So you think you know literary history?

[FierceKitty]

*  Hamlet was not created as a musical because Shakespeare lost a court case over copyright infringement with the song There is nothing like a Dane.

True of false?

*  Stephen King objected to Stanley Kubrick's version of his novel not on account of the embarrassing contrast between Kubrick's superior creative skills and his own anaemic writing, but because he had been given to understand that the movie was to be the pilot episode to a lucrative sitcom called The Grady Bunch with the theme song When you're shining, the whole world shines with you. He was supported by Shelley Duvall, whose agent carelessly committed her to a contract unaware that she was not about to play Wendy, the female lead in Peter Pan.

True or false?

*  Shakespeare was again thwarted in his attempt to get a musical on stage and break into the American market when he couldn't get the scansion to work for Macbeth's big number The sun won't come out tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.

True of false?

*    PETA compelled Jane Austen to rewrite much of her most light-hearted novel when they obtained an injunction against the title Northanger Tabby. They later enjoyed a similar success against Charles Dickens and A Tail of Two Kitties. 

True or false?

*  The Swan of Avon's last attempt to break into commercial shows, Cooking with Cleo, was taken off the air following protests at the line I am frying, Egypt, frying.

True or false?

*  The first great work of gay erotica in American fiction experienced a fatal decline in sales when the vernacular New England adjective meaning "huge and astounding" (Moby) was banned in print by the League of Decency and Family Values.

True or false?

[FierceKitty]

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT:
Our literary editor has been granted an extended leave of absence on the advice of his medical advisor.

[Techno 3]

Very good ! 

[Steve J]

Very good and far too clever for a read first thing in the morning   !

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

All of course true...... 

[Ithoriel]

Beautifully done Alexander!

But, did you know that scholars have shown that, as many have long suspected, Hamlet was written by Sir Francis Bacon and it was he, not Shakespeare, who set it in Denmark. Yes, Hamlet is the original Danish Bacon.

Shakespeare purloined Bacon's manuscript and made a few amendments of his own. He was going to call it Omlette but feared that if his duplicity were discovered he'd end up with egg on his face.

There is no truth to the rumour that the original manuscript for Macbeth was a biography of the woman who invented the raincoat.

Two Gentlemen of Verona is not a gay love story.

Disappointingly, The Taming of the Shrew contains no useful information on the domestication of small mammals.

Some, all or none of the above may be true

[Gwydion]

Disappointingly, The Taming of the Shrew contains no useful information on the domestication of small mammals.

I suppose it depends to some extent what dress size you think Katharina was.
(I shall now leave and hide before I become a hashtag. )

This has been a retro joke for historical comedic purposes only and is not intended in any way to suggest that women should be domesticated, or in any other way subordinated to the needs, desires or expectations of men. Furthermore the reference to dress size is purely to connect to the 'small' reference in the original post, and in no way condones, supports or endorses societal imposition of expected body shape or size, on women or any other gender.

[FierceKitty]

I suppose it depends to some extent what dress size you think Katharina was.
(I shall now leave and hide before I become a hashtag. )

This has been a retro joke for historical comedic purposes only and is not intended in any way to suggest that women should be domesticated, or in any other way subordinated to the needs, desires or expectations of men. Furthermore the reference to dress size is purely to connect to the 'small' reference in the original post, and in no way condones, supports or endorses societal imposition of expected body shape or size, on women or any other gender.

The above disavowal is lacking in proper respect towards female-identifying members of the Masochism and subordination community!

[Gwydion]

Mea culpa