Apr 20, 2009 7:00 pm US/Central
Mayor Daley: 'Talk Like Shakespeare' On Thursday
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
To talk like Shakespeare or not to talk like Shakespeare? 'Tis not a question but a mayoral proclamation. And if your knowledge of Shakespeare starts and ends with "To be or not to be," CBS 2's Mike Parker explains why you might want to brush up on the Bard!
William Shakespeare wrote some amazing lingo. In fact, Mayor Daley wants us all speaking like him on Thursday.
The Daley proclamation notes Thursday as the 445th birthday of the Bard, and encourages all Chicagoans to celebrate by using his words.
The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre came up with the idea.
"Everybody knows Shakespeare, you know that," said theater artistic director Barbara Gaines. "Everybody quotes him all the time. Phrases like, 'it's Greek to me,' or 'foul play' or 'westward ho' or 'you're a blinking idiot.'"
When asked if he was going to be talking like Shakespeare Thursday, Mayor Daley said, "I do it every day, thank you."
Before you laugh, consider Daley's words Monday about the economic crisis.
"It's a rainy day but there's a flood coming," Mayor Daley said.
Perhaps the mayor, who has been known to affect a bit of Elizabethan England in his garb at times, was paraphrasing the Bard of Avon and his line, "There is a tide in the affairs of all men, which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune."
Perhaps on "Talk Like Shakespeare Day," other politicians will resort to name-calling with phrases like, "thou churlish onion-eyed scullion," or "thou logger-headed, fat-kidneyed malt worm."
Senator Dick Durbin is beginning to get the idea but needs just a little edge.
"Conscience makes cowards of us all," Sen. Durbin said.
Old Will seems to have something to say about just about anything to just about anybody.
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