The return of Yorick and Lego trains were never sold here

First Clown: > A pestilence on him for a mad rouge! a' pour'd a…> flagon of Rhenish on my head once. This same…> skull, sir, was Yorick's skull, the king's jester.
Hamlet: > This?
First Clown: > E'en that.
Hamlet: > Let me see. [Takes the skull.]—Alas poor Yorick!…> —I knew him, Horatio: a fellow of infinite jest,…> of most excellent fancy: he hath borne me on his…> back a thousand times; and now, how abhorred…> in my imagination it is! My gorge rises at it. Here…> hung whose lips that I have kist I know not how…> oft. Where be your gibes now? your gambols?…> your songs? your flashes of merriment, that were…> wont to set the table on a roar? Not one now, to…> mock your own grinning? quite chop-faln? Now…> get you to my lady's chamber, and tell her, let…> her paint an inch thick, to this favour she must…> come; make her laugh at that.
> “Hamlet”, Act V, scene I

Back fifteen years ago one of the decorations in “my office [1]” was a real sized replica of a human skull (and an incredible faithful replica it was too!) and it ended up sitting on top of my computer (a full tower—sitting on what little space the 21″ monitor and full-sized keyboard didn't consume) for about four to five years. I mentioned this to Bunny a few weeks back, and lo' today I stumbled across an almost real sized replica of a human skull, thanks to Bunny.

[Now I can practice my Shakespearean soliloquies] [2]…

Nowadays, the tower-sized computer can fit under the desk, and there's a bit of room left after two monitors and a full-sized keyboard and speakers.

[Cue dramatic lighting] [3]…

Sure, it cuts into some desk space for reference materials, but I think I can work around poor Yorick.

And incredibly enough, 50 Years Of The Lego Brick [4] also showed up at the doorstep today, also courtesy of Bunny (how odd … I wonder why … ). It's an incredible book about the history of those little plastic bricks known as Lego [5], along with reproductions of past catalogs and six red bricks that can be combined in 915,103,765 different ways. I didn't realize that the founder of Lego, Ole Kirk Kristiansen, was a carpenter who made wood toys (and after his shop burned down three times, finally gave up wood for all plastic bricks). And XXXXXX they never sold the train sets over here in the States! (sigh)

[1] /boston/2002/03/04.2

[2] /boston/2009/01/08/yorick.jpg

[3] /boston/2009/01/08/desk.jpg

[4] http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/3898808874/conmanlaborat-20

[5] http://www.lego.com/

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