So how are you not famous

[Jim Owen]

My dad was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction back in the late 60s. He didn’t get, but to be nominated was still a big deal. Me, I can barely write a grocery list. So much for genetics.

I was cleaning out a drawer of random office stuff and found this picture of him sitting with Robert Frost. My dad’s the one with the tie.

[RP]

Very cool.........

[Daniel Grenier]

I was interviewed on TV once for a photography show I had at a large art gallery... OK, not much in the “fame” department but I have 3 distant cousins who are ‘somewhat’ famous. That’s:

• Angelina Jolie
• Madonna
• Celine Dion

No, not kidding...All cousins from 6 to 8 generations back in Quebec, mind you, but still...(But none are actually related to each other, as far as I know).

[Murphy Slaw]

I don't like pop music.

If pop means popular that explains it.

I grew up in the underground radio world and to be popular meant you "sold out" and went pop.

To be cool, you had to stick to your music and thoughts and the heck with the man, the label and being popular.

To that case, I'm a total success.

[Slothead56]

Hmmmm....

• I met Joe Biden many years ago waiting in line for the Ferris Wheel at the Jersey Shore. Nice guy, still had his original face.
• Met golfer Curtis Strange at a wedding last year. Also nice guy.
• Also many years ago I met Michael Jordan on the practice green at Pinehurst #7. He signed my card.
• When I was in college I opened for George Thorogood and the Delaware Destroyers....kind of. He was the headliner and I had a 30 minute set earlier in the afternoon at an all day festival on campus.
• I met tennis great Rod Laver in Providence RI. We got off the plane together. I was there on business and he was headed to the Tennis Hall of Fame for a ceremony. Walked with him to baggage claim. Very gracious.
• Last, and likely least, in one day at an industry Trade Show, I met Maria Sharapova, Lebanon Levi from the Amish Mafia, shared a limo ride with the 2012/2016 Gold medal winning US Women’s Water Polo team AND had my picture taken with Buddy Guy.

And all these things together won’t get me a small coffee at Fourbucks!

[Bob Womack]

It was a choice. Back in the '70s one of my bands had an offer from a label and decided against it by vote, 5-1. I was the one vote FOR. It was the best vote I ever lost. That left me figuring out what my next step was going to be and with time to consider my options. As I looked around the popular music scene I saw zero musicians whom I followed whom had been able to have success and keep a marriage together. I wanted a good marriage above fame, fortune, and the bull hockey that goes with it. I fell in love with a great gal and chose to pursue recording engineering. Et voile'. I have now lived twenty feet from stardom for thirty-nine years... and am glad of it.

Bob

[RP]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

...I fell in love with a great gal and chose to pursue recording engineering. Et voile'. I have now lived twenty feet from stardom for thirty-nine years... and am glad of it.

Bob

That's sweet. Is your birthday coming up???

[robj144]

My advisor's father was FDR's doctor at the time of his death.

My colleague's advisor was John Wheeler who coined the term black hole.

When I was in high school, I waited on Vinny Paz (champion boxer who had a movie made about him) and James Woods' mother all the time as a concessionist at a movie theater.

My friend tutored Lamar Odom.

Debra Messing's father was at my Bar Mitzvah.

[RP]

• I made coffee for Dave Mathews, Sissy Spacek, John Grisham, Tim Reid and Oliver North (at different times) when I worked at the Charlottesville Barnes & Noble.

• I played tennis with former Philadelphia Eagles receiver Tommy Mc Donald

• Mary Chapin Carpenter lives down the road from me.

• Stood in line behind then Governor now Senator Tim Kaine at a Richmond movie theater.

• Rode a snowmobile with the late artist Andrew Wyeth at his farm in Chadds Ford, PA

• Chubby Checker almost bought a car from my father after his brother came out to our home and checked it out.

• Waited on Oliver North at Lowes - he didn't remember me from Barnes & Noble.

• Waited on Bruce Hornsby's brother at Lowes.

• Met this guy my last semester in college who vowed to marry a wealthy woman. I later heard he went to England and married the daughter of author James Clavel. After divorcing Ms. Clavel, he returned to the States and married Mariel Hemingway.

• One of the infamous "Boiler Room Girls" lived several houses from me while growing up. Identified as "Cricket" in the movie about Chappaquiddick, she is thought to have been the front seat passenger in Ted Kennedy's car when it went into the water.

• When I was a high school sophomore, I would sometimes see Todd Rundgren sitting and knitting in the cafeteria before school

• In addition to Rundgren, Jim Croce and Tina Fey also went to my high school.

• Spoke to Jack Casady before a Hot Tuna Concert in a Charlottesville ice cream shop.

• Got front row seats to see Gordon Lightfoot several years ago. When he returned across the stage right in front of me after intermission, I stuck my hand up toward him, and he shook it.

