Word: prankster
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...other city, Boren would be little more than a lovable prankster. But his continuing spoof of bureaucratic outrages has hit the mark so well that he has gained semi-status by using one of his own dicta: "If you can't beat them, don't just join them, lead them...
This elected prankster is not unique in the city. School Committeewoman Elvira "Pixie" Palladino ("She's got balls," Dapper says) achieved her notoriety by slugging Ted Kennedy at an anti-busing protest rally. There are plenty of clowns at places like Whitey McGrail's and Kelly's Tavern who help make the beers go down more pleasantly. By a series of accidents, the media and voters have launched O'Neil into perpetual orbit. A politician who cannot mobilize support, cultivate influence or avoid social solecisms, he was spawned by the social, political and economic problems that trouble the frightened white...
...beer and less Scotch was being offered than in 1972. Dozens of reporters on the liquid late-night beat and even some bona fide guests could not gain entry to a supper sponsored by Rolling Stone magazine because of unexpected crowds of gate crashers. The problem was that veteran Prankster Dick Tuck had printed thousands of counterfeit invitations in Reliable Source, an irreverent daily tabloid that he published during the convention...
...piano, singing patronizing ditties like that, small wonder that thousands upon thousands of young children ended up with kindly but bored thoughts of old Papa Haydn. Set to the jolly theme from the Surprise Symphony, not unlike Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star, it conjured up an image of a doddering prankster whose place in history was unquestioned but whose music was best ignored. For much of the late 19th century and most of the 20th, that is exactly what almost everyone thought of Franz Joseph Haydn...
...color caller discovered the new royal connection, resumed his work, and at one point "started to whistle the national anthem" before the princess could hang up. Though Buckingham Palace spokesmen dismissed the business as a simple case of "nuisance calls" and denied that Anne herself had actually heard the prankster, police confirmed that there had indeed been some "deep breathing" on the line. Scotland Yard launched an investigation, and the Department of Industry set a trap for the mysterious caller...