Shakespeare – The Wind and the Rain, music Ben Toth

An evening pause: How about a bit of real Shakespeare this time, this time his song, “The Wind and the Rain” from Twelfth Night, set to music by Ben Toth and sung by Zak Resnick. Undeniably one of the most beautiful versions written.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man’s estate,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
‘Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, it raineth every day.

A great while ago the world begun,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain.
But that’s all one, our play is done,
And we’ll strive to please you every day.

Virtual monkeys typing Shakespeare

A computer programmer has created a legion of virtual monkeys programmed to randomly type until the works of Shakespeare are reproduced.

If the nine-letter sequence appears anywhere in one of Shakespeare’s writings, it is matched against the relevant passage in a copy of the Bard’s complete works, and is checked off the list. The monkeys, which started typing on August 21, have already completed more than five trillion of the 5.5 trillion possible nine-letter combinations, but have so far only finished one whole work.

They appear to be doing better than Congress’s attempt to balance the federal budget.