I Started a Meme

So funny ... so, as I've mentioned in woefully bygone posts (sorry I've been kinda absent around here lately), I blog these days for the Petting Zoo. I have a bit in my mouth over there as far as what I can and can't say. You know: Stay on message, no profanity, don't insult anyone, be careful with humor because people might take it the wrong way. Booooooooooooring .... right?

I try to play by the rules and have been pretty good about behaving myself. But I can't resist playing around every now and then. A while back I made a reference to Shakespeare in a post. It wasn't subtle or anything. Just a little play on words to get readers' attention. I didn't think anything of it other than it made the writing (and hopefully reading) of that post slightly more fun.

Then a few weeks later, a colleague in a totally different program -- someone I don't even know very well who doesn't even blog that much -- used the same Shakespeare quote in a different way. I thought, "Well, that's nice. A little weird, but I guess imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." The next time I saw that colleague I said, "I liked your post. You saw mine, right?"  Colleague said, "Haha, yeah. That was exactly how I was thinking about it, though."

Then, a few days ago, ANOTHER colleague makes reference to a DIFFERENT Shakespeare play. This was actually a little more subtle. I didn't even get the wordplay in the title until I opened the post, and then it hit me right away. And I was like, "Hahahahahahahahahahaha! That's awesome. "

Look at the havoc one literature nerd can wreak outside of academe. Now it's on, people!