As my sister always says ITW, a joke’s funny.

ITW—Your shot went right over their heads.  Whoosh!  You’ve just got to aim lower.

Diamond and Hulk:

Don’t be so damn stupid.  I HATE having to explain a sardonic joke.

Didn’t you realize that I said Palin compares to Shakespeare’s works AFTER 1616 because that was the year he DIED?  I doubt he wrote much of anything from 1617 on.

Sheesh!

Dear Inherit The Wind: 
  Not a fan of great literature, huh?

Attaboy, rollzone:
Thine missive doth well treat the ear and eye.

Again, I’d like to note the Palin has openly and unequivocally espoused racism and bigotry in the very messages we’re making fun of.  I think that is more interesting than her linguistic and literary foibles, because it could prove to be a considerable albatross (if I may dare to make a literary allusion in this learned company).

So, ITW, how many works of genius has Sarah Palin written? Could you name them? And you can’t include tweets where she urges Muslims to refudiate anything whatsoever. Or other gems such as ‘drill baby drill’ and ‘don’t retreat, reload’. Any of her blather about shooting wolves or moose or telling teenagers to be celibate until they marry doesn’t seem to me to work as art or in fact, plain ordinary commonsense. There is a lot of commonsense in Shakespeare which is why so many of his lines have entered the language. Palin’s lines are foolish and ignorant and attract mockery and contempt. I don’t really see how you can say there’s any similarity with Shakespeare’s works which Ben Jonson, a contemporary, said after Shakespeare’s death would live as long as words were read. I think this was a very accurate assessment. I don’t recall anyone saying this about Palin’s idiotic utterances because if they did they would be drowned out by jeering laughter.

hark. from what back porch yon Russia doth tweet? from
whose loins are television deals golden nest eggs? on
which lovely palm are crayoned new words in tattoo?
from whose soul doth money flow, in grizzly excesses of
chambered discharges? adventuress colonialist, expose
your attributes in hard core tourism of epic Alaska,
and dismiss this twitch in your mind, to represent
anyone; ...not starring in fairy tales. lovely maiden,
idyllic at home: best not to leave the house, and
forever remain unchallenged and free: wingees undipped.

“Any comparison between Palin and Shakespeare is comical. “

I disagree.  I think Sarah Palin compares rather favorably with Shakespeare, as least as far as with his works from after 1616.

Indeed they were!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=857Ste6wylM

Well, obviously, Ms. P. has not heard of James Joyce, or she would have told us she could see Finnegan’s Wake settin’ on her porch.

As for Bill, I think he and his friends sat around drinking grog and making up words all the time when they weren’t pinching wenches or hacking each other up with swords in the name of good Queen Elizabeth.  Those were the days.

The point is the half-term half-wit from Wasilla pegged Shakespeare as an inventor of words. As I pointed out in my FaBlog post she would have been on far firmer ground with James Joyce.

Shakespeare was not known for his originality on any level. His most famous plays: “Hamlet,” “Romeo and Juliet” and “Macbeth” are all revampted versions of works by other playwrights.

Eugene “proves your point” in the sense of listing several neologisms which Shakespeare was apparently responsible for, although like him I doubt the figure of 1700 given by someone he quotes.  It’s a funny kind of proof.

Nice to see Eugene proving my point. Especially as English isn’t his first language.

Hulk2008 scores a direct hit!

Ms. Palin typifies the simple-minded and thus appeals to them.  Conservatives literally hate anybody with an education.  I wonder whom she beat out for her TV anchor job in the old days.  Our local TV “weather girl” is a better speaker. 

Palin and her ilk label educated people as “the liberal elite”.

e.g. Anyone with the remotest grasp of history listens to a few minutes of Glen Beck or Rush Limbaugh and either turns it off in disgust or rolls around on the floor in laughter.

I can make up words too.  Here’s my latest:

“Newsertainer” - noun, describes a person who earns a living by making outrageous statements in the public media; pay and compensation are in exponential proportion to the furor and fear produced in the consumer of those statements. NOTE:  there is no reason to suspect that the Newsertainer actually believes any of his/her statements.

Here’s someone who has Shakespeare making up a lot of words—or actually, reporting on others who think that:

http://volokh.com/posts/1191875215.shtml

“So every word used by Shakespeare is attested in previous usage?  I would guess otherwise.  It’s an interesting question, though.  On what are you basing your opinion?”

