Vox populi

Everyone knows that New York Times readers comprise the most culturally aware and sophisticated newspaper audience around, right?

Heh.

There are some real howlers in the "Readers' Reviews" section attached to the Times' review of Glengarry Glen Ross, the Mamet revival starring Alan Alda and Liev Schreiber, currently playing on Broadway.

There's the guy who gushes that it's a very successful "film adaptation" -- "It works on stage!!!!!!" he marvels, using six exclamation points and going on to praise the "wonderful theatrical adaptation of [a] fabulous black comedy film."

(Mr. Mamet originally wrote it as a stage play, of course, then adapted his own script for the movie.)

There's the woman who apparently finds a dark, homoerotic conspiracy behind the critical lauding of all-male productions like Glengarry, while those same critics line up to "diss [sic] stunningly moving and romantic heterosexual romantic [sic] shows like The Light in the Piazza."

But my absolute favorite is this one... and for the life of me I swear the guy is playing it straight:

As a licensed real estate broker here in the New York Metro area, I must take umbrage at the depiction of my profession as being made up of crooks and ill-disguised highwaymen. It is patently absurd that a professional real estate broker would ever ask a client if he's ever "taken a dump that makes him feel like he's slept 12 hours." I expect that Mr. David Mamet's plays on broadway will always be quickly closing.

You can't make this stuff up.