It's a weird and silly game that you can use to make yourself seem important. I'm pretty anonymous, and I like it that way. But....
-as a child I met NYC Mayor Ed Koch twice, once on a school trip to City Hall, once when he was in my neighborhood on a meet and greet.
-I went to high school with a nephew of Alan Dershowitz.
-I went to high school with a cousin of Barry Goldwater. Same fellow is also a music producer, songwriter and musician, has founded a record label and produced several chart topping reggae albums.
-I went to high school with a writer for the New York Times (he's on the Arts beat)
-I went to high school with someone who is now a fashion designer with her own popular line (at least it was trendy at one point)
(all 4 were friends of friends)
-a friend from high school was a Manhattan ADA, only shortly after Eliot Spitzer worked in that office. He's now a profession musician, oddly enough.
-a friend in high school is now a newspaper sports reporter. (Newsday, last time I checked)
-one time I went to baseball game with that friend, we had lunch before the game that gave me food poisoning... on my way to the infirmary at the stadium, I met Ozzie Smith. Very nice man. Also very short.
-a friend in high school had some political ambitions, and was personally acquainted with several moderately connected local people, including Donna Shalala (who was at the time the president of the College that was the parent organization of my high school).
-through that friend, I wound up engaging in some CV-building exercises (to get into a better college) that led to me working for Al Gore's 1988 Presidential campaign. I met him at a campaign stop. (This was when he was branding himself as a defense hawk conservative Democrat. Shortly thereafter he realized which way the winds were blowing and reinvented himself as a hard-left environmentalist. Personally he's an anti-charismatic soul-less asshole, but he is good at reading the political wind.)
-my high school German teacher was a German emigre, and knew Manfred Rommel (yes, his son)
-a friend in high school's dad was friends with an eccentric (and starving) artist named Charles Mingus (yes, jazz legend Charles Mingus' son). I once got to go to his apartment and see some of the things he was working on. Very very clever and also very weird guy.
-another friend in high school later flew Marine attack helicopters in Iraq. He's got pictures with the Commandant, with Chuck Norris....
-yet another high school friend is a decently successful romance novelist
-I knew Ted T'So (Linux filesystem god) in college. Met him my first week there- he was running a juice and donuts concession on the top of a building where we weren't supposed to be. Wound up living in the same dorm, just down the hall from him. (He was never home.)
-in general, I had several friends who worked at the MIT Media Lab who knew Nicholas Negroponte. His own direct network of connections is frighteningly large, he's also the brother of John Negroponte (name should sound familiar).
-in the 90's, where I worked hosted a meet and greet on behalf of Red Hat Linux and Linux in general (early days for both, it was a shoestring affair). I met Linus, his wife, some important Red Hat guys (I think Bob Young was there) and some other big league geeks.
-I met Niven and Pournelle at an event at my college (after I left but I was still part of the general community).
-about 15 years ago I went out for a burger with some friends and Aria Giovanni (there was no mistaking it) was at the next table over. Did not admit to recognizing her, though she did flirt with us.
-I once worked with a guy who had previously been a hanger-on at Warhol's Factory.
-I once worked with a guy who had started his career (first as an intern and furniture mover, later as a junior programmer) at Bell Labs and knew Dennis Ritchie and some other early Unix and C gods.
There are more, but they're less interesting. So hey, I'm just a goofy nobody but this is a fun game.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby
If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
