Disappeared News: #ShakesPalin, the bard thou never wert, or something like that

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

#ShakesPalin, the bard thou never wert, or something like that

“But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and I can see Russia from my front porch.”

by Larry Geller

I didn’t jump on the bandwagon when this started, so lots of fun has gone under the bridge. Oh, darn, I’m beginning to sound like her.

There’s a new “meme,” a word Sarah Palin may not have heard before, but darn tootin’, she’s heard it now. It’s called #ShakesPalin, and you can tune in on Twitter even if you are not a user. Just click on the link. There’s another now: #BardofWasilla which pretty much overlaps the first.

If you do use Twitter, you’ve no doubt seen several tweets with the word “refudiate” in them. That’s a Palinism. It’s all explained in a Washington Post story today, 'Refudiating' Palin brings Shakespeare into Twitter exchange (7/20/2010).

What seems to have happened is that Sarah Palin, despite all the big bucks she earns at speaking engagements, seems to tweet all by herself. You’d think that she would hire someone to do her tweeting, but no. In her glorious ineptitude, she used the word “refudiate” then erased the tweet, then used “refute” when she meant “repudiate,” and compared herself to Shakespeare. The rest is history in the making.

Let’s just look at some recent sample tweets:

@fordesire: RT @freehawk: But soft, what light from yonder window breaks? It is the East, and I can see Russia from my front porch. #bardofwasilla #shakespalin

@playajj: A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life Do with their death panels pull the plug on grandpa and his wife #shakespalin

@melanievotaw: Obama! Obama! Who the heck are you, Obama? Deny thy father, and refuse thy name Hussein. #shakespalin #bardofwasilla

@melanievotaw: Let me embrace thee, Tea Party, for Joe-Six-Pack says it is the wisest course, you betcha. #shakespalin #bardofwasilla

@Normative): "To suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous liberals, or to quit halfterm, and by opposing, rake in speaking fees."
@nickseemore Though this be madness, yet there is maverickiness in't. #shakespalin
@clevecallison: "What have I done, that thou darest wag thy tongue In noise so rude against me? And on Fox News, no less?" #bardofwasilla #shakespalin
@melanievotaw: My words are made up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts on my hands go. #shakespalin #bardofwasilla
@incognitosum: O thou invisible spirit of war, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee oil. #ShakesPalin
@sbudetaali: Idiocy, thy name is Palin! #bardofwasilla #shakespalin
We few, we happy few, we "real Americans": he that votes for me shall be a real American, be he e'er so fiscally irresponsible. #ShakesPalin
@RIRYE77: Not that I lov’d Alaska less, but that I lov’d Money more #ShakesPalin #BardofWasilla
@conradkoch: Till the burnin’ Bush come to dunce inane. #ShakesPalin

Speaking of Bush, I hate to say it, but I noticed a twinge of nostalgia while reading the ShakesPalin tweets.

We’ve come to the point where facility in the English language isn’t a requirement for holding the highest office in the land. Palin could get elected, couldn’t she, particularly if Obama doesn’t learn to put some fun in his speeches.