Guinea Pigs

This morning, on the way to work, I found this guinea pig. She was just shivering at the side of the boardwalk, so I waited a while to check there were no obvious signs of communicable diseases (I have no idea whether you get rabid guinea pigs, but I was unwilling to take a chance) and then stroked her and finally picked her up squirming and took her into the Nature House. Yes, unwanted pets get dumped here, I'm not sure whether people realise they will die or whether they genuinely think they will become feral. In truth, if they don't die of shock or exposure, they'll be eaten by hawks or coyotes.

I took this picture of Canada Geese (I know it looks as though Canada Geese roam free while people are kept penned in cages) yesterday evening when we went to see the final (for us) play in the Bard on the Beach season. This was a production of Twelfth Night and I must admit I was dubious at first. The setting was pre-depression America and I was not sure I would enjoy this twenties presentation. There was also a lot of singing, something I dislike in a play or film - although rather oddly, I liked Grease - but there's always the possibility in Shakespeare's comedies, we certainly had to sing a lot of his songs in music lessons at primary school.

In fact, I thought it brilliant! I really think this was how it must have been in Shakespeare's time, every word was acted, played with, given expression and comedically represented. It was poetry in motion, polished, choreographed and the audience just rolled about with laughter at every facial expression, every movement and every stop. What a treat, the costumes were superb, the set well constructed and used, (the same set as for Lear) and there was no weak link in the company. I thoroughly, THOROUGHLY enjoyed every moment.

Copies of New Scientist have now made their way into the staff toilet at work (made their way in the sense that I put some in there) and this morning I was reading a short article about how we still marvel at the work of Pythagoras, some 25 centuries after his death and it wondered whether the work of anyone alive today will inspire people far into the future.
Well, we're just eight years shy of four hundred years since Shakespeare's death and yet his work can still keep audiences in stitches.

Pythagoras was probably considered a bit of a beardie-weirdie even in his own time, but he was very learned and had absorbed philosophy from many different cultures on his travels (and his travels were not all from choice it must be said).
Shakespeare, we are oft told, was churning out the equivalent of soaps. So maybe generations of the future will value reality TV - we may of course be able to ask them soon as the Large Hadron Collider at Cern comes on line, and time travel from the future to 2008 onwards becomes possible - but I'm thinking it'll be Colin and Justin who'll stand the test of time.