Talk Like Shakespeare Chicago

Chicago's bard and Mayor King Richard Daley has made a proclamation:

In honor of William Shakespeare's upcoming birthday, Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has proclaimed "Talk Like Shakespeare Day" in the city.

CBS2:

The Chicago Shakespeare Theatre came up with the idea.

"Everybody knows Shakespeare, you know that," said theater artistic director Barbara Gaines. "Everybody quotes him all the time. Phrases like, 'it's Greek to me,' or 'foul play' or 'westward ho' or 'you're a blinking idiot.'"

The theatre will be presenting Richard III this year, among their plays.

My twitter friend DeadVoter has started his day:

deadvoterGood Day Chicago, get thee ass out of thy gilded bed and do something on this glorious day where the sun shineth #TalkLikeShakespeare

But if you're stuck, there is, of course, a website with suggestions.

The Brits' The Guardian has noticed Chicago's efforts, and celebrates the day with this--well put:

Yet it is only when we step back and think once again about the freshness of thought, the immediacy and preciseness, in a description such as "tongue-tied" that we realise the cliché has become cliché because it makes the artifice of language seem entirely natural. It is as if there is no other way to describe being "tongue-tied" than, well, "tongue-tied". The irony is that even while Shakespeare fabricated language for dramatic and poetic effect, it feels and sounds as if it is cut fresh from the earth.

As for me, since it is a glorious spring day, I recall this verse from my college days, spoken to us on such a day as this:

WHERE the bee sucks, there suck I:
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
On the bat’s back I do fly.
After summer merrily:	5
Merrily, merrily, shall I live now
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

God Bless the bard.