This tweet I saw recently was truly eye-catching. Shakespeare and a selfie? I was enlightened when I opened the site referred to. The goal in the Shakespeare Selfie Challenge being organised in Canada is to write a soliloquy about a chosen subject in the manner of a character from Shakespeare in 200-400 words. This contest is open to kids in Grades 7-9 and 10-12. This sounds interesting and I would love some day to read the prize-winning effort.In today’s age of emails it looks like the old art of writing letters is fast becoming extinct. Ask yourself when was the last time you wrote a letter by hand? Old letters form a piece of history. Once destroyed they are gone forever. If, like me, you are interested in writing letters and in military history you will find this fascinating. The New York Times has this interesting article on “Personal Correspondents: Photography and Letter Writing in Civil War Brooklyn”. A collection of letters and photographs portray those faraway days in a unique way. More than 150 years have passed by since the end of the American Civil War but these exhibits bring alive the pains and pleasures of the soldiers who fought in that historic war which is said to have claimed over 600,000-700,000 lives.
You may also like to see this article in Newsweek by Jackie Bischof.
Prem Rao : Stories from a Story Teller 