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I was dressed as Benjamin Franklin, standing on a small pedestal in the middle of Boston's Faneuil Hall, the epicenter of historical America. "You're Benjamin Franklin!" a young boy called out. "That's right!" I responded in a witty, friendly tone. "Gather round, everyone! Show's about to begin!" Kids began to sit at my feet, and because I was in the dead center of the room, people moved in to listen. The tourists assumed this was a sanctioned Ben Franklin impersonator, which are common in Boston, but fortunately there is no governing body for this sort of thing. Pretty much anyone who knows how to find the costume shop can pose as Ben Franklin, which was the loophole I used for this prank.  Almost immediately, uniformed security guards came over to shut me down. "This is private property," said the larger of the two. "You've got to leave." "I'm America's 14th president," I protested, incorrectly. "Are you aware that it's 2008?" he asked. "I am certainly aware that it's 2008." It helped that I was standing on a pedestal, looking down on him. "So you've been dead for about 100 years?" "I'm going to have to pull rank on you there," I responded, refusing to break character. "I've been dead for 158 years." The tourists were beginning to get suspicious, so I had to ignore the security guard and launch into my routine anyway. "I was born just a few blocks away," I began loudly, "on Milk Street! I had 16 brothers and sisters." All this was true. "Can you imagine the toilet paper we used? Pee-yew!" The kids laughed. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the security guards calling for backup. | ||||||||||
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