Friday, April 14, 2017


For you, mistress,
Save you your labor.


-Gratiano

Othello                                 Act V, Scene i, Line 100


I believe Gratiano is telling Bianca, Cassio’s girlfriend, to not bother with the injured Cassio because they’re going to get the surgeon to look at him. So here’s what’s going on: This is the scene where Iago orchestrates an attack on Cassio by Rodrigo. Naturally Iago isn’t there when the attack takes place but only shows up after Cassio has defended himself against Rodrigo. Then Iago sneaks up behind Cassio and slices his leg and runs away before he’s seen. A few minutes later he sneaks in again and kills the wounded Rodrigo, and again runs away before he’s seen. Then he shows up again and starts spreading the blame on different people for the stuff he’s done. He really couldn’t get much rattier. Yeah, that’s probably not a word, but then again there’s probably never been a villain quite like Iago, so he needs his own word. Rattier. Or perhaps rattiest.

There, Will is obviously a much better wordsmith than I, but that doesn’t mean I can’t come up with a gem now and then. Rattiest. But keep in mind how evil Iago is, and he's the inspiration for the word. So don’t be telling your sister she’s the rattiest just because she left a mess in the living room. She’d have to burn down the living room and steal your boyfriend to even get started on the road to rattiesthood. No, you’ll have to save this word for an extra-special occasion. It’s basically a once in a lifetime word.  
This is a monster that I helped my little buddy make a few years ago. I'm not using him for tonight's picture because of his rattiness. No, I couldn't find anything to illustrate true rattiness. But since I came up empty on tonight's picture I thought I'd use a picture of the monster because I think he's interesting. Do you think he's interesting?

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