[John Whitworth]

Brilliant, Terese. It reminds me of the mostv succinct headline ever competition. The death of the Pope -

Pope? Nope.

Meanwhile Whitworth is now seriously addicted.

Son sees Ghost Dad.
Ghost says King bad.
‘Kill King!’ says Ghost.
‘Will co! King toast!’
Son seems off head.
Five Acts. All dead.

Smooth prick
Tempts chick.
Talks balls.
Chick falls.
God sees
Through trees.
What goes?
God knows.

I do see that it is difficult to convince the authorities that Paradise Lost is a novel.

[Martin Rocek]

Endgame

Hamm begins.
Nag and Nell
in their bins.
All in hell.

[Roger Slater]

Hamlet

He had a whiff of Denmark's rot,
wondering: To be or not?

He couldn't easily decide,
yet somehow everybody died.

[Terese Coe]

John, yours is 187 characters. Why not use only the first quatrain? (But what does "Will co" mean?)

Here's another:

Aeschylus: The Oresteia

Mom slays husband & Cassandra,
bro gets mother & cousin-lover.
Homicidal superfecta,
family values of Electra.

[John Whitworth]

Terese, Those are TWO attempts. The first is Hamlet. Dash it, I must be losing my touch. Will co is what one chap piloting a Lancaster bomber says to another who has just given him an order. It is short for 'Will comply'. At least I think it is. Imagine Richard Todd and Leo Genn, if you are old enough to do so.

[Terese Coe]

Depending on your point of view, the second part could be about Hamlet and Ophelia—except for "God sees/through trees." I thought somehow you'd injected Birnam Wood into the Elsinore vicinity by mistake, John. I should have known that couldn't happen, but I still think you should stick with the first four lines.

If I ever heard "Will co" in an old Brit film, I didn't recognize the words, but thanks for the ref!

[Roger Slater]

"Wilco" isn't just old British military slang. It's standard CB radio slang. The pop group Wilco took it as their name. Terese, perhaps it would be more familiar as part of a phrase like, "Roger, wilco, over and out"?

[Terese Coe]

That seems to ring a bell, Bob, but I really never had anything to do with CB radio. I may have heard it in a parody, but it's so long ago. If I'd known it meant "will comply" that would be a different matter. "Will do" rather than "wilco" was probably used by some.

[Martin Rocek]

Interesting slightly relevant article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/03/op...hott.html?_r=1

[Janet Kenny]

An old journalist remembers cablese when words cost one penny each. The cable was about a mentally disturbed Chinese man in New Zealand who used to dress as a Scot and ride a bicycle, and often made strange gestures to female cyclists.
unpanted kiltusage.