I was in a room filled with Jehovah's Witnesses. They were talking about the recent funeral for Mayor Richard J. Daley. I was five-years-old at the time, and thought that I might take a stab at being both witty and topical.

"It's a good thing they laid him out face down so everyone could kiss him goodbye," I said. I had no idea what that meant. I just knew everybody laughed when Art said it.

I remember that heat creep up the back of my neck as the gray suited men stared down at me, slack-jawed in disbelief. That was the first bump on a very rocky road out of that religion.

One of his most controversial jokes and one of my favorites.

As for songs, I'd say "Hot Buttered Rum" sung in the winter of '79 at the No Exit, freezing or boiling deepending on whether or not the industrial heater hanging from the cieling had kicked in, sharing hot chocolate with Mom, the only Jehovah's Witness I knew who got his jokes.