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Henry Alford's "Comic Investigations."

Author Henry Alford. Newsday reviewer Adam Begley mused about what to call Alford. "New York prankster?" Manhattan Monkeyshine Maven?" "Gotham Caparist?" His publisher calls him an investigative humorist. Alford has chronicled his offbeat investigations in his new book "Municipal Bondage: One Man's Anxiety-Producing Adventures in the Big City." (Random House.) Alford writes of his efforts to enter professions for which he was completely untutored--cosmetologist, snack food creator, dog groomer, earlobe model. He includes essays about city life and ventures into the realm of the hypothetical in sections beginning with the phrase "What if . . .?"

14:48

Other segments from the episode on March 15, 1994

Fresh Air with Terry Gross, March 15, 1994: Interview with Gary Orfield; Interview with Henry Alford; Review of the album "Tougher than Tough: The Story of Jamaican Music."

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