Does John Kerry have a sense of humor?

A lot has been said recently about John Kerry's sense of (or lack of) humor. He does seem to cast a somewhat wooden shadow on the campaign trail. I can report first hand that he does have a sense of humor. Let me take you back to the early 1980's. Either 1983 or 1984 to be precise. John Kerry was Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, and I was a young radio reporter based at the Massachusetts Statehouse. Now back then, (and even today for that matter) the Lt. Governor's job was primarily cerimonial. The Lt.Gov was in place just in case the big guy croaked, got a federal job, or was indicted. Other than that, there wasn't a whole lot of heavy lifting associated with the post. Nonetheless, paths of the Lt. Governor and the reporters in the building did in fact cross from time to time. Most of those encounters with John Kerry were not memorable. But the one encounter I do remember had the would-be president busting a gut. First, a little background.
I spent a great deal of my time in the Broadcaster's Room at the Statehouse. That's the office were radio and TV reporters hung out and filed their stories. When we weren't filing stories or interviewing newsmakers, we would amuse ourselves with spoofs and other assorted sophomoric humor. One of the things we liked to do was collect tape of public officials saying things that sounded funny out of context. Back then, a way to relieve tension in the Broadcaster's room was to shout "Balls!" That would often be done in jest when a competitor was trying to file his story. Yeah, it's silly, but what can I say. Well the holy grail of audio tape was of course, to get an unknowing politician to say "Balls" into a microphone. One day, a golden opportunity presented itself on then-governor (and future presidential candidate himself) Michael Dukakis' daily schedule. The Duke was scheduled to tour the Titlist Golf Ball factory in southeastern Massachusetts. I alerted my client station in New Bedford of this fact, and asked them to ask the governor about his tour. The question was asked at an event later in the day, and Dukakis delivered the perfect material. "I got to see how golf balls were made, and I WAS PRESENTED WITH A SET OF BALLS MYSELF." Paydirt! Needless to say, we got a lot of milage out of that quote, playing it for anyone who would listen.
One who got to hear it was one of Kerry's press people. Later I got a call summoning me down to the Lt. Governor's office and to bring the tape. Down I went, tape recorder in hand and played Dukakis' declaration that he had been presented a set of balls for the Lt. Governor. He thought it was as funny as we did, had us play it a couple of times. I seem to remember him laughing so hard, he had tears in his eyes.