This again?
So, in a round-about way, this post is a lesson in how to make Phil blow a gasket.
I found myself with some time to kill before work today. So, I went into an Indigo to look around. As usual, their selection of books related to theatre, plays or writing were limited (that’s usually the case, but I like to check, just in case). Finding myself disappointed, I wandered over to the biography section. Now, this happens occaisionally, though there are few biographies that I’m interested in. Its rare that I pick something up. But if I do, chances are its a biography of Shakespeare (yeah, I know. nerd). I do have several different biographies and related books already, but for some reasin (nerd), I can’t resist more of them. Granted, I have a weakness for books as it is…but books on Shakespeare…now that’s something I will almost always want to read. So…into the Biographies section I go.
I look. I look some more. There’s one book, that has a picture of Someone on the cover and in big letters “SHAKESPEARE”. So, I get in closer (it was on the bottom shelf) to take closer look. And this is what I see:
Click on the picture to see it in full size.
See the title?
“Shakespeare” by Another Name. The life of Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, the Man who was Shakespeare.
Now, this is one of those “arguments” that always gets my back up. I could go on and on about this one, citing various scholarly works - at least at first, until my ire raises enough that I start frothing at the mouth and spouting obscenities - which I admit wouldn’t take long (last time I was clocked at only 0.0007 seconds of rational rhetorical arguement before several words beginning with “fu-” and others that end with “-unt” were uttered. I never said I was a great debator).
So, seeing this book, you can understand the few options that were open to me. I had two:
- Fly into a rage and begin tearing this abomination of a book to pieces with my teeth.
- Blog about it.
Clearly I very wisely chose the latter. Though it was close.
