These are hilarious! I think my favorite is the expired car warranty conversation. My husband answered the phone at his parents's house a while back and had a long discussion with someone trying to sell them solar panels, despite the fact that their house was surrounded by trees that they did NOT want to cut down. He ended up explaining that no sunshine could reach the house because there was always a cloud over it - and the cloud was sent as a punishment from God (I forget what sin he was supposed to have committed)... he kept the guy talking for at least half an hour, my in-laws were amazed and amused.
Quick-thinking by your great-uncle! I like how your great-uncle put this: "con men based their success on the mark’s intelligence giving way to his desperation and emotions. That his greed would outweigh his good sense." Well-said.
One time during Prohibition, he was driving his miserable old jalopy across the Brooklyn Bridge, when he banged into some rich guy's Duesenberg, flipping open the trunk. The rich guy jumped out of the car, screaming about the damage.
Frank observed that in the Duesenberg's trunk were crates of illegal Canadian whisky and he told the Duesenberg owner that for a crate of whisky and $100, Frank would forget about this violation of the Volstead Act.
These are hilarious! I think my favorite is the expired car warranty conversation. My husband answered the phone at his parents's house a while back and had a long discussion with someone trying to sell them solar panels, despite the fact that their house was surrounded by trees that they did NOT want to cut down. He ended up explaining that no sunshine could reach the house because there was always a cloud over it - and the cloud was sent as a punishment from God (I forget what sin he was supposed to have committed)... he kept the guy talking for at least half an hour, my in-laws were amazed and amused.
Yeah, I like the expired car gag, too. That’s why I used the photo of the Sherman tank to illustrate it.
The photo must be expired, too, it's not here anymore.
Not sure where it is. Doesn’t matter.
Quick-thinking by your great-uncle! I like how your great-uncle put this: "con men based their success on the mark’s intelligence giving way to his desperation and emotions. That his greed would outweigh his good sense." Well-said.
Uncle Frank was a GREAT con man.
One time during Prohibition, he was driving his miserable old jalopy across the Brooklyn Bridge, when he banged into some rich guy's Duesenberg, flipping open the trunk. The rich guy jumped out of the car, screaming about the damage.
Frank observed that in the Duesenberg's trunk were crates of illegal Canadian whisky and he told the Duesenberg owner that for a crate of whisky and $100, Frank would forget about this violation of the Volstead Act.
Frank got the booze and the hundred bucks.
Yeah, he was that good.
By day, he was a routine pharmacist in Brooklyn.