True or False: Shakespeare’s “Prince Hal is less humorous than Falstaff.”

Clue:  This is according to a Shakespeare scholar.

Answer:  False.  “Prince Hal himself is no less humorous than Falstaff, while his wit has a dignity and a sarcastic edge not observable in the fat knight’s random and reckless sallies.”  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Richard Grant White, Studies in Shakespeare (1885), p. 29.

From our Magic Words outpost at Blogger:

In his novel The Book of Jokes (2009), Momus' narrator lives in a preposterous world governed by the laws of bad jokes and dirty jokes. But the narrator has a revelation concerning the magic of words:

I have discovered that there is a way to escape this grim fate—the misfortune of joke dharma. The solution, I believe, is that I should assume, myself, the responsibility of telling the very jokes which constrain and define me, and to make, each time, a small alteration in their telling, an alteration which restores a few shreds of dignity, human decency, beauty and sensuality to the tale.

It might begin by embroidery; I add a few details which are not normally included in the rush to the punchline. I must ensure that the story is so well-told that my audience loses interest in the farcical pay-off, the money-shot. I tell the tale several times, from different angles and with different emphases, forcing my listeners to pay attention to small formal questions, adverbs rather than verbs, hows rather than whats.

By these methods, little by little, I believe I can improve my world. Even if you are not in the same grim situation as me, you might want to try this technique for yourself. (51-52)

An Italian friend asked about the Franklin penny's motto, "Mind your business."

Q: Does the motto mean "Mind your [own] business" (as in "Mind your beeswax") or "Mind your business [affairs]"?

A. Both: it's a "doubloon entendre."

Our friend Jason disagrees with President Obama's chilling decree that information "becomes a distraction."  Indeed, Jason suggests that information ranks only fourth in terms of distraction:

1. Cleavage
2. House flies
3. Shiny objects
4. Information

 

"There's a fine line between networking and not working." —June Conley

Which is funnier: a crow’s cawing or blue jay’s squawking?

Clue:  This is according to Beat poet Allen Ginsberg

Answer:  Blue jay squawking  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Allen Ginsberg, Spontaneous Mind: Selected Interviews, 1958-1996 (2001), p. 373.

I was surprised to discover today that I was quoted in Wikipedia's "acoustic music" entry:

WAXING CRESCENT (PRESENT PERFECT)

"semicolon [;], star [*]"

—Roget's International Thesaurus (1962)

 

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook:

Our Tic Tac Toe generator builds stories out of the one-letter words X and O.  Here's an example, from a photo we spotted at the Frog Blog.  The letters can be translated as follows:

Stitching wonderment
Gladness crossing, multiplying
Round reassurance magnifying

What is funnier than laughing when you shouldn't be laughing?

Clue:  This is according to novelist Rick Hamilin.

Answer:  Nothing.  (The answer is in black text on the black background.  Highlight it to view.)

Citation:  Rick Hamilin, Reading Between the Lines (2006), p. 111.

From Prof. Oddfellow's sketchbook: