Kathryn, I saw your post about Terry Teachout. Reminded me: I have
a relative who works for the FBI in New York. Many years ago, when he
first applied for the job, he was still living in a part of The Bronx
that has a high concentration of mafiosi and their usual (and much
larger) coterie of wannabes. The FBI, of course, knocked on various
doors to try to conduct background interviews about my relative.
Naturally, being the FBI, they are not always clear that the purpose of
their questioning is to check out a potential employee rather than probe
a potential crime. Even more naturally, the people of The Bronx
wouldn’t believe them even if they were clear. It should come as no
surprise, then, that one night, a neighbor my relative barely knew rang
the doorbell and told him, “The friggin’ Feds came by askin’ a lot of
questions. But don’t worry, I didn’t tell ‘em nuttin’.” To this day, I
don’t know how he got the job. I hope Terry has good neighbors.