The Fanciest Hat

I refer, of course, to the 2BRnot2B soliloquy.

Just saying this makes my imaginary dog, Irby, more formally IrbyCauthen, thump his tail wildly against the nearest object.

I remember wandering into some version of Shakespeare 101 early in my college career and seeing the real Irby Cauthen -- the man after whom I've named my imaginary dog -- standing there, waiting to give us The Truth in several large, chokingly-thick doses.  I think I took two more courses from Dr. Cauthen and, in toto, they were certainly up to that point the greatest educational experiences of my skinny little life.

But let me tell you, I thought, when it came to Shakespeare, that watching Slings & Arrows was a close second.  Third, maybe, after that Harold Bloom book about Shakespeare inventing the human.  That was pretty rocking, if you were in the mood.  And it did go on for 700 or so pages.  So you had to really be in the mood.

Easier to swallow was Slings & Arrows ...

If you're curious, that's a young Rachel McAdams at the end, before she became famous.

This wasn't actually the bit I was looking for.  I was looking for the one where Geoffrey, the director, tells Jack, the guy playing Hamlet, about the six soliloquies and that they were all that mattered.  That was a great one.

Remain calm -- I'll scrounge around.