Hiya Skeleton Crew,

Happy Wednesday! No real updates on the werewolf sitch. As far’s I can tell, Vlad was just kinda hanging around the outside of the theater all day yesterday? I asked him what was going on & he just kinda sheepishly muttered something about not being invited in.

I dunno, it was weird!

But so anyways, I finally said to him, I says, “Quit poking around outside & get on IN here, ya big goober!” He perks up at that and zooms right past me. “I thought you’d never ask!” he said.

Like I said: weird, right??

Trivia 1

I’ll venture to say John Green’s best-known work is that book The Fault in Our Stars, a YA novel whose title comes from good ol’ Willy Shakespeare—specifically, the play Julius Caesar.¹

That line reminds me of a teevee speech I saw way back in the day, I think it was on CBS— actually, lemme find it ... I’ve got this big archive of printed-out telecast transcripts I like to keep on hand for just this type of situation ...

Ah, here it is!

OK, I won’t excerpt the whole thing, but here’s the relevant bit:

Earlier, the Senator asked, "Upon what meat does this, our Caesar, feed?" Had he looked three lines earlier in Shakespeare's Caesar, he would have found this line, which is not altogether inappropriate: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

[...]

The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn't create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it -- and rather successfully. Cassius was right. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves."

Good night, and good luck.

Can ya tell me who’s that junior Senator from Wisconsin that’s being referenced there?

Trivia 2

Didja know that artists friggin LOVE tuberculosis? Painters, composers, writers—you name a medium, there’s probably some 18th or 19th century masterpiece with a consumptive waif prominently featured somewhere. Like, here:

That’s a painting of what artist’s older sister, Johanne Sophie, who died of tuberculosis as a teenager? This fella’s mom died of the disease too; at some point later in life he said, “I inherited two of mankind's most frightful enemies—the heritage of consumption and insanity.” Ah jeez!