Drama students revive 400-year-old script

A performance by University of Calgary students next weekend may be the first ever of a mystery playscript dating back almost to Shakespeare’s time (though nobody is suggesting for a second it’s a lost Shakespearean play, I hasten to add). Since I’m currently involved with Globe Theatre‘s upcoming production of Twelfth Night, I found this …

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Who had the first laugh?

Think laughter is one of the things that separates us from animals? Think again.

Does imitating the sound of a ray-gun help attract females?

Apparently it does if you’re a dwarf minke whale. If it worked for human females, of course, I might have managed to get married several years earlier than I did.

The painted lady

We tend to think of ancient Roman and Greek statues as having been made of pure white marble. In fact, they were usually painted in bright colors– as a statue of Venusnow on display for the first time in Jerusalem vividly demonstrates.

Lots of new music up on edwardwillett.com…

I discovered a (partial) tape of a Harding University A Cappella Chorus concert from February 1, 1978, among my parents’ tapes while I was down at my Mom’s house a couple of weeks ago. Part of the tape got accidentally recorded over–probably just a couple of songs–but I’ve turned the rest of the numbers, nine …

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Lots of new posts over on the wine blog…

Lots of new posts over on the Willetts on Wine wine blog. Check it out!

More good news about grapes

University of Illinois scientists have discovered how components in grapes (and probably red wine!) work together to inhibit an enzyme crucial to the proliferation of cancer cells.

Cat-choo!

Do pets make you sneeze? Well, you’re not alone: an estimated ten percent of the population is allergic to animals. And the animal responsible for the majority of those allergies is Felis domesticus–your basic household cat. Being the cat person that I am, this strikes me as a terrible, terrible, thing, worthy of serious research. …

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A cure for cat allergies?

Do pets make you sneeze? Well, you’re not alone: an estimated ten percent of the population is allergic to animals. And the animal responsible for the majority of those allergies is Felis domesticus–your basic household cat. Being the cat person that I am, this strikes me as a terrible, terrible, thing, worthy of serious research. …

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Do you suffer from ADT?

According to a psychiatrist who’s an expert in attention deficit disorder, a related disorder he calls attention deficit trait is reaching epidemic proportions in our fast-paced world, where the constant data input from computers, cell phones and more is diluting our mental powers and wrecking our ability to think deeply and be creative. I’d write …

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Hugo and Campbell nominees announced

The Hugo and Campbell Awards Nominations have been announced. Oddly enough, I am not on the list.

Farewell to newspapers?

Michael S. Malone says newspapers are dead–they just haven’t realized it yet. I hate to say it, as an old newspaper hand, but I think he’s right, at least in the traditional form. I get almost all of my international news online now, and many days I barely skim the two newspapers I get–papers I …

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