What a faux pas

Excuse my parvenu title (and the use of that word too) but I read a terrific article at Born Again Redneck that prompted me to be a bit daft. It is an essay from 2002 by Jay Nordlinger about the pretentiousness of people who use foreign city names instead of the English derivation - like Leghorn for Livorno, Torino for Turin etc.
And I decided to do a little of it myself.

Anyway, I saw a video on the Drudge Report and it reminded me of my chagrin at La Guardia airport in 1968. I know that's a long time ago but this is how I remember the details;

I was working at LGA and it seemed like all of NYC was trying to get to Washington D.C. for Robert Kennedy's funeral at Arlington.
Vice President Humphrey, who was running for the presidency, was waiting to get on a flight in a crowded gate area so I invited him into the PSM office so he could have a little privacy. (Of course I regaled him with my numerous fishing trips to Ely, Minnesota).
I left the office and outside met the new president of AAL George Warde. He had recently taken over the job from GEORGE Spater........Anyway Warde wanted to go in and make a call so I took him in and introduced him to the Vice Pres as George Spater. Oh my Gosh. They talked for a while and when Warde came out of the office I apologised for the blunder. "Don't feel bad", he said, "I was more embarrassed by the fact that I just subpoenaed him for unpaid campaign debts" (VP Humphrey had rented a 727 from AA and owed money for the rental.)

Anyway, here's the clip that reminded me of the event.



Can you imagine the horror that went through this guy's brain when he realized his error?