Unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent

Eek!  This is my first ever blog post with WordPress.  I’m a little intimidated by all the options, to be honest.  But I love having the blog right on my site, and I LOVE threaded commenting.    Oh threaded commenting how I missed you!  Can someone with more WP experience than me tell me if it e-mails people when someone replies directly to their comment, the way livejournal does?

Those of you who’ve read In for a Penny may remember the Ambreys’ fondness for “The Ballad of Captain Kidd.”  Alert reader Barb (I read the complete works of Dave Barry at a formative age, I am giving in to the instinct to say “alert reader” right now) sent me this awesome video of “Great Big Sea” performing the song:

Isn’t the singer cute?  He kind of reminds me of Christian Kane.  Barb informs me he is going to play Alan-a-Dale in some new version of Robin Hood.  There can never be enough versions of Robin Hood, I believe this in my soul.  Especially if you cast Russell Crowe as Robin Hood.  There had better be tights, is all I’m saying.  And they’re giving Eleanor of Aquitaine a part!  One of my top issues with the Errol Flynn version (I have a number of issues with that movie even though I adore it) is this “Longchamps is regent” stuff.  No!  Richard and John’s MOTHER was regent when Richard was gone, and she was awesome.

I am saddened by the lack of Guy of Guisborne, but no one could ever measure up to Basil Rathbone’s performance anyway.  (I’m kidding…maybe?  Not sure.  I have liked other Sir Guys, but Basil Rathbone was one of my very first celebrity crushes, when I was in middle school.  I still love him.  Did you know Daphne du Maurier had a crush on him when he worked in her father’s theater troupe as a young man?  I wonder how she felt about his periwig in the movie of Frenchman’s Creek.  I felt pretty awful about it.)

And this may actually be my favorite part: Mathew Macfadyen is going to be the Sheriff of Nottingham. I hope they keep to the traditional bumbling characterization, because if they do that will be adorable.

Let’s talk Robin Hood!  Which is your favorite Robin Hood retelling (book or movie)?  Who’s your favorite character?  Do you like tights?  Why the heck does Peter Pan have the exact same outfit in the Disney movie, no, seriously, why?  What do you think of that whole “robbing from the rich and giving to the poor” thing, anyway?