Tuesday March 15, 2005

Religion at Harvard

The Children’s Hour

Harvard Magazine,
Sept.-Oct. 2004:

“With the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, Harvard couples were among those who took vows…. Lowell House master Diana Eck (left) and co-master Dorothy Austin tied the knot in Memorial Church on July 4, with Rev. Peter Gomes, Plummer professor of Christian morals, officiating.”

Once in Love with Amy

Harvard’s Lowell House: “In the Dining Hall are portraits of President Lowell and his wife; his sister Amy Lowell (Pulitzer prize winning poet, and a lover of scandal…)….”

Today’s Harvard Crimson: “Stone joined members of the Foundation for lunch yesterday in Lowell House before delivering her remarks at Memorial Church last night…”

Site on Shakespeare’s Sonnets:

nothing – the word had sexual connotations, as a slang word referring to female sexual parts. Compare Hamlet:

HAMLET   Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
[Lying down at OPHELIA’s feet]
OPHELIA  No, my lord.
HAMLET   I mean, my head upon your lap?
OPHELIA  Ay, my lord.
HAMLET   Do you think I meant country matters?
OPHELIA  I think nothing, my lord.
HAMLET   That’s a fair thought to lie between maids’ legs.
OPHELIA  What is, my lord?
HAMLET   Nothing.

— Hamlet, III.2