# How famous are you (or think you are)? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 4, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568 "2014-11-04T01:51:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/141 "2015-06-02T07:21:32Z")
Ok, I’d like to update the status of my fame to: Famous enough to have been interviewed, but still minor enough to be mis-quoted by the press. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/142 "2015-06-02T18:23:37Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > My brother is quite well known in his field, has a newspaper column, and appears on the TV News sometimes. So he fits in about the middle of the list: “famous regionally, but not really nationally or internationally.” > > But me? I’m not even famous on the SDMB. Been here 15 years and people still forget where I live. I am paternally descended from (and share a last name with) one of the pioneer founders of a medium-sized US city. Unfortunately, this country being the way it is, hardly anybody outside that city’s local history museum has even heard of him, let alone any of his descendants. The people who work at the Burger King less than a mile of the old family homestead are like “Umm, who?”. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2015, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/143 "2015-06-02T18:29:04Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I run the GIS website for the County government. So a few people (mostly relators and title companies) may know my name. Or sort of recognize it. > > When they hit the ‘Contact Us’ link, they get a response from me. > > Yes, ‘Contact Us’ does actually get you a personal response. Often within minutes. Stuns a lot of folks. Yes, that can be surprising at times. Once, I sent an email to a university regarding a graduate program that they were just starting up and received a reply from a professor within three hours. What’s somewhat astonishing was that I had sent the email on a Sunday afternoon, expecting to wait until at least Monday, if not later in the week, for a cursory “Thanks for your interest, please find the program materials and application attached”. I got an apparently personalized response that mentioned and responded to information on my own academic background that I had mentioned in the email and that specifically encouraged me to learn more about the program by scheduling a meeting. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/144 "2015-06-03T02:04:25Z")
Most of those who witness my deeds do not live to tell of it. The rest become stricken with madness, ranting of one soaked in chaos, leaving naught but bloody ruin in his wake. ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/145 "2015-06-03T02:12:16Z")
I suppose I’m well known in some IT circles, but basically just one of the teeming millions, a cog in the machine, a spoke in the wheel, (to paraphrase) a rumor, recognizable only as deja vu and dismissed just as quickly. I don’t exist; I was never even born. Anonymity is my name. Silence (and Spanish) my native tongue. I’m no longer part of the System. I’m below the System. Under it. To the side of it…perhaps stage left. I’m “them.” (i.e. ‘thos IT rat bastards!’)…I’m one of the Men in Ill Fitting Pants and Smelly Polo Shirts, Snarfing Down Pizza and a Coke For Breakfast! ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2015, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/146 "2015-06-03T02:31:03Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > I’m just some guy. A few months ago I was thinking about changing my username to Just Some Guy, but of course it was already taken. > > I’ve contributed a few blog posts to my field (computer forensics) and spoken at a couple of conferences. My blog gets cited here and there online. One of the more influential writers of forensics texts cited me briefly in the most recent edition of his book. That was cool. Not what I’d call fame, exactly. Well, since I posted this, I’ve been accepted to speak at another security conference (kind of regionally important). And I put some research up on my blog that made a minor to moderate splash in the field. I got cited by some big security researchers and vendors for that. So… Actually, come to think of it, I read a couple dozen security sites on a near-daily basis, and I can’t remember the names of more than one or two of the writers. So, yeah, I’m still a nobody. ---
**Author:** ![Truman\_Burbank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@Truman\_Burbank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Truman_Burbank)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/147 "2015-06-04T00:59:04Z")
I’m not well known, but several times lately when I’ve been out with the boy I’ve been greeted by past patients, including the lady at the desk at the DMV, where our appointment had been ‘disappeared’. that’s OK, she told us, I know your Dad. Now he, at least, thinks I’m regionally famous. ---
**Author:** ![GrumpyBunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bc8723/32.png) [@GrumpyBunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrumpyBunny)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/148 "2015-06-04T02:24:14Z")
People used to stop me on the street because: [ul] [li]They recognized me from local theater productions;[/li][li]They recognized me from things I’d written in the local alternative newspaper (yeah, the paper used photographs, barf);[/li][li]They’d attended one of the seminars I taught in my daywalker job.[/li][/ul] Now I have a nice, quiet job as an analyst in a fairly specified field. Local folks in the field either know me, or are one degree removed. ---
**Author:** ![Sefton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Sefton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sefton)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/149 "2015-06-04T02:33:35Z")
I’ve written six technical books and I have a blog on computer programming. Nothing terribly interesting. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/150 "2015-06-04T02:44:05Z")
> [@mascaroni](#): > > There’s probably millions of people around the world that have heard stuff I’ve created. > > But there’s quite a few websites that list one of my pseudonyms as my real name. > > And that’s the way I like it… Are you my brother?!?!? :eek: It’s a distinct possibility. I’m not a public figure on any level. I do have an uncommon last name, and if I Google myself, most of the hits are between me, a British pediatrician, and a young woman in Utah. ---
**Author:** ![HoneyBadgerDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/honeybadgerdc/32/1033_2.png) [@HoneyBadgerDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HoneyBadgerDC)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/151 "2015-06-04T02:50:37Z")
Last monday I took my friend to pick up his grandkids at school. An 11 year old girl recognised me from a show I did on a Da Vinci catapult several years ago. It shows on reruns quite a bit so she may have seen one. The first year I was recognised several times but none since. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/152 "2015-06-04T03:29:48Z")
This has nothing to do with me, but it just popped into my head. There are a few people in this country who’ve had people walk up to them in public in recent months and say things like “Are you that Ebola guy?” :rolleyes: I would NOT want to be (in)famous for something like that, that’s for sure. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/153 "2015-06-04T03:51:13Z")
I occasionally appear on a nation-wide cable channel here in Canada. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 4, 2015, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568/154 "2015-06-04T05:23:10Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Oh. “Reported decisions” here refers to appellate cases that are selected for reproduction in the reporter of record for the jurisdiction (in Florida, it’s _Southern Reporter_.) In Canada, we don’t have “reporters of record.” A reported case is just that: it’s been printed in one of the reporter series: Westlaw or another. Could be appellate, could be trial or chambers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-famous-are-you-or-think-you-are/703568.md?page=7)