A few years ago my wife and I struck up a casual friendship with a reality show contestant that we met a couple of times and actually hung out with for a couple of hours. (Remember the deaf woman who was on Survivor?) We exchanged e-mails a few times. When my wife miscarried she found out about it through a mutual internet friend and sent us a condolence card.
My father worked with Billy Ray Cyrus for years and I sort of developed an acquaintanceship with his daughter Destiny, who everybody now knows as Miley Cyrus. I’m not sure if she’s remember me as she was pretty young but Billy would for sure. As would his harpy of a wife
Ex-Jet Bruce Harper.
Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian journalist who has occasional voice-of-reason editorials in US papers and was one of the people who worked on the Palestinian Sesame Street adaptation.
I’m on a acquaintence level high enough to be able to email several comics and producers in the alt-comedy scene. Wouldn’t say I’m very close friends with any of them but we know each other and talk online occasionally. They’re all mostly names you’d probably know, or you’d at least be familiar with their work.
I used to talk a lot with former MLB pitcher/CY Young Award winner Jack McDowell. He was on AIM a lot a few years back and he and I started chatting about music (he has a band that’s actually pretty good) and he and I would email and chat pretty often. Really cool guy but haven’t talked w/ him in years.
Most of my close friends are current or former NFL players and coaches. Harmon Killebrew was my neighbor when I was in grade school, so was the Vikings defensive coordinator. I got so see every home game in the 70s on the sidelines.
In the 80s I catered tours for Aerosmith, Allman Bros, and Clapton. I was fairly close with some of the members and their famous friends.
Yeah, know/knew the whole family.
Which ones? I’m a poker buff myself.
No one. I’ve never felt the need to find these people or associate with them.
I’ve had the chance to, but in my experience you always come off smarmy if you start asking for phone numbers or email addresses.
I’m going to have to correct myself.
I casually emailed Rick Bakertoday. I guess I don’t think of him that way.
A couple - both pretty well known in their respective geek circles, both pretty obscure outside of them.
One is a video game developer and the former “public face” of a really, really big video game company. He sang at my wedding. The other is a pen-and-paper RPG designer, who I have lost touch with on purpose because we have radically different political views and he just kept posting things to his blog that would piss me off.
I can one up you, then, Czar. He has personally sent several of his people out to my house after he received a few of my emails. Some people are mighty sensitive…
Best wishes,
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I’ve known Michael (Mike) Stackpole, bestselling author of various science fiction books, since the early 80s. We don’t email per se, but we always chat at cons.
Other than that, Jacqueline Lichtenberg, author of the Sime~Gen novel series.
It’s been a few years now, but back in the 90s and early 2000s I would have also added Alan Parsons to the list.
Y’all wouldn’t believe me if I told you.
Awesome. I like Mark Bittman - he seems like the kinda guy you’d want to go have 6 beers with and shoot the shit. And it would be fine if he chef’d up a meal too.
Authors Dan Chaon and George R.R. Martin, as well as some local bigshot politicos.
My life isn’t all that interesting, so no one really FAMOUS.
One of my professors in grad school is very well-known in his field, and it wouldn’t be unusual for him to be quoted by a newspaper. He was on the NPR show Radiolab, which some of you may listen to, just a couple weeks ago, for example. But he isn’t famous to the general public.
I am distantly related (not by blood; my cousin is married to her brother) to a journalist who was one of the BBC’s main reporters in Iraq during the worst period of the war. I heard her reports on NPR regularly, and when I mentioned this in a thread a few years ago, another Doper said he’d seen her on the BBC news that evening. I don’t have her email offhand, but it would be easy for me to get it, and I’m sure she’d respond. But it would be a weird thing to do, and she’s not incredibly famous anyway.
Morgan Fairchild?
Regularly correspond with Ken Scholes, SF author and with syndicated cartoonist Leigh Rubin (“Rubes”) — today, as a matter of fact.
Also to my congressman, whom I’ve known since he was 10 years old. I used to work for his late father.
Thomas Bangalter.