Gradually surmounting page after page of that unpardonably over-long Norman Mailer novel, Harlot’s Ghost, I reach p. 909 (still only about three-quarters of the way through) and find there some small compensation for my efforts – a stray reference to a mafia don with the nickname “Big Tuna.”
Now, Mailer’s novel has the semi-Gumpian trait of mixing – not always felicitously – real historical figures in with its made-up characters. So I had to look up whether there actually was such a person as this Big Tuna. And lo – there was! Tony Accardo, aka “Big Tuna.”
What’s more, Wikipedia has yet to take notice on his entry of the other most famous Big Tuna in history – Jim Halpert. No reference is made to The Office in the “Pop Culture” section of Accardo’s article.
Is it possible that Andy Bernard made, all those years ago, so abstruse a reference to a mid-century mafioso that it has escaped the vigilance even of the Wikipedia editors?
In which case, they must be teaching people something at that Cornell (y’ever heard of it?)
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