As I walk through clouds of pot smoke on New York City sidewalks and scroll through the comments section of internet newsfeeds, the figure of speech “Bread and Circuses” comes to mind. Credit for this phrase belongs to Juvenal, a Roman poet of the late first and early... Read More →

  In Shakespeare’s last play “The Tempest,” the island creature Caliban is enslaved by the exiled Duke of Milan who teaches him speech. Caliban used his new skill to curse his master, saying, “you taught me language and my profit on’t is I know how to curse.” This story of... Read More →