11-09-2009, 06:40 PM
Helen Reyes Wrote:I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on that phrase used to keep the SS agents away from JFK in Dallas. "Ivy League charlatans" hanging like monkeys from the rear fender... Mr. Boring doesn't exactly sound eloquent in the quotes from him posted in this thread. I rather suspect he was given the phrase to repeat. Was this supposed to mean something special to someone?
Did it mean that JFK was battle-hardened from combat in WWII and didn't need a bunch of college freshman hanging around sucking up his glory?
Or did it mean something more literal about Yale, Harvard and the old Bostonians who so hated JFK and his bootlegging father? The sort of people who still call the airport Idlewild...
You've a keen eye for the telling detail, Helen; and have touched upon a phrase that's puzzled me for years, not the least because none of the SS were drawn from such exalted backgrounds - quite the reverse.
So, given that the phrase rather obviously invokes the CIA, I suspect you're notion that Boring was given the phrase to repeat as some of private joke - here's what happens to those who don't take the Agency seriously, that sort of thing - is almost certainly spot on.
Paul