• Several years ago I went to see Tom Paxton perform and at intermission was introduced to and conversed with his late wife Midge for 20 minutes. Nice lady.

• My parents used to take annual trips to California and milk loose associations with certain entertainers like Rowan & Martin (Laugh-In), Don Adams (Get Smart), Danny Thomas (Make Room for Danny) and Director Richard Wharf (Wagon Train, My Three Sons, Beverley Hillbillies). I think I met Rowan & Martin once.

• Attended William & Mary at the same time as Glenn Close and saw her in school productions. At the time she was married to local musician Cabot Wade and her name then was Glennie Wade.

• My first Special Education teaching job was in Staunton, VA. Students were severely handicapped and some parents came in at lunch time to help feed students. One of the regular parent helpers was Wilma Balsley, wife of Statler Brother Phil Balsley.

• While working in a maximum security prison for women, I sat across the desk from numerous convicted murderers.

• When I worked at Lowes, one of my supervisors was subsequently convicted for murdering his wife.https://www.dailyprogress.com/news/a...44d8dc20b.html

• My brother and sister-in-law are part of a regular Sunday breakfast group with among others Robin & Linda Williams https://www.robinandlinda.com frequent performers on the Prairie Home Companion.

[kentwinterton]

One of my best friends is Jimmie Vaughn's brother-in-law. Robin, Jimmie's wife-is his sister.

[spock]

Fun thread.

My uncle was the back-up quarterback to Roger Staubach in high school.

As a 6 year old I played catch with NY Yankee Bobby Richardson in my back yard but didn't know who it was until my father told me.

I once had to hit a 175 yard second shot over water to a small green when Jack Nicklaus and Tom Weiskopf told my group to play through.

[reeve21]

I spent a lot of time caddying as a kid, and met a lot of pro athletes, politicians, captains of industry, etc.

I've done professional work for a few celebrities, but that is mostly dealing with "their people."

I have a brother who is single and likes to travel alone on vacation. One day he is hanging out at the beach, strikes up a conversation with a guy. Guy invites him to a party that night. Members of a famous band are there. Turns out the guy has a business supplying guitars to this band and others, and is part of their posse (and an accomplished musician himself). My brother is an easygoing guy, and lots of fun at a party. He gets taken into the inner circle. Sees them all a few times a year, goes backstage at concerts, hangs out afterwards, etc. At one point they talked about making him "recreation director"-- whatever the heck that means.

This particular band is not my cup of tea, or I would be very jealous!

[DCCougar]

Originally Posted by robj144

...My colleague's advisor was John Wheeler...

Wow! He was major! Wheeler's graduate students included Richard Feynman, Kip Thorne, Jacob Bekenstein, Charles Misner, Max Tegmark, Hugh Everett....

[FrankHudson]

In my humble (and envious) opinion, Silly Moustache owns this thread-- and he hasn't even posted yet.

I worked for a broadcasting network for a good number of years, and so I've run into a number of cultural notables. It sounds like humble-brag, but probably too many to mention, and in general the ethos is to remain invisible. I even worked with one or two to the point they knew me, so I should be famous right? Nope, that's not how it works.

Some of the ones that I remember best aren't the most generally famous. I'll give you one example. I'm working on getting some computer stuff setup in one of the network's small studios early one morning. I'm doing this in about a foot or two space between the host and Greg Brown just before they go on air. Greg Brown!* I was keeping my cool, and after all I had work to complete and they were going live on air. The host asked Greg about his guitar (one of the WWII era Gibsons I believe) and all of sudden by inner guitar geek broke out and I started to interject into the conversation. You know the way you do (and bore your family or casual friends). I quickly recognized the bad manners of my reflex and clamed up.

Before that I worked in hospitals for a couple of decades. The last one I worked at treated a lot of pro athletes because it was where the leading sports orthopedic group in town practiced. About 1 or 2 AM one morning in the early '80s one of the Ortho docs came into my ER and asked if I could lead them a incision and drainage pack from our surgical supplies. Sure.

Turns out they'd been contacted by the staff of the big sports center where the Rolling Stones had just played (sports being the connection) asking if someone could come over and lance a carbuncle on Mick Jagger butt. Whenever I see pictures from that tour with Mick wearing vinyl trousers I think, yup, some serious chaffing and breathability issues there! When the doc returned the used kit we joked about auctioning it off for charity rather than sending it back to CSR for cleaning a sterilization.



*Greg Brown is a seriously under-recognized singer-songwriter with a level of personal charisma in his smokey voice to weigh up to about one Tom Waits plus one Bob Dylan.

[H165]

Talk about almost famous....I'll leave this to your imagination because it is three degrees separated from me. A seldom-seen and fun picture