The uses of boredom — Parlor game — "The Best Approach" to Shakespeare

"A Case of Boredom," Ghita Schwarz's excellent essay in the new Believer, is featured on the Wisconsin Public Radio show To the Best of Our Knowledge. Hear Ghita read from her piece, and learn what scientists are saying about boredom—it's not boring at all!

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About a day after I listened to the segment, I came across another Ghita, or rather Ghitta, in something I was reading: a reference to the Hungarian photographer Ghitta Carell. I realized why the name was so fascinating—it's that abecedarian cluster of letters at the beginning.

A B C D E F G H I t-t-a...

This suggested a game of sorts—how many writers/artists can you think of whose names contain three letters in alphabetical order?

GHIta Schwarz/GHItta Carell
Oscar HIJuelos
Seth MNOokin
Mos DEF

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Dizzyhead Mollie has a very funny take on the Times review of the Theater of the Blind production of A Midsummer Night's Dream ("Every single assertion is completely false!"). Her own response to the show is worth reading:

I knew I was in trouble as soon as I read the "Director's Note." Directors and academics are always claiming to have found The Best Approach to interpreting and/or performing Shakespeare, but it takes a special kind of pomposity to claim, as director Ike Schambelan does in his notes for the Theater by the Blind production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, that "this is a deeply revolutionary production, so entertaining and clear that you never want to see another Shakespeare that doesn't let him speak in his own form, his own voice."

Leaving the theatre two hours later, the boyfriend said to me, "He was right about one thing—I never want to see another production of Shakespeare."