# Whose the most famous person you know well enough to casually email? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 27, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216 "2011-01-27T18:40:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lethal\_Babydoll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3be4f8/32.png) [@Lethal\_Babydoll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lethal_Babydoll)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/1 "2011-01-27T18:40:45Z")
For me, it’s sf writer Jack McDevitt, whom I’ve met a couple of times and stay in touch with. How about you? ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/2 "2011-01-27T18:43:32Z")
Jesus ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/3 "2011-01-27T18:46:00Z")
President Obama. Although he’s usually too busy to ever write back. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Scud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f08c70/32.png) [@Tom\_Scud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Scud)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/4 "2011-01-27T18:46:28Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > President Obama. > Although he’s usually too busy to ever write back. Dude. He writes me all the time. He sent me a nice note right after the SOTU. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/5 "2011-01-27T18:54:28Z")
Some of my former professors are fairly well-known in their fields, either for their scholarly work or for the government positions they’ve occupied. I’m on good terms with most of them, and have been known to bug them for their views on the news or job recommendations from time to time. 🙂 But other than that, no one. I have very obscure friends. ---
**Author:** ![AllShookDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d9b06d/32.png) [@AllShookDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AllShookDown)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/6 "2011-01-27T19:03:46Z")
I guess it’s a toss-up between [Bert Kersey](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beagle_Bros) and [Gary Hart](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_K._Hart) (the California one, not the one who ran for president.) Both first cousins once removed. I don’t e-mail them but I could. ---
**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/7 "2011-01-27T19:04:37Z")
Probably Maria Bello. Not that I have her email address, but if I did, she’d know me immediately and it’d be a nice little reunion. We used to work together and were pretty chummy but drifted apart before she became famous. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/8 "2011-01-27T19:06:15Z")
Probably [Ann Rule](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Rule). We’ve corresponded about an axe murder that happened 100 years ago just down the road. No kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/9 "2011-01-27T19:09:15Z")
I used to know Jim Butcher fairly well in a listserv kind of way, before he got famous. Not anymore, though. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/10 "2011-01-27T19:14:50Z")
Unfortunately, a lot of them are dead, now. As for the others There are some famous writers that I could e-mail with the likelihood that they’d know who I was and would very likely respond, but that’s not exactly my definition of “casually”. ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/11 "2011-01-27T19:15:33Z")
**Monkey** , singer for the classic punk band [The Adicts](http://www.adicts.us/) (in fact, I just talked to him yesterday). Certainly not mainstream but if you’re into (or have been into) the punk scene at all you definitely know these guys. Otherwise, I got nothin’. ---
**Author:** ![Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dread_pirate_jimbo/32/3897_2.png) [@Dread\_Pirate\_Jimbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dread_Pirate_Jimbo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/12 "2011-01-27T19:16:31Z")
I just e-mailed Calgary’s mayor, Naheed Nenshi, yesterday. I knew him back at university and we reconnected during last year’s municipal election and have stayed in touch through Facebook since then. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/13 "2011-01-27T19:18:39Z")
I used to live with a future NFL running back, but I haven’t talked to him in 15 years so I don’t know that I could casually e-mail him. I know some musicians – for example I’m friendly with a guy in Jars of Clay and could email him easily enough. I’m also friends with a justice on the Sixth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals but I don’t know if that makes her famous. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/14 "2011-01-27T19:20:24Z")
My (former) PhD advisor is pretty famous among Shakespeare scholars, but not famous to the world at large, so I guess that doesn’t count? (His daughter, OTOH, _is_ a legitimately famous writer, but I’m not sure whether I’ve even met her or what I’d say if I e-mailed her, so she probably doesn’t count either.) Apart from that, I can’t really think of anybody. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/15 "2011-01-27T19:25:01Z")
Casually email? Nobody. But I have engaged in **written** correspondence with quite a few famous or semi-famous people over the years. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/16 "2011-01-27T19:32:19Z")
I’ll keep it discreet, but he has been awarded at least three Oscars. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/17 "2011-01-27T19:37:29Z")
Probably the most famous I could casually e-mail (he’s certainly casually e-mailed _me_) is Anthony Siegman, Professor Emeritus of Engineering at Stanford, former President of the Optical Society of America, and author of, among other things, the monumental book **Lasers**. [http://www.uscibooks.com/siegman.htm](http://www.uscibooks.com/siegman.htm) He’s probably completely unknown outside the optics community. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/18 "2011-01-27T19:40:26Z")
No one I would bother casually, but I once got an email from author Samuel R. Delany, who was looking for contact info on a mutual acquaintance. I have no idea how he found me. ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/19 "2011-01-27T19:40:49Z")
I’m Facebook friends with my High School girlfriend, who is an [actress](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006439/) now. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2011, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216/20 "2011-01-27T19:46:56Z")
John Lee Hancock, Director of The Blind Side, The Alamo, A Perfect World, etc. He sends a lot of behind the scene stuff from premiers, etc. Mark Hurd, until recently CEO of HP. Mike Singletary is in a group list of ex-NFLers I hear from, although I’m not going to casually put anything to him, it’s more for reunions, illnesses, etc. Ray Berry is on there too, Van McElroy, Keith Bishop, etc. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whose-the-most-famous-person-you-know-well-enough-to-casually-email/569216.md?page=2)