Mojo, The Bard, & Me

Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight:

-Othello

Othello                 Act II, scene ii      Line 1

Okay, the first thing I have to talk about, and something that I don’t remember at all from when I studied this play ten years ago is the name Michael. Cassio’s name is Michael Cassio. There’s Othello, and Iago, and Rodrigo, and a bunch of other one name guys, and then there’s Michael Cassio. How does this guy rate two names? It reminds me a little of Michael Corleone. It’s a very nice name though. All the other guys sound like they belong living in 16^th century Venice, which is appropriate. But Michael Cassio? That sounds like someone I might have gone to high school with. Now I forget what happens to Mr. Cassio, but I’m thinking it can’t be good. Iago makes such a mess of things that just about everyone is either targeted or just collateral damage. Ah wait, remember? Back on our 8/31 post. That was from Act V and the rat Iago stabs Cassio there. But I’m not sure if Michael dies or not. I’m hoping not because I’m really feeling good about Mr. Cassio. Guess we’ll have to get back to that one.

Good Michael, look you to the guard tonight. It’s a very pleasant demeanor displayed by our tragic hero Othello in this line. He’s a good guy that Othello. In fact, as I recall pretty much everyone in this play is a pretty decent. Except for that one trouble maker Iago. He is not a decent fellow and he makes trouble for just about everyone up to the very end of the play. And nobody picks up on it. How is that possible? Just five lines down from today’s Totally Random line is Othello saying “Iago is most honest.” Really!?!

But getting back to Will’s good guys and bad guys, and the ones we’re not sure about. Well I think we’re pretty sure about this guy Iago from the giddyup. No, the other folks in the play are fooled. But we the audience, we know pretty much from the start that this guy is just plain evil. Almost to the point where we want to yell to the other actors on the stage and warn them. I wonder if anyone ever did? Maybe the groundlings? I guess we’ll never know.

In the meantime, let’s let this be our take away. Let’s try to address someone today prefixing it with ‘good’. Wait, I just realized something; this is going to work much better with some names than others. You need a name with the accent on the first syllable, like Michael. Good Peter, Good William, Good Walker… these all work. Good Patrice, not so much. So assuming you can find someone with a good name, give it a try. Nothing fancy…

Good Walker, can you hand me that book over there.

Good William, how was your day.

See how it works. I’m thinking people will like being addressed as ‘good’. And if you can make someone happy with something as simple as this, why not do it? What do you say, good reader?

I met a fellow named Michael from Ukraine this afternoon. He was a salesman helping us in a furniture store. As we were leaving I said 'Good Michael, thank you very much.'