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   In January I was involved in one of the most thoroughly embarrassing and distressing incidents of my entire career. On the evening in question, Willie was having her book club meeting at our house (the same club that's still going) and Jake Brauns had scheduled a poker party at the Klund cottage. However, Brandenstein persuaded Jake to let him have the party at the Brandenstein home instead. This proved to be a fatal mistake. Billie Brandenstein, unbeknownst to most of us at least, was a fanatical anti-wet and Brandy, while tolerating drinking, never touched a drop, having made a solemn oath to his mother on her death bed, that he would never drink. We all knew, of course, that Brandy didn't drink but he'd always been a jolly sort of guy who had no scruples about others drinking. So we took liquor to Brandy's house and had a few as the session got under way. Present were Whitey Wilson, Tom Perkinson, Ab Butler of our Chicago Office, who happened to be in town, Jake Brauns, Brandy and I. Billie was absent at the book club meeting at our house. Along about ten o'clock, most of us were having a good time and feeling quite happy, even silly, as a result of the drinks. Whitey and I conceived the idea of pulling joke on Billie as she arrived home from Book Club. We put two or three empty whisky bottles just inside the storm door so they would tumble out when the door was opened, hopefully making a clatter on the porch floor and surprising Billie. In our semi-lushed condition, it seemed to us that it would be a great joke and Billie would get a real kick out of it. No one but Whitey and I participated in the planting of the bottles nor even knew what we'd done. The evening wore on and eventually Billie got home. We could hear her on the porch. Whitey and I cocked our ears expectantly as [[handwritten]] ^she [[/handwritten]] opened the storm door. The crash of the bottles was everything we'd hoped for. But at that point the sequence suddenly took a sickening deviation from what we'd expected, Billie rushed into the house sobbing wildly. Without removing her coat or hat, she ran into the dining room, which was across the entrance hall from the room where we were, and Brandy leaped up and joined her. . We could hear her telling him brokenly what had happened. No one but Whitey and I realized yet what it was all about. Then Brandy faced us. He was absolutely livid. "GET OUT OF THIS HOUSE!" he yelled and summarily ejected the whole bunch, innocent and guilty alike. Instead of being taken as a joke, it was taken as an insult of the deepest die. Brandy made a frightful scene and accused Perk of doing it. Brandy continued to yell at us wildly and order us out scarcely giving us the opportunity to grab our coats and hats. Whitey and I tried to exonerate Perk but Brandy was so inflamed that we just couldn't talk to him. We were appalled. Everyone left in a scene of wild confusion. It was the most sobering and gut-shattering experience of its kind that I'd ever been in and I could scarcely believe it was true. I was virtually horrified at what I'd been instrumental in creating--I'd never been in such a position before. I may have slept two hours that