The history of english literature. Like Sarah you obviously didn’ get much o that book learnin’

Actually, now that Palin has gone in for outright racism and bigotry, I don’t think she’s so funny any more.

“Refudiate” is okay, however.  I think that’s going to turn out to be her one positive contribution to Western civilization.

I personally like “refudiates” and would never misunderestimate its use in the proper context.

However, when Shakespeare invented words, he did it deliberately as opposed to the ignorant Manglish the right wing spouts. Another difference is that he left comedy, poetry and insight in his wake. I take that back. Sarah Palin leaves lots of comedy in her wake.

<b>David Ehrenstein, July 20 at 9:31 am: <b>

‘“As for Shakespeare, who’s to say he didn’t make up words?”

Anyone with a knowledge of English literature.’

So every word used by Shakespeare is attested in previous usage?  I would guess otherwise.  It’s an interesting question, though.  On what are you basing your opinion?

She has got to be one of the most anoying women in the history of the world. President Palin anybody?

“As for Shakespeare, who’s to say he didn’t make up words?”

Anyone with a knowledge of English literature.

Sarah did use a ghost writer, we even know his name. Shakespeare did not use a ghost writer and Francis Bacon had such a completely different writing style there’s no way he wrote Shakespeare’s works. Other candidates such as Christopher Marlowe wrote plays that are not much performed these days while every day, every hour somewhere in the world Shakespeare is being performed in many different languages. The difference in quality and the modern outlook of Shakespeare’s plays rules Marlowe out completely. 

Any comparison between Palin and Shakespeare is comical. Shakespeare had such mastery of English he was able to invent new usages for words and make use of old words long forgotten, while Palin is in the same category as one of my aunts: a woman of little education and much eccentricity who often misused words and invented them when she didn’t know the right word. She called people who were tall and thin, ‘streely’. She had a host of other invented words too and was charming and scatterbrained but I don’t think anyone would ever have suggested she should run for public office and have her finger on the nuclear button.

And to think she comes from a background of teachers. Was she a special education student? That’s what they were called in my elementary school years. Though the teachers tried to convince the other students that the special education students, there were only two, were much smarter than the rest of their classmates, many have their doubts about this being true. Time proved we were lied to.

As for Sarah comparing herself to Shakespeare. I can see where she might conclude that idea. The Bard has been deemed a fraud in that Sir Francis Bacon may have actually written the works Shakespeare’s name appeared to be credited with. Sarah on the other hand hired a ghost writer compose most if not all her book. Both are/were publicly known. Both Will and Sarah were in the family way when they married. So from Sarah’s way of thinking, if you could call it thinking at all, they were practically twins.

Remember G.W. was also known for his misuse of words among other oral errors. I have heard there was even a book written called Bushspeak, similar to a dictionary in which you could look up his latest butchering of the Kings English. Maybe Sarah’s third book can be a continuation of the fracturing of the spoken word, if her second book ever makes it off the launching pad.

I have worked with the mentally challenged, closed head injury patients, people who dropped out of school at a very early age and other people who fried their brains with drugs and alcohol who had better command of the English language than Sarah Heath Palin with her 5+ years of college to earn a communication/journalism degree.

If this is the best to be offered to run the highest position in this country, the whole rest of the world better be worried. We probably would be much better off by picking some unknown off of the streets as that person would be probably be more capable of doing a better jobs as President that what the GOP and the Tea Party has offered up to date.

Sarah Fakespeare. The mind boggles.

I think “refudiates” is cute.

As for Shakespeare, who’s to say he didn’t make up words?  I doubt if anyone has a list of officially approved English words and constructions from the Elizabethan era.  As with spelling, it may well have been considered unimaginative not to make up a few words now and then.

It’s interesting that when Palin uses some odd words to promulgate racism and bigotry, that it’s the odd words that get noticed, and the racism and bigotry that is given a pass.

I think Sarah Palin is good with words and language as William Shakespeare ever was, except for the years 1564-1616.

Ah the idiot Sarah, the gift that just keeps giving to prez Barry’s chances in 2012. The longer this moron is around, dividing the repugs into their base groups, the better Barry’s chances for another 4 years of copitulation.

We are so screwed.

http://fablog.ehrensteinland.com/2010/07/19/fait-diver-the-bard-of-wasilla-squeaks/

Yes, indeed, let’s all get huffy and superior about Palin’s language foibles.

To quote Keith Olbermann: “That woman is an *i*d*i*o*t*.”