This post isn't strictly hockey-related, by which I mean it has absolutely nothing whatever to do with hockey, so feel free to skip.
Still with us? Today, comrades, is December 9th, 2008, which can only mean one thing: It's John Milton's 400th birthday!
Who, you ask? Wikipedia will tell you everything you need to know bio-wise, but if you're a true adventurer I recommend you start with the best lyric poem in the English language, Lycidas, and from there immerse yourself in crazy old Paradise Lost. It looks daunting, and the language is quite strange, but it has everything you could ever want: public nudity, hot sex, lots of violence, talking animals, Satan-as-action-hero, God as a fussy old man with a hobby. All in gorgeous and entrancing blank verse.
Certainly one of the best poets in the English language, if not quite THE best (that honour definitely goes to that one guy). But in my opinion Milton is the most thrilling and contrary.
Also, if you enjoy that whole freedom of speech and freedom of the press business, you might want to look into his great prose essay Areopagitica. Milton practically invented the whole thing.
So if you run into John Milton today, thank him for his service to English and world literature, and to human liberty. Tell him that...oh, right, he's totally dead, so you can't do that. Perhaps you can just phone him instead.
Okay, enough of that scary cultural stuff. If you really want to have a fantastic eight or so minutes, please, PLEASE watch this video:
I'm pretty sure that guy in the business suit urinates behind the librarian's desk at 2:38.
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1 comment:
you guys never cease to amaze in the culture department. +1
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