What a bomb!

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Tom Reedy

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Nov 6, 2011, 2:45:02 PM11/6/11
to Forest of Arden
*Anonymous* is expected to bring in a grand total of $2,725,000 by the
end of Sunday in American theaters: http://boxofficeguru.com/weekend20.htm

If the average ticket price is $8, that means 340,625 paying customers
in the states. If every person who saw the movie were an Oxfordian
(going in, at least; I'm sure many lost their faith after seeing the
thing), which I can guarantee is not the case, that would mean that .
11 percent (that's eleven hundreds of one percent) of the American
population are Oxfordians.

So is it a fringe theory or an up-and-coming alternative authorship
theory which is gaining in popularity? (Keeping in mind that about one-
third of Americans believe that aliens have visited the earth:
http://www.skepdic.com/aliens.html.)

TR

Peter Farey

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Nov 6, 2011, 11:54:18 PM11/6/11
to Forest of Arden
We have a TV quiz show over here called "The Eggheads".
In this, a team of five challengers takes on a team which
consists of five winners of various other well-known
quiz shows. In the last edition, a team made up of people 
probably in their twenties was asked the following question.
"In the play Hamlet a young girl goes mad and drowns
herself. Was she called (a) Desdemona, (b) Rosalind,
or (c) Ophelia?". They chose (a).
 
So, if it's like that over here, I wonder just what proportion
of the American population has the slightest interest in
Shakespeare anyway, let alone being bothered about who
wrote the stuff.
 
Peter

John W Kennedy

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Nov 7, 2011, 6:23:48 PM11/7/11
to ardenm...@googlegroups.com

On Nov 6, 2011, at 11:54 PM, Peter Farey wrote:

> We have a TV quiz show over here called "The Eggheads".
> In this, a team of five challengers takes on a team which
> consists of five winners of various other well-known
> quiz shows. In the last edition, a team made up of people
> probably in their twenties was asked the following question.
> "In the play Hamlet a young girl goes mad and drowns
> herself. Was she called (a) Desdemona, (b) Rosalind,
> or (c) Ophelia?". They chose (a).
>
> So, if it's like that over here, I wonder just what proportion
> of the American population has the slightest interest in
> Shakespeare anyway, let alone being bothered about who
> wrote the stuff.

Here in northern New Jersey, it doesn't seem to be particularly difficult to put together an amateur production, and, in New York, the Public Theatre's "Love's Labor's Lost" sold out. I'm no longer surprised by either misunderstanding or mangling of EMnE, but I would be surprised at a group of five presumably bright young people making the mistake you describe.

--
John W Kennedy
"Sweet, was Christ crucified to create this chat?"
-- Charles Williams. "Judgement at Chelmsford"

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