It's early October, schools are rolling, and so is my head with a bit of academia for the moment. An ad just ran for an upcoming film whose plot appears to be Shakespeare agreeing to the front for plays written by someone else. Philip Marlowe?

There were two other contemporaries of our Will who some say authored some of his plays, Beaumont and Fletcher. Back in the 1970's at a local junior college one Professor Beaumont, a huge patron of the bard and a fire breathing academic period, engaged in public debates with another teacher named Fletcher who insisted Shakespeare did not write his material. Look around enough and you see these interesting coincidences.

On the side of a bus I spotted one of the usual slightly garish ads for a new television series and the thought came, change a letter in "revenge" and you get "revenue". I ought to be keeping a list of these kind of things, but somewhere New York Times and Sunday Morning NPR puzzle master Will Shortz may have deployed this or will do so. For him, part of his revenue and for me?

No pay back but the possible tiny whisper of Things telling me, "Gee You noticed." Change two letters of "revenue" and I would say this posting has a "retinue" of fleeting ideas. Shakespeare saw his world his way and me . . .