In my early teens, I looked forward to watching Abbott and Costello on Sunday afternoons. One of the great comedy routines made famous by them was: “Who’s On First?” The premise of the sketch has evolved to many forms, but the template is that Abbott is identifying the players on the team for Costello, but their names and nicknames can be interpreted as non-responsive answers to Costello’s questions. The comical banter starts out with like this:
Abbott: “As strange as it may seem they give baseball players very peculiar nicknames. You have Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know on third…”
Costello: “That’s what I want to find out. I want you to tell me the names of the fellas on the team.”
Abbott: “I am telling ya, You have Who’s on first, What’s on second, I Don’t Know on third…”
Costello: “You don’t know the fella’s name?” [Read more…] about October Newsletter – Who’s on First: The Not so Funny Game of United States Economics