I have met, chatted amicably with, and introduced my wife and mother in law to General Martok and Chancellor Gowron of the Klingon Empire. (JG Hertzler and Robert O’Reilley, respectively.) And I didn’t have to wait in an autograph line to do it.
I was interviewed on local news when I was 10 and they filmed a martial arts demo I was part of.
My father almost ran over Louis Gossett, Jr. Pity - if he’d managed to squish him, the world would’ve been spared two “Iron Eagle” sequels.
Personal qualifications:
I’ve written, co-written, edited or contributed to at least a dozen books for Steve Jackson Games. Because of this, at one time I was 75% or more of all the hits on “Schroeck” that Alta Vista could find.
I’ve had a short story included in an anthology by erotic science fiction publisher Circlet Press.
I have one and a half fan clubs in Philadelphia for my writing.
I’m a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. (Hi, RealityChuck! My dues are paid!)
I’ve been invited to be a guest at several Worldcons.
Like RealityChuck, I know a few (other) SF authors. None of the really big names, though.
If you read Infoworld, I was the “suspicious” reader quoted by Ed Foster in his Gripe Line column in the 2/19/2001 issue.
Celebrity encounters:
I was a member of the Princeton Triangle Club at Princeton University at the same time Brooke Shields was. I’ve been snubbed by her mother and stopped by her bodyguard. And she once shared a piece of carrot cake with me. Another member of Triangle I knew was Cecil “Heidi” Hoffman, who’s been in the TV series “Dream Street” and “LA Law”, and movies like “Stargate”.
My sophomore year roommate’s junior year roommate was the exiled heir to the throne of some Southeast Asian country; I forget which now.
In the spring of 1981, while visiting a friend at Yale, I wasn’t looking where I was going and walked into Jodie Foster. A head-on collision: I turned my head and I was nose-to-nose with her.
Six-degrees stuff:
Back at Princeton, I knew folks who knew David Duchovny and Dean Cain.
My uncle Arthur is a big (if not known by the public) name in music. He’s written songs and arranged music for Sinatra, Liza Minelli, and many other stars. He organized and led a revival of Spike Jones’ City Slickers a few years ago. In the Sixties he did session work for a lot of bands – for example, he’s the credited keyboardist on Spanky and Our Gang’s “Like To Get To Know You” album. The woman in his life these days is Linda November, the original cat voice on the “Meow Mix” commercials.
My cousin Shem, his son, is part of Christopher Cross’ band, and is just about to release his first solo CD.
And knowing Brooke Shields in college gives me a Bacon number under 6, I think…
Oh! I thought of another one, even more obscure than the first.
My great-great-grandfather was a priest in Oyster Bay, NY and a young Teddy Roosevelt attended his services and Sunday school.
Edward James Olmos spoke at my school once, but I had a class so I couldn’t attend. However, I did walk by him in the hall and pretended not to know who he was.
My mom went to a party with Jerry Garcia and Dennis Hopper (not at the same time). She’s talked on the phone with Liberacie and Sammy Davis Jr (she used to work at a casino in Vegas, so it’s sort of required back then that you talk to famous people).
*As for me, I had a chance to go on stage with Chuck Berry when I was five. I wimped out.
*My heart surgeon, when I was a baby, was the same heart surgeon who operated on David Letterman.
*We have good reasons to believe that Drew Carey served us at Denny’s a loooong time ago because he used to work at the same Denny’s we went to frequently in Las Vegas.
Here’s one that maybe a grand total of three Dopers will care about: Were you at the August 1994 Elton John/Billy Joel concert in Milwaukee, where Billy played a song because someone wrote him a letter? I wrote the letter.
My “pseudograndma” (nice elderly neighbor lady) used to babysit Liberace when he was a child.
Dave Matthews once drew a picture on my friend’s daughter’s cap in her bookstore, while he was having coffee with friends on the patio.
I had the highest-ever PSAT score (203) at my high school in my junior year. (For all I know, someone may have beaten it by now – that was in 1983.)
I had a chance to copyedit a Robin Cook novel, but I had to turn it down. (Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!)
You know that vacant church that the bad guys used as their headquarters in Die Hard II? Did you notice the missing cross above the door? That might be the only accurate shot in the film.
There is no cross above the door because I stole it before the real vacant church (located just outside of Dulles Airport) was photographed for the set-model used in the film. For years, The Cross That Was Not Cast In Die Hard II was mounted with the half dozen remote controls my roomies and I had in college. It was a great way to keep them from getting lost, and man did I ever feel powerful when changing the channel.
Yep, I’m going to hell.
things I cling to…
I won more mock trial scholarship money than anyone in my region while in high school.
The rest of my claims to fame are mere brushes with celebrity. I used to work for American Airlines as a gate agent…
I checked the ID (to do the security check) of country singer Vince Gill (and DIDN’T know who the heck he was).
I issued boarding passes to Matt Lauer, Al Roker, and Katie Couric. Matt was still wearing his sunglasses - like you can really hide while wandering around an airport with Katie and Al!
I was escorted down to the plane by the Secret Service to speak with Lady Bird Johnson after mentioning my dad had been one of the USAF Honor Guard at LBJ’s funeral. Little scary to be beckoned by the SS!
I got to give Troy Aikman a dirty look for being rude to a little kiddo who wanted his autograph.
