Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love. (William Shakespeare)

DAH is me, David Anthony Hance. 
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First up this week: Jackanapes … 
It could be a monkey. Or it could be William de la Pole (15th Century Duke of Suffolk) whose nickname was Jac Napes. I guess that means the Duke was an egoist. And the word jackanapes ought to be more popular these days. Our public square is so populated by them. Some days, like this day, I can’t stand to think about most of these people. There must be a largish segment of society that enjoys ego-driven posing under bright lights. Or ridicule-inducing behavior (ridiculous to me, at least) that can be jackanapesedly denied as free speech. Since I believe in my audiovisual freedoms, I welcome jackanapes to speak in some direction away from me.

Second up this week, Jiggery-Pokery … 
So suited to describing jackanapes behavior, jiggery-pokery is a 19th Century coined alteration of “joukerpawkery.” According to Merriam-Webster. This usage, chiefly British: “humbug, nonsense … underhanded dealings, conniving, or manipulations : monkey business, skulduggery.” I can imagine William de la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, jiggery-pokering about town. Then displaying false outrage when accused of joukerpawkery. Which he wouldn’t have been, since joukery and pawkery were Scottish and Northern English words. The Duke’s Suffolk is in the East of England. I doubt he would have deigned to use such words, had he even known of them. But now you know, so make free with the jiggery-pokery.

Third up this week, Jacitation … 
There are so many words I don’t know. This is one of them. Well, now I know it, but it may take me a while to put it in use. “Boastful public assertion or ostentation” (Merriam-Webster). So, you see, I’m sticking with the jackanapesian theme. Jacitation may also show physical traits: “a tossing to and fro or jerking and twitching of the body or its parts : excessive restlessness especially in certain psychiatric disorders” (Merriam-Webster, again). Yikes. Well, there’s something we can all watch for. Either so that we can move swiftly away from the jacitater. Or so we can summon them appropriate help.

A slim volume …
I’m on a slim volume kick. By "slim" I mean books of less than 150 pages. Fiction and non-fiction. I’m on the hunt for them. I can get through a short book so much more quickly than a lengthy tome (what a surprise). 
What Was Shakespeare Really Like? by Stanley Wells
Based on four lectures, we have four essays:

1. What Manner of Man was Shakespeare? … what others said of him.
2. How Did Shakespeare Write a Play? … my favorite essay, based on how play-making worked in his age.
3. What do the Sonnets Tell us About Shakespeare? … interesting insights from these personal poems.
4. What Made Shakespeare Laugh? … referencing humor in his works, seeking his humanity.

"Stanley Wells, the nonagenarian dean of Shakespeare scholars, condenses decades of living with Shakespeare into What Was Shakespeare Really Like? … Commonsensical, easy-going, Mr. Wells wants to encounter Shakespeare as a personality." (The Wall Street Journal)

And a bit more … 

"What I Would Like to Grow in My Garden" by Katherine Riegel

Peonies, heavy and pink as '80s bridesmaid dresses
and scented just the same. Sweet pea,
because I like clashing smells and the car
I drove in college was named that: a pea-green
Datsun with a tendency to backfire.

Sugar snap peas, which I might as well
call memory bites for how they taste like
being fourteen and still mourning the horse farm
I had been uprooted from at ten.
Also: sage, mint, and thyme—the clocks
of summer—and watermelon and blue lobelia.

Lavender for the bees and because I hate
all fake lavender smells. Tomatoes to cut
and place on toasted bread for BLTs, with or without
the b and the l. I'd like, too, to plant
the sweet alyssum that smells like honey and peace,
and for it to bloom even when it’s hot,

and also lilies, so I have something left
to look at when the rabbits come.
They always come. They are
always hungry. And I think I am done
protecting one sweet thing from another.


And that's all for this week.
From Mary Oliver's "Sometimes"

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.