself rather than face life without Desdemona.

As I think back over this play I wonder though if Shakespeare wasn't also prejudiced. After all he portrayed Othello as weak enough to fall for the falsehoods whispered by Iago when in my mind I don't believe his character should have. If he was this brilliant general, he would have verified his information before acting. It was not as if he couldn't go to the source and speak to Desdemona about the allegations.

When I say I read it mostly, I got to a point where I needed to learn the ending. Then I read back from the ending. I know that's a strange way to read a book but it worked for me with this play.

I haven't selected my next play. I have time since I'm doing one a quarter. Any recommendations?

Rainy Friday

The rainwater off the scupper is filling the pond. Can you see the ice underneath?

Birds have been devouring the suet. I put two blocks out on Tuesday and this is all that remains. They don't go through it this fast in the dead of winter. I wonder if something else is getting to it unseen in the night. Raccoons?

Pond Work

Here is the pond yesterday.

Here is the pond today. Notice the difference? Yes, the cat tails are cut down. I can only do this when the pond is frozen and I thought with the warm up last week I had missed my window of opportunity. Well, its frozen solid again and covered so after I filled the bird feeders I cut off the cat tails then decided to cut the rest of the stalks as close as I could. Some of the leaves are frozen into the pond so it's not as cleaned up as I'd like it to be. It will have to do.

As a bit of background, this pond is supposed to be a rain garden. When it was graded the plan was that water coming off the roof from the scupper would go into it and soak into the ground. After the first rainfall, a down pour, it filled up and became a pond. Cat tails found their way there. Frogs found their way there so I've treated it as a pond ever since. Eventually the silt may increase to a point that it is a rain garden but for now the gold fish have multiplied and the frogs keep returning, and the cat tails need to be kept to a reasonable size.

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