A mashup of Hamlet and American pie which amuses us.

A long, long time ago
I can still remember
How, alas, poor Yorick’s jokes drew groans
He’d dance and sing and kiss my hand
Like Elsinore was Neverland
But then he went and joined the Skull and Bones

This font emporium that I love, sent out a coupon as part of a celebration of World Book and Copyright Day. That’s today. Did anyone else know this?

The connection between 23 April and books was first made in 1923 by booksellers in Catalonia as a way to honour the author Miguel de Cervantes who died on that day. This became a part of the celebrations of the Saint George’s Day (also 23 April) in the region, where it has been traditional since the mediaeval era for men to give roses to their lovers and since 1925 for the woman to give a book in exchange. Half the yearly sales of books in Catalonia are at this time with over 400,000 sold and exchanged for over 4 million roses.

In 1995, UNESCO decided that the World Book and Copyright day would be celebrated on this date because of the Catalonian festival and because the date is also the anniversary of the birth and death of William Shakespeare, the death of Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Josep Pla, the birth of Maurice Druon, Vladimir Nabokov, Manuel Mejía Vallejo and Halldór Laxness

As a change, I thought I’d share a letter from my dad about my folks recent trip to London to visit my brother, Steve.

London May-June 2005 highlights.

Dear Mary,
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp We arrived on Saturday morning and Steve was visiting with Josh out at the airport so we just hung out at Steve’s place and did some housecleaning and took a nap.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Steve came home around 10 or 11 pm and I was watching a cricket match on TV and he got all upset that I would do something so un-American in his house.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Sunday we just went pub hopping and looked for an Irish session that I had found out about on the internet. We found it at the Porterhouse pub and it was wonderful indeed. They told me of another one (with roughly the same people) that was happening on Thursday at a pub named the “Narrowboat.� The days run together even while they are happening, so to look back at them is a mess. One evening Marilyn found a police line and a lot of well dressed people (tux and fancy gowns) arriving at the Royal Opera House so she staked herself out there to see who might show up that was famous. It turned out that it was the Centennial celebration for the Chelsea football club and these were old timers showing up.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp I think Tuesday night we went to see “The Producers� and it was a hoot. The accountant’s voice got tired in the last scene or two, but other than that it was fabulous.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Tuesday we took a day tour of Oxford, Stratford and Warwick. The tour guide was wonderful and talked a blue streak the whole way to Oxford and then had the gall to say that the tour guide we would pick up in Oxford would be really talkative. She was certainly that, but just couldn’t hold a candle to him if there were a contest for being talkative. Oxford had lots of places where Harry Potter was filmed.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp We also visited some other Harry Potter locations on Wednesday. Stratford on the Avon was a quaint town, and Shakespeare’s birthplace was restored and made into a museum. It is not where he wrote his plays as it was really his father’s house. He lived somewhere else in town but since he was a contemporary, nobody thought it worth saving apparently.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Then we went to Warwick castle, the best preserved medieval castle in all of England. This is the place to take children (like me). There were walls and towers and dungeons and torture chambers and a power plant where they installed their own electric generator in 1900 keeping up with the times. It is owned by some entertainment company that has a famous wax museum in London so the state rooms had appropriate wax figures in them.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp On Wednesday we went to Bath and some little town I can’t remember the name of, but which is owned by the historic trust. It is something like Williamsburg, except older. You are only allowed to move into the town if you had a grandparent that lived there. This is where some Harry Potter scenes were shot. We finished up the day by going to Stonehenge. The tour guide for this trip was not nearly as good as the one on the day previous, but he was still good enough. Bath was the highlight of this day trip.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp On Thursday, Steve had to work so instead of going out to see the sights of London, we cleaned house again. Thursday night we went out to find the Narrowboat and the session. We found it and except for it being so far from Steve’s place, it was my favorite pub of them all. Of course the experience was enhanced for me because the fiddler let me play her fiddle for several tunes.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp The Narrowboat was the 101st pub that Steve has visited since he has been in London. He is not counting a second visit to a pub in his count.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp That doesn’t look like we did as much as it felt like we did so I’ve probably left out something really important. Ask your mother and Steve to fill in the missing parts.
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Love,
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp Dad