THE GOOD people of Hillsborough County Public School, Florida have lost the plot or at least censored the plot with only fragments of Shakespeare’s plays being studied.
The updated quote could be “To read or not to read, that is the question” although that has been decided in this case so that students read a wide variety of books. Surely this should include books that have been considered amongst the best for over 400 years.
The other concern expressed was that the stories might contain pornography and yes, Shakespeare does have some colorful sections but so does the internet.
The solution to protect students from these 400-year-old words would be for them to “get thee to a nunnery”.
Truly this is a case of “the lady doth protest too much” and more sensible approaches, even the ludicrous trigger warnings, could be considered.
Let’s hope that the policy is reviewed and “all’s well that ends well.”
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Self-service or no service?
I am old enough to remember when there was personal service, where someone spoke to you and actually knew your name. This is rare now and generally restricted to a few small coffee shops.
A recent trip to a large hardware company met only self-service lanes with the personal service lane closed although I was told I could get personal service via the gardening exit.
A later trip to the major food supermarket met at least a dozen self-service bays, but two personal service lanes with full trolleys being served and even fuller trolleys queued up. The 15 items or less lanes have become zero lanes. I gave up waiting and left frustrated.
These are only the two most recent examples of the declining personal service and the rise of automation. Beware the robots “serving” us as it will only be a short step to them deciding what we should buy, the low sugar version, the cheaper no brand version although they will still be instructed to sell cigarettes as they are so profitable.
As one famous robot said, “I’ll be back.” Well, I won’t be if there is no personal service. (dfitzger@melbpc.org.au)/PN
