I don’t know for sure, but some jokes are interchangeable. For example, I live very close to a famous American university, Texas A&M. We tell what are called “Aggie” jokes, and the blanket thing could be one easily. They are pretty much interchangeable with “blonde” jokes, on the myth that all blondes are dumb. We change it around because we don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. “How many ____ does it take to change a lightbulb?” Fill in the ethnicity of your choice! The answer is usually something like, “Three. One to hold the bulb and two to twirl him around.” Silly. Just for fun.

We also say that you can’t make a string longer by cutting one end off and putting it on the other. I use that one to explain to people who don’t understand that I’m a night owl and I normally sleep from dawn until about 1:30. I don’t sleep MORE hours than most people, I just sleep different ones.

It could be that Mr. Kunstler will write with an explanation of where he heard the term and perhaps it does go back in history. MY guess is that it was the first foreign country that crossed his mind, although I could be wrong. We could change it to the Zimbabwe Blanket Trick, or the Venezuelan Serape Trick, or I’ll tell you a very old, dumb Texas joke. The cowboy went into the store and wanted some coffee, but all he had to put it in was his ten-gallon hat. (Which does not hold ten gallons.) The storekeeper filled the hat, but there was some left over. “No problem,” says the cowboy, turning the hat over, “You can put it in the crease here on top!”

Change the hat to a Brit’s bowler, or a sombrero, or Napoleon’s cocked hat. There are many people of Polish descent near where I live, and they are always the first to tell what they call “Polack” jokes. Very nice people.

Regards,

LBT

Thanks in advance.
Julian