Can someone please tell me about Marion Berry DC?

Question

I started a new job and a dessert we serve is a marion berry cobbler (made with marion berries) well every time I offer this to people, they crack up laughing! I know he was caught smoking crack and one of my customers laughed and said "What a perfect name, Marion Berry" I don't get how marion berries are in relation to crack. Can someone please clear this up for me, so I don't look like such a fool when people bust out laughing!?

Answer 1

The mayor's name is Marion Barry (not berry), and yes, he was arrested for smoking crack with a close female friend whom he met with at a local hotel.  He went to jail, but that did not keep him out of politics, and he is still on the DC City Council despite further brushes with the law.  His drug use and his hotel dalliances cost him two marriages.  

The marion berry is a berry and grows in the Pacific Northwest.  It sounds just the same as the mayor's name, but of course there is no relationship other than the sound.  Still, it always makes people from the DC area laugh when the go out there and see marion berries for sale.  

It's just the sound.  Imagine going to a different part of the country to find that everyone had bushes in front of their house, and the name of it was a "George" bush.  It might make you giggle, right?  Same with Marion Barry/berry.