Random trivia

To bring light to this commonwealth/state thing, here's an excerpt from Ben's Guide to the Government from the White House for Kids homepage [!--emo&:P--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/tongue.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'tongue.gif\' /][!--endemo--]

[!--QuoteBegin--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]There is no difference between a commonwealth and a state in the U.S. To Locke, Hobbes, and other 17th-century writers the term "commonwealth" meant an organized political community -- what we today call a "state." Officially Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts are all commonwealths. When Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Virginia, and Massachusetts became part of the United States, they merely took the old form of state in their title.

Today, commonwealth also means a political unit having local autonomy but voluntarily united with the U.S. These are Puerto Rico and the Northern Mariana Islands.[/quote]

[a href=\'http://bensguide.gpo.gov/support/faqs.html\' target=\'_blank\']Original Source[/a]
 
you calling me a kid Perun? did ya have to "dumb it down?" hu? HU? [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--] good job!
 
New question!

What's odd about this soliloquy from Shakespeare's Macbeth?

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.
Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going;
And such an instrument I was to use.
Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still,
And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
It is the bloody business which informs
Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one halfworld
Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
Pale Hecate's offerings, and wither'd murder,
Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace.
With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
And take the present horror from the time,
Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives:
Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
[A bell rings.]
I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell
That summons thee to heaven or to hell. (Act II, Scene 1)
[span style=\'font-size:8pt;line-height:100%\']
Edited by SinisterMinisterX: the stage direction near the end has been enclosed in brackets to set it apart from the speech.[/span]
 
I got a higher mark on that speech from Wirtantan than you did? [!--emo&:D--][img src=\'style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/biggrin.gif\' border=\'0\' style=\'vertical-align:middle\' alt=\'biggrin.gif\' /][!--endemo--]
 
Just a guess ... the first odd thing I see is a line ("At this which now I draw") which which is well short of the usual ten syllables. There are also some 11-syllable lines, such as the first two.

It should be noted that the line "A bell rings" near the end is a stage direction, not part of the speech.
 
SMX, you are very close to figuring it out. You're right about it not being in iambic pentameter (the usual 'beat scheme' of Shakespearean drama)
 
ok, it has been almost a month and nobody has posted anything so new question.

What is the difference between a Hurricane, a Typhoon and a Cyclone?
 
[!--QuoteBegin-Onhell+Apr 13 2005, 02:34 AM--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(Onhell @ Apr 13 2005, 02:34 AM)[/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--QuoteEBegin--]
What is the difference between a Hurricane, a Typhoon and a Cyclone?
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I think the name depends in which region it's located, but I don't know who is where...
 
EXACTLY! very good. The other not so obvious differences are that Typhoons are stronger and larger than Hurricanes and cyclones spin clockwise instead of counter-clockwise, but you got it.
 
I think willy-willy is a term used in the state of Western Australia for a tornado...it's been a while since I've brushed up on my Aussieisms though
 
I seem to recall that it was the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper.

Whether I'm right or wrong, I do remember that their list of the "top 500 albums" sucked more than Christina Aguilera in an NBA locker room.
 
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