Via the Shakespeare Geek we learn that Kenneth Branagh is to direct Thor:

In a departure from his normal cerebral choices for directing, it seems British actor and film-maker Kenneth Branagh has decided to take on something a little less complex, the Marvel Studios version of “Thor”. “Thor” is based on the well known German/Norse God of Thunder, but in the Marvel Universe and prospective film, he has an alter-ego, a disabled medical student called Donald Blake, which makes the god have a more human/vulnerable side than some superheroes. The film has a scheduled released date of 2010.

We all have to eat. On to the Question of the Week!

Which Shakespearean role would you cast with which superhero (or super villain) and why?

I’ll get the ball rolling by casting The Flash as Puck. Who else could “put a girdle round about the earth/ In forty minutes”?

Enjoy!

From Henry VI, Part Three:

Nay, stay, Sir John, awhile; and we’ll debate
By what safe means the crown may be recover’d.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

McCain wanted to bail. He’s shy!

Obama wanted fresh eyes. Joy!

Lehrer wanted a brawl. Envy!

I am cash with no rules; I am Rock with no kicker;
I’m a target sans guard; I’m a drink with no liquor;
I’m not metal or wood – I am leather or wicker.
If the answer’s not hard, you should think of it quicker!

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Annalisa. See comments for answer.

I did this one already, but I wanted to respond to a search that brought a reader here yesterday:

“how did queen elizabeth feel about shakespeare play king henry the 8th”

It’s a good question, since Henry was Queen Elizabeth’s father, and it would be interesting to get her reaction to the play that bears his name. But Elizabeth died in 1603, and it is believed that the play was first performed in 1613, so we can only speculate as to how she might have felt about it.

The play retains the pro-Tudor slant on history that characterized Shakespeare’s earlier history plays, and whitewashes some of the uglier aspects of Henry’s story. As for Elizabeth, her birth is depicted at the very end of the play, and the happy father swells with pride at the event.

From Henry VIII:

O lord archbishop!
Thou hast made me now a man: never, before
This happy child, did I get any thing.
This oracle of comfort has so pleas’d me,
That when I am in heaven, I shall desire
To see what this child does, and praise my Maker.

But if you shift around the letters, you probably get much closer to what he actually would have said:

O lord archbishop!

Fact: I wanted to have a son.

So I, cross Henry the Eighth, must kill this wife, Madam Anne Boleyn, with promptest speed.

So I shall, in a flash, remove and discard her doomed head apace!

I am Henry the Eighth, I am!

I’m the man coming home; I’m the back with the ball;
I come after you walk (which is after you crawl);
Politicians announcing they’ll answer the call;
And demands on a bank which can cause them to fall.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Neel Mehta. See comments for answer.

Inspired by a video clip posted by Ro, I’m moved to examine the following question:

Right now, at this moment, what would you say is the percentage chance that Sarah Palin will become President of the United States in the next four years?

I’m going with 5%. That figure puts the election at about 50/50, and gives McCain a 90% chance of surviving his first term.

What do you think?

Now that the one-two punch of reCAPTCHA and Akismet have practically eliminated spam from my comments list, I feel safe adding a “Recent Comments” feature to the right-hand sidebar. This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for some time, since I really like how it has changed the experience of reading Duane’s blog for me. But without the spam-busters, it would have been impossible.

What this means for you, the reader, is that if you decide you’d like to comment on an older post, the rest of the Shakespeare Teacher community will be able to see it, and possibly continue the discussion. So feel free to weigh in on today’s Shakespeare or rank my list of sources by reliability or whatever old discussions you’d like to reinvigorate. Go ahead and give it a try!

Unfortunately, this will make it slightly harder to avoid spoilers for Thursday Morning Riddles and Conundrums, but I think the trade-off is worth it.

I have also created an e-mail address where you can contact me directly. It is “webmaster” at this domain name.

Shakespeare Teacher: Serving our customers since 2007.

I’m always curious to see what search terms bring people to this site. Here is a list of all of the search terms that brought people here yesterday:

how shakespeare demonstrated “religion” in his plays

presidents with the letter y in their name

king henry viii shakespeare for children

who are the present day descendants of ann boleyn

king henry the eighth for kids

modern day descendants of henry the eighth

free shakespeare for kids

shakespeare did math

math – coins – line drawings of

saddam hussein vs. iago

textual analysis of elizabath i letter to king james vi

what play of shakespeare hads the word shyster in it?

characterize ophelia in act 3 scene 1

open-ended question of the week

who am i riddles

music tech teacher.com’

shakespeare class distinction “as you like it”

sir francis bacon blog

The word “shyster” does not appear in Shakespeare. There is a character named Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, and a popular anti-lawyer quote in Henry VI, Part Two.

Several United States presidents have had the letter Y in their names. First name: Ulysses S. Grant, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson, Jimmy Carter; Last name: John Tyler, Rutherford B. Hayes, William McKinley, John F. Kennedy; First and Last Name: Zachary Taylor; Commonly Used Middle Name: John Quincy Adams, William Henry Harrison.

As for the Ophelia thing, do your own homework.