It has come to my attention that a certain Rob, a.k.a. R.J., is turning TWENTY FIVE years old on Easter Sunday, March the twenty third, 2008.  The man of consequence here would like to thank Paul, Debbie, and John for kicking off the joyous B-day today; thank you much.  The earnest, yet jovial event will be further celebrated at his parents' house (breakfast oh yea!) and sister's apartment (dinner oh baby!) on Sunday. 

On a side note:  Lately life could not be busier, or more fun.  Sai, my long days and pleasant nights are spent with my family and friends, the strumming guitar, the breaking of motor shafts (with my bare hands mind you), the influx of jazz and art, the nail biting basketball seasons (of which we will not speak of the Knicks, for they are not a part of it) and the hockey season (Let's Go Rangers!), half a dozen good books (including my first reread of the The Waste Lands and The Chamber of Secrets), the approaching baseball season (the METS look good -- beware of Pedro Martinez and his quest for another Cy Young Award), the rebellious Shakespeare, occasional rare nights' sleep, and last but certainly not least the wave of dizzying writing that has seized and possessed my oh so talented hands, like an itch that sings.  Ka does run the Ways.  Thankee sai.

R.J.H.

It appears there will no longer be an Impulse section...

Again in Shakespeare’s work, the women appear to be the strong ones (in “Macbeth”).  Lady Macbeth clearly wears the pants in the castle, and even though she appears to be tied to “dark arts” her unwavering strength, when she is not asleep sleepwalking, cannot be matched in the play.  Her evil ambitions force Macbeth’s hand when he is too weak to use the dagger (or leave blood on the servants at the scene of the crime).  None of the male characters, or other females characters, demons and weird sisters included, come close to having her strength of character.  Hers is not a pleasant being, nor a moral one, nor a particularly sane one (her lack of restful slumber clearly unhinges her mind, like Macbeth’s was), but she stands erect in the shaky times of the meek, chaste and often damned days for women, where any backbone, free thought, or free will could be punished and at the worst prove her unholy and one of witchcraft.  Shakespeare clearly makes a ghastly depiction of the strong woman as being evil and deserving of a dishonorable death (her suicide) in the play, but looking closely it appears this was to show a grossly exaggerated look into the paranoid times that undervalued and constrained women. 

Shakespeare uses women to move the greatest actions of the play.  Firstly, Lady Macbeth is the lone reason that Macbeth (with her aid) can complete the king’s murder at all.  Secondly, Lady Macduff has the next biggest influence upon the great action whereby Macbeth is slain.  Though her part was small Shakespeare gave her perhaps the most significant part in the work.  She is a pure, innocent and abandoned wife and she is not by any means evil, though she does get pissed off and speaks up to Ross.  She talks to him, as a strong and innocent victim to be, of her husband fleeing her and the children, and here Shakespeare takes a poke at the cowardice of men and the strength of women.  Even in nature, the female bird, Lady Macduff says, “…the poor wren… will fight, Her young one’s in her nest, against…” (“Macbeth”: IV, ii, 9-10) enemies, while the male is away.  Macduff ran away to save his own skin, and his wife and kids are murdered.  The point of man’s abandonment (selfish wisdom) and the strong loyal woman is made and then the Lady’s death is Macduff’s fuel to gain revenge and justice in the name of his lady.  The traditional win it for the lady routine making the, at first cowardly, Macduff the audience’s hero in the end.  He did it for the girl, alas a happy/sad ending in bloody triumph.  

Letter to the Editor at Newsday:  

    The New York Knickerbockers need, and I stress need, Lebron James.  The team has been done more damage by James Dolan's negligent hiring of Isiah Thomas as President and G.M. of the Knicks, than a rehiring (I don't say firing, because Dolan does not believe in that) at that position could possibly fix in the next decade.  I happen to like and respect Thomas, who was a great player and has shown signs that he could be a good coach throughout his N.B.A. tenure, but the irreparable destruction of the team's foundation at Madison Square Garden will require a miracle move to recreate the great playoff contender of old.  Right now, as there has been since Lenny Wilkens was first hired, there is no team atmosphere or effort by the Knick's players.  Teams win championships, not individuals.  Michael Jordan had Pippen and others, Kobe had Shaq, Duncan had/has Tony Parker, and the Detroit Pistons had many very good players, but no elite players in their Larry Brown days.     
    Lebron James almost singlehandedly brought the Cleveland Cavaliers to the N.B.A. Finals last year, a miracle feat, but he did not win the Championship.  The reason of course is that the team sport requires a better army flanking the man.  The Knicks have more individual talent on their team than the Cavs do.  If the Knicks made some cap room in the next year and traded anyone on the team, except David Lee and Jamal Crawford whose relentless effort (even when down by twenty, or thirty points) does not go unnoticed, to acquire Lebron James -- who loves to dish the ball and racks up great assists -- would immediately propel whomever remained forward to a great team foundation which would quickly build up to a Championship caliber New York skyscraper.  Lebron James leads the league in scoring right now, but more importantly in my mind is his unbridled sense of team and his uncanny ability to take over any game in the fourth quarter.  He wills his team to win.  If the Knicks got James, then the Garden might bear a new banner for the first time in over thirty years.

R.J. Huneke