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From: lew@ihlpa.UUCP (Lew Mammel, Jr.)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: looking for reference for "British Museum" quote
Message-ID: <2637@ihlpa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 6-Jan-87 12:25:12 EST
Article-I.D.: ihlpa.2637
Posted: Tue Jan  6 12:25:12 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 6-Jan-87 23:47:48 EST
References: <355@unc.unc.UUCP> <3800001@nucsrl.UUCP> <372@wheaton.UUCP> <1019@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Naperville, IL
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> 	The last time this came up on the net, people pointed out literary etc
> allusions to the problem.  My favorite is a Bob Newhart routine (on one of
> his early phono albums), in which he imagines that someone would have to be
> hired to check the chimps' output.  The ending is roughly this:
>            Hey, Harry, I think this one here has come up with
>            something.   "To.. be.. or .. not .. to.. be.. that..
>            is.. the..... gzornenplatz.."
> -- 
>             -- Mitch Marks @ UChicago 

I like that one too, but my favorite is from Stanley Myron Handleman.
( He portrayed a nebbish Brooklynite character and seems to have had a very brief
career as a comedian about 12 or 15 years ago. )

He told the following story:

I heard that if you put a bunch of chimpanzees in a room with typewriters
they would eventually type all the works of Shakespeare so I decided to try it.
I got a bunch of chimpanzees and put them in there and after a couple of days
I thought I'd check on them and see if they came up with anything.
But when I looked in there [shocked tone of voice] you know what?
They weren't typing! They were just messing around in there!

Lew Mammel, Jr.