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Column

Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?

Monday, December 20, 1999

  • Title: "Do You Have Prince Albert in a Can?" Was one of a number of "phony phone calls" certain children (who should have been working on their project for the science fair) would make if they lived on Long Island in the mid '50's. "Prince Albert" was the name of a then-well-known pipe tobacco which came in a can and it was not unlikely that the person answering would, in fact, have Prince Albert in a can. IF the answer was, "Yes" then the phone caller would say something like, "Well, you'd better let him out!" which was followed by knee buckling laughter by the certain child and his pals.

    Others in this series included such favorites such as "Is your refrigerator (or shower) running? You'd better go catch it!"

    This particular brand of humor has been dealt a death blow by the advent of Caller ID.

    Al Gore was sometimes referred to as "Prince Albert" by his Senate colleagues.

  • "Al Gore is the Arnold Horshack of American Politics …" Arnold Horshack was a character on the '60's sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter" which starred Gabe Kaplan. Horshack, played by Ron Pallilo, had the annoying habit of waving his hand and shouting "Ooh, Ooh" when he knew the answer to a question. He also had the most annoying laugh in the history of television.

    Pallilo did not become as famous as another member of that cast, John Travolta.

  • "On campaign finance reform:" For a quick overview of the Clinton/Gore problems go here:

  • "Ok, so we went to New York …" Click here for a photo tour of NYC at Christmas time.

  • "… if Gimbel's still existed …" Gimbel's Department Store was, for years, a principal competitor to Macy's. A famous NY idiom for not wanting to tell something was, "Does Macy's tell Gimbel's?" Gimbel's had a walk-on role in the 1947 version of "A Miracle on 34th Street" when Mr. Gimbel tried to hire Kris Kringle away from Mr. Macy's department store.

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