D has recently developed an inexplicable but really quite charming fascination with the phenomenon known as LOLCats, in which animals (often cats) are photographed in the midst of cute and/or bizarre behavior and then their thoughts are provided in oddly ungrammatical captions. Most famous among these internet oddities are a cat deeply satisfied by his possession of a "cheezeburger" and a walrus in continual search for his beloved but wandering bucket. I blame the Carolina basketball board for ensnaring D in this sticky web of endless cute wit.

But then I made the delightful discovery that Chaucer (for whom, in all his humorous complexity, I have long harbored a mild literary crush - although I am unsettled by the possibility that he was a rapist) has a blog, and that on that blog he admits that he too is quite obsessed with the LOLcat phenomenon. So fascinated, in fact, that he rushed to make LOLPilgrims, which are a marvelous satire on both the conventions of LOL and the intricacies of Canterbury Tales criticism. Take a look; the Middle English is a mite difficult at first, but it is definitely worth it. I swear that I am one step away from buying one of old Geoff's tee-shirts - perhaps the one that threatens "Don't make me unlock my word-hoard on you!"

In other news, D and I are watching a borrowed copy of the third season of "Slings and Arrows," the Canadian series about the people who run a (fictional) embattled theatre company. My parents got us and several of our friends completely addicted to this theatricalist dramedy, and the third season is proving to be every bit as brilliant as the previous two. In the first season, the Artistic Director of the New Burbage Festival unexpectedly dies, leaving his theatre company in the thrall of financial peril and artistic mediocrity. The board of directors takes a risks and invites the late AD's estranged protege to take over the company, despite the fact that he left the Festival years earlier amidst a massive nervous breakdown, which took hold of him while he was onstage, playing Hamlet. Is he still quite mad? Well, it's possible: he regularly sees the nagging ghost of his late mentor. Each season takes as its subject a single, central production that the company is mounting (Hamlet in the first season, Macbeth in the second - both, pointedly, ghost plays - and, in the third, King Lear), and in each season the characters' non-theatrical problems thematically echo the chosen play's. I highly recommend it to all of you - you can get it on Amazon (Slings & Arrows - Season 3) or Netflix (although Netflix bought too few copies, and is being a bit withholding as a result).

I am (I swear) about to sit down and watch the acclaimed but undoubtedly harrowing United 93 - I will let you know how it goes. I am almost done with Sleepless Nights, which continues to be dreamily excellent, but haven't really gotten any further with Watching the English or David Copperfield. I also need to attend to my 52 Plays/52 Weeks Project - I have been halfway through a Marivaux play for a couple of weeks now, and its plot is so intricate I may just have to start again at the beginning.