In this October 2016 TED talk, Shakespearean actor and educator Rob Crisell makes a passionate argument for Shakespeare, for teaching Shakespeare, and for teaching Shakespeare through performance. Whether you’re already with him on these three points or not, it’s well worth checking out:

There’s just something about this play that lends itself well to quoting during these trying days.

From Macbeth:

I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
Is added to her wounds

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

I can’t handle the outrages. It synchs worse and worse.

The needy White House id obeys Putin and a KKK baddie.

Today, I’m sending good thoughts out to the protesters in DC and around the country who are sending a powerful message that the voices of dissent cannot and will not be silenced.

From Macbeth:

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.

Shift around the letters, and it becomes:

Check this:

Trump embodies misogyny.

It’s why women fight back.

I’m a desktop device, but may not be a Mac;
To sequester a prisoner safe from the pack;
When you choose careful words so as not to attack;
And a reason to search so arrests don’t come back.

Who am I?

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

Ten years ago today, I started a journey called “Shakespeare Teacher” that hoped to entertain, enlighten, and energize a small but dedicated audience of readers.

The world was different back then. George W. Bush was in the White House, and my dissatisfaction with that reality drove a lot of my early posts. I found myself with a lot to say, and Web 2.0 offered a unique platform to express my opinions and offer my analysis. When Barack Obama took office, I still cared about politics, but my edge became dulled by complacency.

I mostly sat out this past election because it was awful and because I thought Donald Trump could not possibly win. That was a mistake. Now, I find myself once again with a lot to say, but my platform for saying it is no longer what is was. Web 2.0 technologies have taken a backseat to social media, and most of us get our news and analysis folded in with our baby pictures and viral videos. Is there still a place for the Shakespeare Teacher and his twopence? I’m thinking that there just may be, if I can play to my strengths.

I’ve become very aware of the way that language is being twisted and manipulated in politics and society, and I can write about that. New policies will affect education and the arts, and I can write about that. We will see parallels between real life as it emerges and Shakespeare’s examinations of power, and I can write about that. And, of course, I can still entertain with the word games, puzzles, riddles, and anagrams that have come to define this tiny little corner of the Internet for the past decade. I might even write about teaching Shakespeare from time to time.

The Shakespeare Teacher is back. If you’re in, I’m in.

Happy New Year.