Sally Koslow asked Jere Krakoff:

Jere, I don't know the answer to the q. you posed to me, but BTW, while I was raised in North Dakota, my grandfather in Brooklyn ran delicatessens that I assume were kosher, and his name was Plotkin....though it got "anglicized" to Platkin by his oldest child's first grade teacher. What do you think of that?

Jere Krakoff Sally, the correct (and only acceptable answer) to my question is that the name of Leopold Plotkin's chicken plucker is Primo Astigmatopolous (who, in addition to plucking chickens, was an aspiring trilogy writer).

With respect to your questionI think that your Brooklyn grandfather's first grade teacher shouldn't have tampered with his name. Plotkin was a perfectly acceptable name, well-suited to one whose lineage included a possible kosher delicatessen merchant.

Finally, I also think that it defies statistical probability that I have become virtual friends with a person who was related to a Plotkin/Platkin and, even less likely, was raised in North Dakota, a state where relatively few people have been raised.

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