Little-Known Don Adams Factoid

Sigh. They're dropping like flies, the icons of my baby-boomer childhood.

But the Don Adams obits I've read all omit one important factoid that may help explain his excellence in portraying the hapless Agent 86.

Would you believe that Don Adams at one point was ... a guvvie??

Yes, it's true. Between his military service and his stand-up comedy career, Don Adams spent some time in the suburbs of our nation's capitol, at the then-Army Map Service. I'm not sure what his job was - probably GS-9 cartographer or something suitably drone-like. He was well-remembered when I joined the former AMS, then Defense Mapping Agency in the late '70s.

DMA got folded into something called 'NIMA' after my time, and God knows what it's called now, probably His Royal Highness' Most Excellent Cartographers in Service to the Defense of the Realm.