# The Kennedys and my Whisk(e)y.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 3, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841 "2005-09-03T02:35:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841/1 "2005-09-03T02:35:27Z")

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Discussing the topic of strong drink tonight at the dinner table, my sister launched into a lecture about how every bottle of imported whisk(e)y one buys, a dollar goes to the Kennedys. Which doesn’t matter to me, I’m a democrat, but my politics don’t carry over into my drinking habit anyways. I however, smelled the faint odor of bull dung. What’s the Straight Dope?

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841/2 "2005-09-03T02:40:57Z")

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[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_159.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_159.html) - boring as the truth may be, the Kennedys made their fortune in real estate.

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**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841/3 "2005-09-03T02:50:38Z")

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Yeah, I know how they made cake in the first place. Are they getting a crapload of money off the whisk(e)y though (currently)? That’s what sent my BS meter off.

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**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841/4 "2005-09-03T05:12:33Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Are they getting a crapload of money off the whisk(e)y though (currently)?

Not unless Edgar Bronfman has married into the family.

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**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\
**Post date:** [September 3, 2005, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-kennedys-and-my-whisk-e-y/319841/5 "2005-09-03T14:02:41Z")

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That’s a variation on the Kennedy legend I heard from a friend who grew up in Chicago. He was convinced that Joe Sr. was known to his friends as “Tailgunner Joe” because that was his job on bootlegging trucks. I was unable to convince him that the Kennedys didn’t make their fortune in bootlegging and that the tailgunner nickname beloned to Senator McCarthy.