I wrote a column in The Nation years ago about this elevator operator named Murphy in a West Side building, kind of a super, and he had this theory about how clever the Jews were. He was always saying how clever it was of the Jews to train that guy Sandy Koufax to pretend he was Jewish so the rumors of Jewish klutziness would be thrown out. He never had anything against anyone, and there were mostly Jews in the building. He was old and set in his ways and if you contradicted him he sent your mail to Topeka, Kansas. Some of the assumptions might come from your understated humor and your talk of being a Midwesterner.
People think that there is something opposite, something conflicting about that.
That was just the way he was. Midwesterners are always knocking down the big shot and talking about people who got too big for their britches. I had dinner with some of my high school pals, most of them were Protestants. That's the way they talk. They've always made fun of people in exactly the same way.