I thank God I wore my corset because I think my sides have split.*

For some mysterious reason, the university library has the Complete Blackadder DVD box set. So I've been spending the weekend with Darling and Melchett and Baldrick and trying to figure out what course could possibly require you to watch old Britcoms (is there an English Humor 101 or something?) If I had 100 bucks I'd buy the set; it's worth it just for the scene in Blackadder Back and Forth, where our antihero hops in his time machine and has a run-in with Will Shakespeare (Colin Firth, in a cameo where pretty much all he does is wear tights and get smacked around by Rowan Atkinson):

Blackadder : [punches Shakespeare] That is for every schoolboy and schoolgirl for the next 400 years! Have you any idea how much suffering you're going to cause? Hours spent at school desks trying to find ONE joke in "A Midsummer's Night Dream". Wearing stupid tights in school plays saying things like, "What ho, my Lord," and, "Oh, look, here comes Othello talking total crap as usual." And THAT [kicks Shakespeare] is for Ken Branagh's endless, four-hour version of Hamlet!
William Shakespeare : Who's Ken Branagh?
Blackadder : I'll tell him you said that, and I think he'll be rather hurt...

Just starting on the DVD for Blackadder III, where all the episode titles are spoofs of Jane Austen: Dish & Dishonesty, Ink & Incapability, Sense & Senility, etc.

god I wish I had BBC America.

*it's funnier when Rowan Atkinson says it in a voice dripping with sarcasm, but I couldn't think of a better title...