Shakespeareans celebrate Shakespeare’s birthday

“Knotts” are shortbread cookies made from a very old English recipe and flavored with rosewater and caraway seeds. Photo courtesy of Joan Gaughan.

submitted by Joan Gaughan, Shakespeare Club

At its meeting on April 22, the day before his actual birthday, the Shakespeare club celebrated the Bard’s birthday in a manner of which he may have approved. Or maybe not. He may have approved of the lively mocktail drinks provided by Linda Breight and a kind of shortbread cookie called “knotts,” made from a very old English recipe provided by Jody Sharrow. The “knotts” pictured here are sweet cookies made with a lot of flour and sugar and flavored with rosewater and caraway seeds.

However, Shakespeare may have winced when it came to Jody’s test of our knowledge of his works. Her “Trivia Time” consisted of four parts that tested our knowledge of Shakespeare himself as well as the characters and quotations from his plays. Sallie Anderson rose to the top of the class with the most correct answers. She received the “Thou Art Most Witty” award. The rest of the group did rather poorly. However, a visit to the Home Team Ice Cream shop to continue the birthday party was some consolation for their rather dismal performance.

No doubt, Shakespeare would have approved of that since he is the author of A Comedy of Errors, after all.

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by Sara Swanson

Sara Swanson is an editor, writer and founder of the Manchester Mirror.