On Thursday, I met with a Shortridge sophomore who was working on a line-by-line interpretation of Mark Antony’s speech in Julius Caesar. He tried to hem and haw his way out of it, claiming he “didn’t get Shakespeare.” But we dove into it anyway. I took every approach. Nothing could get him engaged.

In spite of the student’s reservations, I was getting pumped – who can’t get excited about Antony undermining the conspirators? I was getting into it and busted out my Charlton Heston voice (evoking Heston in Planet of the Apes, moreso than his turn in the Hollywood version of Julius Caesar). And the student thought I was being a dork, but he could dig it. He finally understood all the underlying sarcasm and got excited about it, too. At the end of the session, he even admitted that he could understand Shakespeare.

At which point, I said to him “Charlton Heston can bring anything to life.” And he looked at me and said “Who’s Charleton Heston?”

Contributed by Brian “I Feel Old” Gross