Below is a graph of the hits to Shakespeare Teacher for each day of the past month. This reflects the number of unique visitors, not how many pages they viewed.

Visually savvy readers may notice a bit of a spike in yesterday’s readership. Was it the new design? Was it the Conundrum, asking for words that end in -ly? Is the world finally starting to take an interest in Shakespeare lists, Venn Diagram puzzles, and Animaniacs cartoons? Or was it the link from Showtime?

We could sit around all day debating the different theories. The point is that I just got my 2,000th hit while writing this, and over six percent of those hits came in yesterday. Now I think I’ll post a video clip from Sesame Street.

So thanks to a link from the Showtime page on The Tudors, this blog got over 100 unique hits today, and the day is not even over yet. I think the previous record was around 30, and that was a day when I e-mailed all my friends and some of them e-mailed all of their friends.

And it occurs to me that I’ve been kind of hard on the media lately. Now that my readership has widened somewhat, I am concerned that some may have been disturbed by last week’s Question of the Week which involved my putting legitimate news sources alongside more questionable ones and asking my readers to rank them in order of reliability.

Please know that I meant no disrespect to Fox News. Or to CNN. Or to network television. Or to the New York Times editorial page. I’m simply raising questions.

The sources we have always been told we can trust may not be as reliable as we’d like them to be. But does this mark a decline in mainstream news reporting, or have these sources always been somewhat unreliable and it’s only through the more democratic medium of the Internet that we’re able to stay on top of it?

The reason I bring it up is that this study suggests that the shifts in the last twenty years have not resulted in a more informed electorate.

That surprised me, but maybe it shouldn’t have. Howard Dean turned himself from being a dead-end candidate into the front runner for the Democratic nomination in 2004 by raising money through a grassroots movement over the Internet. It was a groundbreaking use of the new medium. But then it was the traditional media who ruined him by playing that one clip, taken out of context, over and over. And it seems that the winners are the ones who know how to play the system. So the democratic process is still controlled by slick marketing experts. Perhaps nothing has changed since the days of Parson Weems.

Parson Weems, a supporter of Thomas Jefferson, wanted to emphasize strong values in young America. So he wrote a fictional story about the late George Washington to illustrate his point. Perhaps you’ve heard it – it involves a hatchet and a cherry tree.

Today’s version of the mythmaker, Karl Rove, has access to 24-hour information networks, both on cable and over the Internet. But so do we. Lies spread faster than they used to, but corrections are immediate. It’s harder to get away with things now, at least with those of us who are paying attention. In the days of Parson Weems, you couldn’t just go to Snopes.com to see if that cherry tree thing was true. And you certainly couldn’t just stumble upon some guy’s blog through a link from the Showtime website and get a rambling media literacy diatribe.

But it’s today, and you just did. Welcome! This blog is often about Shakespeare, but as you can tell, it’s about other things too. I hope you enjoy yourself while you’re here, and please feel free to leave a comment behind on any of the posts, either current or in the archives.

We all know words that end with -ly are adverbs. Except when they aren’t.

Can you name a noun, verb, adjective, conjunction, and interjection that end in -ly?

(I wasn’t able to think of a pronoun or preposition, but if you can, post that too!)

How about a holiday, an insect, a country, and three characters from Shakespeare that end in -ly?

Can you name two former U.S. presidents with “ly” somewhere in their first names?

Post whatever you have in the comments below, and I’ll try to respond promptly!

UPDATE: Correct responses submitted by Erin (5), Kenneth W. Davis (4), and DeLisa (4). See comments for answers.

Today is Shakespeare’s birthday. I didn’t want to go to bed without acknowledging that.

And it’s the big 443. That’s a rough one. That’s when you wake up and realize you’re more than halfway to 884. And 884 is old. That’s Eleanor of Aquitane old. And then you start wondering “Yes, I’m universally considered the greatest writer in the English language. But what have I really accomplished?” And then you write a sonnet about time.

You’re not actually still reading this, are you? I’m off to bed.

Alberto Gonzales? Harry Reid? Paul Wolfowitz? Simon Cowell? President Bush?

Who should resign?

The fourth episode of The Tudors airs tonight on Showtime and will be replayed throughout the week. You can also view the episode On Demand.

Use the comments section of this post to discuss the episode. Any comments I may have will be posted in the comments section as well.

WARNING: Comments may contain further discussion of the show, including potential spoilers. Click through only after viewing the episode. Commenters may discuss this episode as freely as they like, but are asked not to spoil future episodes.

By the way, did you know that Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn were the parents of Queen Elizabeth I? That’s hot.

I haven’t blogged much about my father because, well, it’s not really that kind of blog. But we lost him to cancer about a year and a half ago. He was 60 years old.

I think he would have enjoyed this blog. He was the type of person who was interested in engaging in many different topics, whether they were in his area or not. I guess I inherited that from him. He’d have loved this blog. And even if he didn’t, he’d have read it anyway, because it was my blog and he was proud of me.

He would have left comments, too, I’m sure, and they would have made us see things in ways we hadn’t before. He could do that. He would have signed his comments Larry instead of Dad because he wouldn’t have wanted to embarrass me. But then I’d respond and call him Dad so everyone would see what a clever father I had.

Happy Birthday, Dad. We still miss you terribly.

Norah Jones, “My Dear Country”

A bit of silliness to start the weekend…

Remember those text adventure games from the 1980’s, like Zork and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?

Well, Robin Johnson created Hamlet: The Text Adventure Game.

It’s pretty clever. I enjoyed playing it for a bit, then got frustrated and gave up. Just like Zork and The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy…

But if any of you are interested in playing this game collaboratively, I’d be curious to see where it goes. I got as far as Banquo. (Yeah, you start to wander into other plays.) Use the comments thread below to compare notes.

UPDATE: Never mind about playing collaboratively. There’s a hints page. So if you get stuck, you can go there and get as many hints as you need to finish the game. It’s worth checking out for the Shakespeare-related laughs integrated throughout the game. For example, Richard III will actually trade you his kingdom for a horse.

I’m a digital guru – the papa of Wiki;
Or King Richard the Second when he was Prince Ricky;
I’m a role played by Clint, loved by fans who are picky;
And I sound like some mammals – though that might be tricky.

Who am I?

UPDATE: Riddle solved by Lee. See comments for answer.