DeSantis Is Starting a War With...Shakespeare?

The state of Florida is still under the nominal political control of its meathead governor, Ronald DeSantis, who currently is wandering the gentle hills and green pastures of Iowa, rehearsing his Homo sapiens imitation. (It still needs work.). But his spirit rocks on in the effort to make sure the state produces a generation of historical and literary illiterates. The latest target— that woke bastid William Shakespeare. [View in Browser]( [Esquire]( [SHOP]( EXCLUSIVE [SUBSCRIBE]( [In Florida, Romeo and Juliet Can't Go Past First Base]( [In Florida, Romeo and Juliet Can't Go Past First Base]( The state of Florida is still under the nominal political control of its meathead governor, Ronald DeSantis, who currently is wandering the gentle hills and green pastures of Iowa, rehearsing his Homo sapiens imitation. (It still needs work.). But his spirit rocks on in the effort to make sure the state produces a generation of historical and literary illiterates. The latest target— that woke bastid William Shakespeare. [Read More](   [Read Martin Scorsese's Beautiful Tribute to Robbie Robertson]( [Read Martin Scorsese's Beautiful Tribute to Robbie Robertson]( "There is never enough time with anyone you love," Scorsese wrote of The Band frontman. "And I loved Robbie." [Read More]( [Pete Berg's Americana Is Becoming Something Else]( [Pete Berg's Americana Is Becoming Something Else]( Across his directorial career—which includes Friday Night Lights and Lone Survivor—Berg has been fascinated by the joy and cruelty of American life. Depicting the opioid crisis in Netflix's Painkiller, there's a new driving theme: greed. [Read More](     [Hip-Hop Style at 50: Still Fresh to Death]( [Hip-Hop Style at 50: Still Fresh to Death]( At the time I discovered hip-hop, I was waist-high to an adult and an aspiring simulacrum of Michael Jackson’s style. (Picture a Jheri curl, pleather Thriller jacket, and penny loafers.) Then my aunt Maria, who was five years older, dropped an LP on the basement record player. “I said-a hip, hop, the hippie, the hippie / To the hip hip hop-a you don’t stop the rock.” Although I can’t be sure the Sugarhill Gang’s “Rapper’s Delight” was the first rap song I ever heard, it was the genre’s first mainstream hit, introducing hip-hop to the masses six years after DJ Kool Herc unveiled his breakbeats at a party in the Bronx all the way back in 1973. That means this year—2023—it turns the big 5-0! And while rap might be the most popular aspect of what people now call “the Culture,” fashion has always-ever been an integral aspect of it. [Read More](   [10 Pieces of Checked Luggage That'll Withstand the Test of Time]( [10 Pieces of Checked Luggage That'll Withstand the Test of Time]( Feel safe throwing it on the conveyor belt. [Read More]( [5 Zero-Zero Natural Wines You Need to Get Wild With]( [5 Zero-Zero Natural Wines You Need to Get Wild With]( There are natural wines, and then there are zero zero wines. With nothing added, and nothing taken away, these newly popular bottles are the wildest thing you can sip now. [Read More](     [William Friedkin's 'Blue Chips' Is Better Than You Remember]( [William Friedkin's 'Blue Chips' Is Better Than You Remember]( The 1990s weren’t kind to William Friedkin. The director, who died this week at 87, had drifted a long way from his days as a filmmaker who helped reshape Hollywood in the late-1960s and ‘70s. His movies weren’t drawing at the box office the way The French Connection and The Exorcist had, and the acclaim was even less. He opened the decade with a flop, the horror film The Guardian. He needed a win. Then came 1994's Blue Chips, a basketball movie with seemingly all the right moves. It starred Shaquille O’Neal, the hottest young player in the NBA, and Nick Nolte, two years removed from People magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive,” with a script by Ron Shelton, whose earlier projects were 1988’s Bull Durham and 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump. Toss in the electric Memphis State guard Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway, who would later play on the Orlando Magic with Shaq, as well as cameos from some of the biggest names in college basketball, and—on paper, at least—the movie seemed like an easy win. A slam dunk. Pick your sports metaphor. [Read More](   [ESQ 1933 Jewelry]( Follow Us [Unsubscribe]( | [Privacy Notice/Notice at Collection]( esquire.com ©2023 Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Hearst Magazines, 300 West 57th Street, New York, NY 10019