On the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeare's Passing

                    Here's a modification of one of his better known sonnets;  documenting the current plight of one's favorite soccer team:

Ode to Norwich City

Shall I relegate thee on a Summer's day?

Thou art so pointless and so desperate:

Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,

And Premier time hath all too short a date:

Sometime too hot the eye of City fans,

And oft now is their bright complexion dimmed,

As every loss from win sometime declines,

By chance, with City's downward plunge untrimmed:

But thy eternal yo-yo shall not fade,

Nor gain possession of that ball thou ow'st,

Nor Ipswich brag thou wander'st in their shade,

Tho’ thy eternal shots shall hit the post,

 So long as fans can breathe, or fans can see,

 So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi

Two Moments of Life beyond my control, on New Year's Eve, and yesterday:

31 December 2010: My partner Stephi is diagnosed with pulmonary metastatic myxoid liposarcoma. Multiple visits to Vanderbilt University Hospital ensue. Thoracotomy February 15th. Chemotherapy with highest-possible doses of doxorubicin (the "red devil") and ifosfamide (liquified mustard gas) planned starting in March. Prognosis: tough, uncertain battle ahead.

21 February 2011: Pathology results indicate that the resected masses were histoplasmosis, a fungal infection. No chemotherapy. No life-threatening disease. Prognosis: A slow but sure recovery from the pulmonary surgery ahead, back to a normal life.

Fortune: Empress of the World.

We are powerless against the whims of Fortuna.
But when her wheel turns in our favour, we must grasp the chance she has given us.

Shakespeare, in Julius Caesar, wrote:

"There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures"