Thursday, July 24, 2014

Some Geese Are Born Great

I took shots of this Canada Goose near the Rideau Canal, at the pond linked to the Canal by the Bank Street Bridge. As I've done before, I thought I'd caption it with something entirely different, in this case lines by Feste the Fool in William Shakespeare's Twelfth Night. By the way, check out Sir Ben Kingsley give this speech in this film version of the play if you've never seen it.


"Why, 'some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrown upon them.'


I was one, sir, in this interlude; one Sir Topas.


But that's all one. 'By the Lord, fool, I am not mad.'


But do you remember? 'Madam, why laugh you at such a barren rascal? 


And you smile not, he's gagged.'


And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges." 




34 comments:

  1. How noble becomes the Canada geese as he recites Shakespeare! I love "whirligig of time!"

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  2. We are no other than a moving row
    Of Magic Shadow-shapes that come and go. 'Omar Khayyam'

    And the revenge might be what you may step in. MB

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  3. That goose is a ham (actor)


    ALOHA from Honolulu
    ComfortSpiral
    =^..^= <3

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  4. Bravo! A wonderful sequence and performance (by both of you).

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  5. Well chosen pictures for a great speech! Bravo!

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  6. I'm sorry, but Canada Geese will never be great to me. They're only great at making messes! ;-)

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  7. You were lucky it didn't try and attack you. They can be rather nasty

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  8. personally i wish all the geese would head back to their home. we have such issues with them here. (a huge meeting was held, to decide to oil their eggs.) they are such a mess. i see i am not the only one to feel this way. ha. ha!! they are very mean to other animals too. they hiss at me too??! not cool. i am way nice. nuts!! but it looks like i have not met the right one. if i met this one, he would impress me with his great accent. too funny!! ( :

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  9. As others have noted, these fowl are not my favorite to be seen grazing in parklands and open areas, which soon become places people can no longer walk around.

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  10. I love these close-up shots!

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  11. @Kay: Feste might be the fool, but he's the smartest person in the play!

    @MB: oh, yes, that could well be.

    @Cloudia: a definite ham!

    @Stuart: thank you!

    @Mike: at least some of the time!

    @Whisk: thanks!

    @VP: thank you.

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  12. @Halcyon: and they're so good at that!

    @Karl: thanks.

    @Mo: they can be ill tempered at times.

    @Beth: and then there's the whole gathering in packs thing they do...

    @Beatrice: that's why I keep to the bike paths.

    @Norma: thank you!

    @Tex: it seemed strangely appropriate!

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  13. "Why do you keep talking that gibberish? Just let me EAT!" hahahaha

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  14. What a wonderful post William! Love it ;)

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  15. The first time I saw Canadian geese was in Birmingham in England, many long years ago. I think we saw them again in Germany though when we were cycling. I have seen Twelfth Night it was also a long time again. I'm going to order the DVD! Thanks for the suggestion.

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  16. Cute! Don't like geese much though. When we lived on a lake in north GA, they used to winter there and poop all over our dock. The first time I saw the poop, I thought a group of little dogs had run wild on it! Had a hard time keeping them away.

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  17. @Birdman: they're happiest when they're eating!

    @Luis: thank you!

    @Blois: it`s a terrific adaptation of the play.

    @Cheryl: they do have a reputation!

    @Tanya: quite eloquent too.

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  18. A wonderful pairing of Shakespeare and Goose. We get many Canada Geese in our area, and I love them. It also amazes me how they can stop traffic on the busiest streets when crossing the road, and people will patiently wait for them to cross before moving on.

    Thanks for visiting my latest post. Relating to your comment about the Canadian, American and English flags, we saw them flying all over Normandy and were a joy to see. The French went all out to show us their gratitude, it was very heartwarming.

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  19. I really never believed geese were that high minded.

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  20. Love Shakespeare ( a Midlander ,like myself) and Canada Geese!
    Jane x

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  21. @RedPat: thanks!

    @Revrunner: indeed!

    @Denise: this was the third Canada Goose photoblog I saw today.

    @Mari: they have attitude!

    @Jane and Chris: Twelfth Night is one of my favourites of his work.

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  22. I love the fact Shakespeare and photographer aside he is still eating his dinner.
    Very talented.

    cheers, parsnip

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  23. Evoking your namesake... very clever post!

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  24. All that's missing is the goose chasing you away. We have plenty of Canadian Geese around here, but I've never met one as well spoken as this fellow.

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  25. @Linda: thank you!

    @Parsnip: he has his priorities in order.

    @EG: thanks!

    @Linda: thank you!

    @Pat: he was too happy eating to chase me.

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