It's time for a new round of "Shakespeare debunking," arguing that the son of an illiterate laborer could never have written works so full of science, history, legal shenanigans, and aristocratic mores—that it must have been a cabal, one that included at least a few nobles.

Richard Sherman strolls down memory lane, telling us what it was like to work on the last Walt Disney animated feature, <I>The Jungle Book</I>. Well, there were more cartoons from Disney, but <I>TJB</I> was Walt's last.

I wasted&mdash;er, enjoyably spent&mdash;the weekend reading Phil and Kaja Foglio's <I>Girl Genius</I> online. Now I've ordered the printed books, and I recommend you do the same. Here's a taste of the Oz meeets steampunk comic. Order all six volumes&mdash;or spend the next three days online. At which point, you'll order all six volumes anyway, so save a step.

I've been spending the last few days exploring <I>Riley Rock Index</I>, billed as music's megaportal&mdash;justifiably, I believe.

Pervez Amirali Hoodbhoy gives us a fascinating overview of Islam's long and variable engagement with science. "The question I want to pose—perhaps as much to myself as to anyone else—is this: With well over a billion Muslims and extensive material resources, why is the Islamic world disengaged from science and the process of creating new knowledge?"

It's a good thing I did my listening before the Mets' tragic loss because, afterwards, <i>everything</i> sounded horrible. I started with the brilliant Arsenio Rodriguez composition, "A Bailar Mi Bomba," off of Roberto Roena's outstanding <i>Lucky 7</i>. When I listen to this song, my head bobs about like mad and my shoulders shake like maracas, I come up with desperate ideas about trading in my guitar amplifier for a conga set and a cowbell, I consider saying goodbye to everything and moving away to Puerto Rico. It's that kind of song.