I also got to meet Maya Angelou and Andre Braugher.
I helped Alicia Silverstone into a special services van to rush her over to British Airways for a flight to Zimbabwe.
I almost bumped Fergie and her crew off a flight since they were under assumed names and had not shown up for the flight the required 10 min. prior.
I almost had to leave Emmett Smith behind because he jumped off the flight to retrieve his camera.
I’ve got 10 seconds, or there abouts, of the back of my head in one of the Control Room scenes in ‘Hunt for Red October’. Two of my buddies have speaking roles in the same movie.
I’ve been quoted in the NYT, which quote later wound-up in Newsweek, in their ‘Overheard’ feature.
I’ve got an autographed (to me) set of the ‘Feynman Lectures’. Feynman was my father’s thesis advisor at CalTech.
I’ve got an autographed (to me) copy of ‘Clarke of St.Vith’. Gen. Bruce C. Clarke was another of my father’s heavy-hitting friends.
Clint Eastwood stopped at my table to ask how I was doing at the Hog’s Breath Saloon.
I went three floors with William Shatner in an elevator.
Gordon Cooper used to sit on my mother’s desk and kick his heels while waiting to speak to the CO at Edwards AFB. He once used her as an excuse to escape a boring conversation at a Wash, DC State Function, much to my father’s irritation.
I had a good 40 minutes conversation with Buck Darma (Blue Oyster Cult), not realizing who he was until he said ‘This is my set’, and got up on stage.
…what can I say? I’m an egotist.
My Kevin Bacon number is 3. I went and looked it up. Not that it really counts, since I’m not an actor.
And I’ve had several short conversations with Joyce Carol Oates.
You can see part of my face in one of the MSNBC ads for “Hardball.” Chris Matthews is just finishing sitting down, saying “Let’s play Hardball!” I’m the kid behind him wearing the shirt with the vertical stripes.
I was editor in chief of the nation’s largest college newspaper.
I had a decent conversation with Michael Isikoff (the guy who broke the Lewinsky scandal in Newsweek) about how newspapers - mine included - prematurely printed “Bush wins!” headlines.
I sat at the same dinner table as Helen Thomas (the elderly woman who asks the first question at White House press conferences) and she gave me lots of cool advice.
I’ve met Magic Johnson (and was in TOTAL awe).
I’ve been quoted in The New York Times (Oct. 19, 2000 edition, I think, page 22A, I think).
I’m going to probably have a really cool brush with fame soon, as the internship program I’m in has me go out to lunch with really famous journalists.
What really pisses me off is the brush my best friend had…
After he got some unfair treatment at an Al Gore campaign event, he got to fly on Air Force Two and interview the then Veep for the newspaper he works at. I’ve got a photo of it… damn I envied him.
ooh! I forgot about the time my brother and I trapped Barry Bonds in an elevator to get an autograph!
Oops - I forgot about the time I ran Sam Donaldson off the road. He was starting to cross the street prematurely and I sped through a left turn under a yellow light. He had to jump back on the curb to keep from getting hit. Sorry, Sam!
Now don’t get all excited now, but Smokey Robinson’s limo (with him in it) once ran over my foot.
Oh, and I have a nice Polaroid of Mrs. Shiva and Jeff Smith, alleged pedophile and known Frugal Gourmet.
:rolleyes:
Almost forgot. You can hear me whistling on one of Southside Johnny’s live albums.
My life feels so empty… may I bask in some reflected glory?
Hope these are all obscure enough:
I was raised with Bill Watterson.
I have perhaps the only Kurt Vonnegut autograph dated on exactly his 75th birthday, 11-11-97. (The others who were there got the real date, 11-8-97, but since I was the one who arranged for the birthday cake…)
I have two emails directly from Robert Fripp, and Keith Emerson’s signature on the back of a personal check.
The notorious Kevin Maxwell, son of the late publisher Robert “Roseglub” Maxwell, lives in my great-great grandfather’s manor house in Oxfordshire. Sir John Harvey-Jones lives in my same ancestor’s summer home in Wales. Robert Maxwell himself had owned a different manor home which was also in the family.
I used to swim in the same limestone quarry they used in the movie Breaking Away. None of us ever wore clothes, though.
And the grand finale: Fabulously witty SDMB poster Lawoot is my little brother.
I won the school spelling bee. Does that count?
How about being personally selected by my director at the agency I work for to shake the commissioner’s hand.
I’m two degrees away from Kevin Bacon.
One classmate in grad school knew Edmund Bacon, a visionary urban planner that spearheaded Philadelphia’s redevelopment efforts in the 1960s and 1970s. Edmund Bacon is Kevin’s dad.
I’m also two degrees away from Sarah Michelle Gellar. I went to elementary school with David Boreanez’s sister. For those in the Buffalo area, that also makes me one degree away from Dave Thomas of Rocketship 7 fame. 
A couple more …
I was on “It’a Academic!” a high school quiz bowl-type show that used to air very early on Saturday mornings back home.
In 1985, I had a two or three minute chat with Ellen Degeneres, after her performance on a college comedy tour.
I had a drawing published in ‘2000AD’ comic (home of Judge Dredd) back in 1994 or something. It was of a Judge from New Zealand called ‘Kiwilander’.