Fooling the interviewer

A rotund fellow wearing a wool overcoat stood for a long time at the corner of Devon and Western during the 1972 general election, clutching a note pad and a pencil. He seemed to be doing something. Our best guess was that he was conducting the straw poll for the Chicago Sun-Times.

The newspaper conducted a remarkably accurate survey prior to each election and published its results by ward and township.

We wanted our candidates to score well in it, so we sent a steady stream of volunteers strolling slowly past that corner, waiting to be interviewed. He didn’t talk to any of them. It was almost as if he knew they were all campaign activists.

The poll was published a couple of days later. Our candidates had fared well, and I was impressed with the surveyor. We hadn’t been able to fool the guy.