WASHINGTON SPIN DIN

BILL FRIST ADMITS NAME WAS MISSPELLED; BLAMES GREAT GRANDPARENTS

Senator Bill Frist, in a relaxed mood after the withdrawal of the Dubai-based company in the port controversy and the swift disappearance of discord among Republicans, talked in an unaccustomed, easygoing manner with reporters, even joking about his name. 

“Ever since I was a child,” he told reporters, “when people heard my last name, they said, ‘You mean, Bill First?’  I always had to explain, ‘No, not First, Frist.’

"Of course, that led to jokes, like references to the old Abbott & Costello skit, ‘Who’s on First?’  They always did it as, ‘Who’s on Frist?’” 

When asked what he attributed his last name to, he said, “Well, frankly, it’s due to my great grandparents, who, it pains me to say, came to this country just so they could be Democrats.  When they arrived at Ellis Island, which was very early on in its history, an immigration officer asked,'Who’s next in line?’ 

"My great grandpappy held up his hand and, with his unavoidable accent, announced, “We’re frist.”  So ‘Frist’ is the name the guy in immigration put down as my family’s last name.”

He went on to say that, while he’s always been a little disappointed in the name, he has learned to live with it.  In fact, it has played a significan role in his thinking.  He actually became a conservative because all of the childhood jokes he endured turned him against the word “first,” and he decided, as a result, that he would never do anything “first.”

He concluded, “At least, my great granddad didn’t respond to the immigration officer, in his struggling way, ‘We ars,’ because, I can tell you, life as a kid growing up in America would have been infinitely more difficult as 'Bill Ars.'”

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