Monday mornin' Shakespeare and Stritch

Let's try some theatre therapy. A great story out of Los Angeles' Hobart Boulevard Elementary School is featured in today's New York Times. Fifth-grade teacher Rafe Esquith focuses on discipline, teamwork, sacrifice, and literature. He doesn't teach to the test, rather he takes a more well-rounded approach that includes study of Shakespeare and Twain. I saw him interviewed the other night on PBS's NOW. The program showed scenes of Esquith and another student reading a section of Huckleberry Finn which had students in tears. One little girl had to stop reading as she started to cry. His methods are highlighted again tonight on POV (on PBS) The Hobart Shakespeare. What a story!

Outrageous Elaine Stritch is featured in another story that also spotlights the Carlyle hotel, where Stritch lives and will open a new show "Elaine Stritch at Home at the Carlyle." She always give me chuckle.

Oh, and here's an update on the animals at New Orleans' Audubon Zoo.

Be nice out there -