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Posts Tagged ‘Reading’

I’m Not an Actor, But I Play One on TV

Posted in Books, tagged , , , , , , , on 13 May 2014| Leave a Comment »

Lippincott Editions of Furness’ Variorum

Claire Bloom once told me that if I was serious about Shakespeare and acting, I must read the Shakespearean variorum. Through the variorum, she said, I could delve into the language and gain better understanding of its history and deeper meaning.

I took this advice to heart, despite the fact that I’m not an actor.

And the fact that I didn’t know what a variorum was.

And the fact that she wasn’t actually talking to me, specifically.

Yes, on rare occasions I take things celebrities say rather more personally than they were intended, such as when Sir John Gielgud gave me advice on friendship. To put your mind at ease, when I do this, I do it in a completely non-“I see you when you’re not looking,” non-“unbalanced creepy stalker” type way.

Honest.

Trust me.

Anyway… Once Ms Bloom told me this, I immediately went in search of a “variorum,” whatever it was. (more…)

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Odd Ducks

Posted in Writing, tagged , , , , on 17 Jan 2014| 8 Comments »

It’s happened to us all. That moment when a word–a perfectly innocuous, everyday word–suddenly looks weird.

It happened to me the other day. The word was “dirt.” I wrote it down and suddenly it looked misspelled. I stared at it. I tried “durt,” but that was even worse. Dirt. Dirt.

Dirt.

Oddly, when I wrote “dirty,” that looked okay, but “dirt” still looked…wrong. Truncated. Too tall. Too narrow.

Last year, I had a similar episode with the word “schedule.” We haven’t gotten along, since.

Thankfully, these episodes are transitory. Eventually, usually within an hour, the word loses its alien quality and becomes once more a regular, banal word from my daily lexicon.

Except, that is, for the “odd ducks.” (more…)

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