Chai M. Potok; O'Kun

[James A. Landau]

In a message dated 07/24/2002 4:07:35 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
mam at THEWORLD.COM writes:

> he received a call from someone named Conn asking him to
>  #come to a Conn reunion. "But I'm really a Kahn", my cousin said.  "No
>  #matter," was the reply, "you're a Conn, you're invited."
>
>  On the telephone, which is which, and how could they tell?

I overcondensed the story.  My cousin explained, to the Irishman, that he had
CHANGED his name to Conn.  It's been many years since I heard the story, and
I'm not sure whether my cousin's original name was Kahn or Cohen or what.

Another story, OT but worth telling:  Mr. Conn was an advance man for
President Johnson on a trip to some small town in Eastern Kentucky.  Conn and
a Secret Service agent came in ahead of time and started looking the place
over, when they became aware of a suspicious stranger watching them.  So they
confronted the stranger, who turned out to be the sheriff who had thought
THEY were suspicious.  Once introduced, the sheriff couldn't do enough for
them.
    "I've heard about this Kentucky moonshine, and I always wanted to find
out what it was like," the Secret Service man said.  No problem, the sheriff
had confiscated some and sent over a jug.  My cousin was aware of the quality
control that does not go into moonshine, so he asked for beer instead.  The
sheriff said, "Sure, but don't tell your landlady where it came from---I
arrested her husband for bootlegging."  [Like a good many counties in
Kentucky, including Bourbon County, the place was dry.]
     My cousin and the Secret Service man rounded up some cars for the
motorcade.  One of them was a convertible.  "No way!" said the Secret Service
man, and they hid the convertible somewhere.
    THe Presidential plane flew in, and President Johnson got off and
promptly shook hands with my cousin.  "He's nearsighted," said the Secret
Service man.  "He shakes hands with us all the time."
    Having gotten started, Johnson kept shaking hands until he had managed to
shake his way into the hiding place where the convertible was stashed.  And
so nothing would do but that he ride in that car in his motorcade.
    So Johnson rode in the convertible, unaware that in the trunk of the car,
having been placed there as the safest place to make sure nobody found it,
was the jug of moonshine.

        - Jim Landau