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This item about the first manned moon landing, seemingly an obvious joke, began circulating on the Internet in mid-1995 and was picked up by the news media a few months later: The inclusion of specific details (e.g., the name of Armstrong's neighbor, the date of the press conference on which he revealed the meaning of his remark) apparently led some to believe the farcical story might have some truth to it. At its most basic level, this tale is a humorous anecdote that plays on the stereotypical portrayal of Jewish wives as reluctant to engage in recreational (and especially oral) sex. In variant forms of this legend the last name of Neil Armstrong's neighbor is different, but the surname used is always a Jewish-sounding one, such as Gorsky, Seligman, Schultz, Lipinski, or Klein; the unusual word order employed by the wife in her refusal (Oral sex you want?) is also a stereotypical speech pattern attributed to Jews. On another level, this legend can be seen as an attempt to humanize a cultural hero by associating him with a story that is both humorous and racy: Neil Armstrong, the world-famous astronaut, is made to seem like a regular guy. Any doubts about the veracity of this legend are laid to rest by the NASA transcripts of the Apollo 11 mission, which record no such statement having been made by Armstrong. Armstrong himself said in late 1995 that he first heard the anecdote delivered as a joke by comedian Buddy Hackett in California. Sightings: When the space shuttle Columbia crew completed a repair mission on the Hubble Space Telescope in March 2002, chief repairman John Grunsfeld called out (in homage to this legend) Good luck, Mr. Hubble as the telescope drifted off. Variations: Sometimes the story is told with Armstrong uttering, That's one small step for man; one giant leap for Manny Klein, with the unfortunate Mr. Klein having received the same response from his wife as Mr. Gorsky had from his.
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