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This. Programming is sponsored by the

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Dan L. Duncan Comprehensive Cancer

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Care Center at Baylor St.

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Luke's Medical Center offering comprehensive

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cancer care that is compassionate,

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personalized, and driven by clinical

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research. More it S T.

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Luke's health.org/cancer. This.

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Is the engines of our ingenuity made

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possible by the friends of K U

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H of Houston? Today

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Shakespeare tells us how to stay

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sane. The University of Houston College

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of Engineering present this series about

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the machines that make our civilization

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run and the people whose ingenuity

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created them. I

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saw Macbeth again last night. How

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many like deaths have I seen?

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A dozen? maybe when I was

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at Fort Monmouth and Nineteen Fifty

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four. The troops did Macbeth in

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pastel, died fatigues and combat boots

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in the seventies Playboy magazine produced

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movie version. A tad more graphic

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than most, but still a pretty

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good rendering. I've seen Verities opera

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version and Toshiro Mifune a as

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a Samurai Macbeth in the great

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Japanese movie Throne of Blood. Macbeth

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is an odd play about the

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common denominator. Of madness. It's what

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we engineers like to call robust,

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robust design stand up when you

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do unexpected things to them and

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with them. Last night's open air

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production, given free of charge in

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a city park stood up to

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summer heat that it held its

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audience of thousands. These weren't theater

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cognoscenti, but rather a perfect cross

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section of Houston. I'm sure many

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of the people there would have

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had trouble paying for an expensive

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pro basketball ticket, and the audience

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sat riveted until Macduff. Who'd been

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from his mother's womb and timely ripped

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Finally dispatched the half mad Macbeth. And

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last night is always. I left the

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theater wondering whether Macbeth had been killed

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by Macduff or by his own guilt.

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It was a curious experience. I felt

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a thrill of surprises. Macbeth left the

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witches to find that he'd been named

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Thane of. Car Door Of course.

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I knew perfectly well the man

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entering from stage right would tell

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him that yet, Shakespeare manages to

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summons a willing suspension of prior

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knowledge. Things. I noticed for

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the first time emerge from the

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well worn script they always do.

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This time it was a physician

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telling with best that his wife

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is troubled by thick coming fancies

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that keep her from her rest.

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Cure her of that cries Macbeth,

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Canst thou not minister To a

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mind diseased plucked from memory of

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rooted sorrow the physician replies. There.

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In the patient must minister to

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himself. Shakespeare is saying just what

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modern psychotherapists tell patients that they

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must ultimately minister to themselves. His

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position reminded us that Macbeth is

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a place entirely about the dark

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forces of the human mind. Are

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those which is real or did

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make mess dream them up in

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the first flush of battlefield success?

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Is there anything that so threatens

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our mental health as sudden success?

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God deliver me from ever winning

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the lottery. I watched

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the people of Houston, young and

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old, rich and poor, struggling and

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successful as they dispersed into the

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sultry night air. None of us

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will let ourselves be beguiled by

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which is today we've been worn

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to enjoy our modest success as

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without chasing some monster poised to

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turn and swallow us hole in

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the end. This play about insanity

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is a fine reminder that we

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all own the means for staying

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sane. I'm. John lean hard

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at the University of Houston, where

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we're interested in the way in

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better than.