<p>Thought I’d bring this thread over here from the heavier “overpackaged kids” thread as per
My secretary started the above-titled contest years ago in our office. My candidates: In 1984, when the dollar was soaring, spent a few days at Hotel Du Cap in Cap d’Antibes. Also staying there are at the same time [ul][<em>]Bill Cosby, who appears to never turn it off. Parked himself in the lobby using all of us passersby as straight men (liked my safari hat). At breakfast, walked from table to table peddling eggs he “couldn’t finish and didn’t want to waste” etc. [</em>]Johnny Carson, polar opposite. Sat in closed off areas of the dining room with his sweetheart of the time so as not to be approached by anyone.[/ul]</p>
<p>i have met the singer of the band atari’s, i do web design for a member of the phillies, and am good friends with the brother in law of a guy on the met’s. that’s about it for me.</p>
<p>I was playing music in a hotel many years ago when Perry Ellis (the late designer) bought me a drink. After he complained about constantly being misquoted by the press, I asked him what he did for a living; he seemed a bit offended by the question. “I’m designer. I’m actually quite BIG.”</p>
<p>Another story from playing in the same hotel: the governor of Ohio was passing through, and the hotel management asked me to play some Ohio songs. The only “Ohio” song I really knew was Neil Young’s “Four Dead in Ohio,” but I had a feeling that might not go over so well. Instead, I did “Governor Rhodes, Take me Home,” to the tune of “Country Roads, Take me Home.”</p>
<p>I later confirmed that Governor Rhodes was, in fact, the guy who called in the National Guard at Kent State.</p>
<p>I was on a long, late flight from Dallas to Las Vegas to attend a business meeting and I was sitting next to BB King! He was SO nice.<br>
My really exciting one (for those of you older folks who are basketball fans) was having Bill Walton sit down with me in the coffee shop of a Denver hotel (also a business trip for me). I was speechless and in awe. He was huge, brilliant and strange.<br>
A young, obnoxious Lance Armstrong swam with me on a master’s swim team. He improved with age.
Not yet governor of Texas, George Bush, was a regular noon runner at the gym I belong to. The secret service (since Bush Sr. was president) were not-so-secret. A guy on my swim team got one of them talking about his benefits and someone could have kidnapped George while the guy was talking.</p>
<p>hey greybeard, this is sort of related to what you said. During the summer before freshman year, we were assigned this book to read, and when we got to college we had this big luncheon/discussion of the book. students sat in groups of 7 in the cafeteria and there was one faculty member at each table to lead the discussion. the person in charge of my group was the president of the college. this one girl in my group said, So, what department do you teach in (not realizing who he was) and he was just like, well, uh, actually i’m the president of the college… but i used to teach english. She looked so embarassed!</p>
<p>That reminds me of a three-way conversation I had in college, in which a friend of mine recommended to a professor that he read a book that the professor had in fact written.</p>
<p>I’ll take the Monday Night Football category:</p>
<p>I once paid my bill at a Chinese restaurant right after John Madden, and my brother once stood right next to Al Michaels. (I won’t say where they were standing, but it was reported to me that each of them was staring a few inches ahead at the wall.)</p>
<p>When I was in college, a friend and I attended a Jerry Jeff Walker concert. (as in “Up Against the Wall, Redneck Mother”, anyone remember???)Afterwards, he walked up to my car and asked for a ride to the airport! We were speechless. He climbed in. We drove him.</p>
<p>Musical notes: I wrote concert reviews one summer for the Phila Bulletin (now defunct), covering the concerts the music editor deemed unimportant. Got to see Jackson Browne and Wynton Marsalis when they were small and unknown.</p>
<p>Real claim to fame (hey, it impresses high school students, notoriously unimpressed) is having been in the audience when a young Don McLean, as first show for Laura Nyro at St. Joe’s prep (on the basketball court), pulled a sheet of yellow paper from his pocket, and said “I wrote this song today and I want to test it on an audience.” We made him sing it twice, and Laura Nyro actually had to start late. Yep, American Pie.</p>
<p>Even more memorable: at a resort hotel in Hawaii, I was sitting in the hot tub with my then-5 and then-6 year old children, when Harrison Ford got in. Mind you, I have had a crush on Harrison Ford since his appearance as John Falfa in American Graffitti. What did I do? I left. I wasn’t going to talk to Harrison Ford when I was wearing a black one-piece “I’m a mother now” bathing suit!</p>
<p>Robert Redford used to run on a bike path near my house.
When you watch stuff like “Entertainment Tonight”,you always see people making a fuss for celebrities when the celebrities are in public. I never saw anybody ever acknowledge Robert Redford.</p>
<p>A friend of mine literally ran into Andre Agassi at a supermarket. He was very nice.
My son ran into Agassi at a Giants game and started talking to him like he knew him.
Again, Agassi was very nice.</p>
<p>Joe DiMaggio gave a clinic at a baseball park. I was too shy to go up to him.
I ran into Willie Mays at a golf course. He was my hero growing up. Again, too shy to talk to him.</p>
<p>That happened to my H in a restaurant in NYC, with him and Geraldo Riveira lined up facing the wall!! Geraldo said “Hey there”, to H, and H got all paranoid, thought it was a move!</p>
<p>I got to go in to the Player’s Lounge at the SAP Open today (big tennis tournament). I was in a room with probably half of the top 50 tennis players…pretty cool</p>
<p>That reminds me of the time a friend of mine played a casual game of tennis with a freshman at Stanford, and told the kid, “Hey, you’re pretty good, you might even make the team here,” not knowing that the “kid” had made it to the semifinals at Wimbledon a few weeks before. (It was John McEnroe.)</p>
<p>That’s a great story greybeard!<br>
This is kinda different…but Condi Rice wrote an autograph to me on a picture of hers. I am supposedly planned to meet her soon, but the date is not known yet.</p>
<p>my daughter shook hands with Bill Clinton and John McCain at a CityYear event.
I have met Alan Arkin <swoon>
and I have dated( not HOOKED UP WITH !) Ann Wilson ( Of Heart) exboyfriend ( his brother was also in Heart but I will not mention his name as I don’t want to give him any publicity cause he was a snob) </swoon></p>
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<p>I don’t blame you. I live in mortal fear that the thrill of my life will come true and Eddie Vedder will walk into the co-op grocery store near a bandmates recording studio and I will have my mom clothes on. ( Like what else would I have on?)
Oh to have the chutzpah of Chrissy Hynde!
The most embarrasing meeting of a celeb is when we were standing outside the Kingdome ( Seattle Mariners)with my younger daughters mitt for a player to sign, most of the players went out another way, but Jamie Moyer came over and took hold of her mitt to sign, she grabbed it away from him and wouldn’t let him touch it because he wasn’t Randy Johnson the only player she really recognized ( besides Griffey)
Oh so embarrased.:eek:
I did get my picture taken with Dan Wilson and Detlef Schrempf at a charity event ( baseball and basketball)
Oh yeah Lenny Wilkens used to live by my house when we were growing up while his “real” house was being built. ( basketball)</p>
<p>Years ago, I was standing in front of the elevator at a hotel in Tokyo, waiting for it to open. Out walked John Lennon and Yoko Ono. We said hello, exchanged phone numbers, and have remained bestfriends since…kidding aside, I didn’t say a word, ignored them, and just walked into the lift. Why didn’t I at least say hello!</p>
<p>I shared an elevator with Billy Gibbons of ZZTop once (there was a radio station in the building where I worked). He chatted a bit -was quite friendly. I would have asked for his autograph, but the only paper I had with me was tax forms, and I really didn’t think he’d want to sign on those!</p>
( baseball and basketball)