Reading assignments and reading recommendations for each week
'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less.'
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master -- that's all.'
--Lewis Carroll, Through the Looking Glass Chapter VI
Did you ever sit and ponder as you walk along the strand,--Groucho Marx writes that he composed this piece to amuse audiences during scene changes in the stage production of Animal Crackers. Some audiences instead "applauded respectfully. To them my recitation was a great piece of philosophy" (The Grouchophile, 67-71).
That life's a bitter battle at the best,
And if you only knew it and would lend a helping hand,
That every man can meet the final test.
The world is but a stage, my friend,
And life is but a game;
And how you play is all that matters in the end.
For whether a man is right or wrong,
A woman gets the blame;
And your mother is your dog's best friend.
Then up come mighty Casey and strode up to the bat,
And Sheridan was fifty miles away.
For it takes a heap of loving to make a home like that,
On the road where the flying fishes play.
So be a real-life Pagliacc' and laugh, clown, laugh.