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Maybe answering that question could be the Ph.D. thesis I was headed toward 66 years ago when I answered that ad for copyboy in the late, lamented sports department of the New York Times.

He'd been a Daily News copyboy when the music columnist OD'd.

A little after six thirty that evening, a copyboy walked in with a stack of papers.

He tells an anecdote about something foolish he did when he was a copyboy, then famously says, “Just wanted you to know I’ve done dumber things than get us lost, that’s all.”

As a copyboy and then reporter at the Evening Star, he witnessed up close various milestones in the civil rights movement and the Kennedy presidency from inception to tragic end.