Waiting for Godot to Leave

Today is the feast of Our Lady of Sorrows, in my opinion the most beautiful of Marian feasts. In today's Mass, there is an optional sequence to be sung or prayed.  It is the Stabat Mater,   a 13th century hymn, whose stanzas are made up of rhyming couplets followed by a third line that rhymes with the next stanza's third line: AA B, CC B - like so ... At the Cross her station keeping , Stood the mournful Mother weeping , Close to her Son to the last . Through her heart, His sorrow sharing , All His bitter anguish bearing , Now at length the sword has passed. This is from the 19th century translation by Edward Caswall of the original Latin hymn. But in the official version of Caswall's translation, the United States Council of Catholic Bishops have placed on their website some very odd changes, such as this ... Let me mingle tears with you , Mourning him who mourned for me , All the days that I may live. What the hell???   The off...

Since I'm currently a judge in a one-act play contest, I don't want to say too much about the plays I'm reading.  But I have seen enough to know how to write a really bad play.  And I'm passing that advice on to you, dear reader! Make sure your script contains NO comedy whatsoever - nothing the least bit funny, or if something almost-funny sneaks in, make it very predictable and stupid. Put a homeless man in it so the audience has someone to feel sorry for. Set the play at Christmas or in a foxhole during a war or in an abortion clinic.  Or better yet, at a makeshift abortion clinic in a foxhole on Christmas Eve. Handle exposition awkwardly.  For example, in the first few lines, have one of the characters say,  "Remember when that meteorite hit our house and you bravely struggled to pull me out and save our four children and the reporter from the liberal paper made fun of you because you were Christian and -" Give someone cancer or writ...