Amusing horse story

man slaps horse, gets fertilized by judge...

WTOP story

"Shack-spear"

My desk calendar is the one published by Barnes and Nobles each year, filled with lots of literary annecdotes and trivia. For this week, it comments on Shakespeare's name. It goes into the different ways that the bard's name was spelled, including Shaxpere, Shaxpeare, Shackespere, Shagsbere, Shaksbye, Sadspere, and (almost Chaucerian) Chacsper. Billy himself spelled it Shakspere, Shakspeare, Shaksp, or Shaksp_ (with an underline). Since spelling in the Renaissance was anything but immutable, this isn't a surprise. But the article goes on to point out that most of the common variants of the time spelled it with a short a, indicating that we, in our modern age of so-called precision, are probably pronouncing his name wrong! It should be, perhaps, Shack-spear!