A good reason not to vote

I ran into Shepherd Smith at the Liquor store in Oxford, Ms. When I asked him if I could get his autograph (on a brown paper bag) He asked me if I was going to throw darts at it. He was a bit gruff.

Lessee, I was probably fifteen (making this 1991), and it was a boring summer day in a suburb of Seattle. I was in this tiny, local CD shop, killing time by browsing for stuff I knew I wasn't going to be able to buy anytime soon, and in walk these couple of twentysomething guys, one *very* suntanned and wearing a white tank top. He went up to the girl at the cash register and asked in a very thick Southern accent, "Do ya have any Queen CDs?" She pointed him in the right direction, and he hung out in there for about ten minutes.

After he left, the girl started hyperventilating, saying, "That... was.. HARRY CONNICK JR!!!!!!" And thinking about it, sure enough, I realized it was, remembering that he was in town to do a concert at a nearby winery.

He didn't harass me about politics, though.

Richard

I sat next to Spiro Agnew on a commercial flight once. I was only 14; they bumped me to first class because they had ovesold the flight. He didn't say much, just drank several scotches. I wanted to ask him if he was a crook too, but since I already he knew he was, I thought to myself, why bother?

Eugene McCarthy was walking up the street in front of the Student Union at my college to give a speech during his 1976 campaign. He looks over at me, I nod at him, and he says to his entourage "looks like we got a real radical crowd here today." I don't know if the army surplus jacket I was wearing or the scruffy college sophomore's beard that I had prompted his remark.

Driving taxi, I met my share of people. The only political one I remember was some RNC official who talked about getting a letter from a little old lady feeling badly about how Chris Matthews or one of the other cable guys treated him. That would have been Milwaukee in '04. We had a lot of folks in and out that year on campaign business.

I also got to meet one of the beautiful CourtTV reporters. She was busy on her cell phone most of the time, but we talked about some of Wisconsin's Scandanavian heritage. She was here for the trial of the inner city minister that killed an autistic (I believe) child while attempting an 'exorcism.'

A good friend new the doorman at an ultra exclusive Sunset Blvd club (so exclusive that people didn't even bother getting in line at the velvet rope).

So I'm chillin' with my drink (on the house naturally) when a guy walks by and bumps my shoulder. The guy stops and says, "Oh, I'm sorry. Excuse me" and walked on.

My friend said, "Dude, that was Kid Rock!!"

"Kid Who?" I asked.

"Sheesh" was all my friend could say.

I once urinated next to Bill Ayers. No kidding. I attended a talk he gave on education when I lived in Chicago. We chatted in the bathroom and he talked about how he had once been on the run from the law. I was thinking, "Hmmmm, William Ayers, that name is familiar. Wasn't he some 60s nut?" I looked him up in the Horowitz and Collier "Destructive Generation" book and went, "Oh, THAT William Ayers." Felt like a dope.

Several years ago when I was a wet-behind-the-ears DC intern (and considered myself a movement conservative) I went to a Sean Hannity book signing at a Borders in DC. I stood in line, shook his hand, and while he was signing my book I told him that I enjoyed his show.

He looked up, handed me my book, and as I turned to step away, he said, "Have....."

He paused for a few moments....

"Have a great life."

"Thanks" I chuckled. A nice, but a bit odd, thing to say.

I also nearly ran into ex-NBA All-Star Tom Gugliotta at the Minnesota Zoo when I was a teenager. I mean literally ran into. My dad had to grab my arm as I was about to collide with the big fella. I saw him a few months ago at an outdoor bar in Newport, R.I. Very strange.

Hmm... if it really was the height of his fame...he must have looked like a hungover teenager not a college kid, LOL (seriously - I was in highschool when Titanic came out - and I NEVER understood the appeal of the boy because HE LOOKED 13!!!!)

Some thoughts on the "famous".

I grew up in a poor family. My parents were children of the Depression.

At one time, I felt there was a long distance between me and those successful people who, well, had it all - the cars, house, vacations, money, etc.

Then, life moved on. I got busy with my own life and what I wanted to do. Then one day, I woke up and discovered that indeed, the wife and I had "made it". Successful business, career, income well into 6 digits to the left of the decimal.

There really is nothing "elite" about the "elites".

It's just a mindset of those who allow themselves to be intimidated by those they have illusions about.

Too bad too few of those who have made a career of being liked by the public have ever learned to not look down on those they are so dependent upon.

My Army unit was sent to Kuwait two months after 9/11. There, on Christmas Day 2001, I stood in line to shake Drew Carey's hand. I knew he was a Marine reservist, so I wasn't surprised that he would visit us. I was surprised to see he had lost a lot of weight. (Later, I learned in August of that year, he had undergone an angioplasty.)

Oh, and Randy Travis, the country singer, lives in town. He was eating lunch in Panda Express one day when my wife and I were there.

Let's see. Oh, and Jim Lehrer was in first class on a flight I took a few years ago.

I met Tom Ridge and his security detail back when he was first appointed to homeland security; his wife worked with our company. We did a lot of work with community organizers, publishing, say, drug prevention materials for local coalitions implementing programs with federal grants.

I suppose concerts don't count; I haven't been to that many anyway. Wynton Marsalis might have been the smallest gig I saw, the Dead, Peter Gabriel and Van Hagar among the biggest. I saw Frank Langella as Dracula on Broadway in the 70's.

And as far as the only personal contacts that really matter to me, I've had the great blessing to meet many incredibly wise and humble Orthodox Christians, very well-known in their own circles, such as Fr. Tom Hopko, Fr. Peter Gillquist, Metropolitan Philip Saliba, Bishop Basil Essey, Abbot Jonah Paffhausen, Fr. Pat Reardon and others.

OK, that was different!

Doug

The governator: I escorted Arnold from his helicopter to the stage at commencement at the university I work at to receive an honorary degree.

Jodie Sweetin (Stephanie [the middle girl] on Full House): I was her degree advisor for a couple of years. My Grandma was so jealous. :)

Hugh Hewitt: I work in an adjacent building. I happen across him occasionally in the bathroom, cafeteria, or parking lot and we nod; been to a few small, intimate talks he's given on campus but never discussed politics in depth with him.

When I was younger and single, 21 years old actually, during the 2002 Winter Olympics I got a job working for a private company that basically put together travel, ticket and lodging packages for the sponsors of the Olympics and their friends and clients. And did all the work to make sure they got to their venues and seats, etc, basically, a full service, travel agent and hosting company for the Olympics, called Jet Set sports. It was my job to basically learn about the sports tell all of these executives and other people about them on their way to the event, get them to their seat, and then watch the event with them, and i got paid very well to do it. It was the easiest job I ever had, in a way, but with the great pay and perks, obviously. But I had to work 16-18 hour days,and had to work 24 days in a row, ( I ended up getting one day off.)

So one day I was very tired, and in the Grand America hotel in Salt Lake were we were stationed, and I was walking down the hall sort of out of it, and I see someone down the hall, and keep walking, as I near her. It was a big, wide, well-lit, almost foyer type carpeted area in the hallway. I look at her and notice, as I do, that she is looking at me, and I say hello or smile, nonchalantly and keep walking. As I do, I notice she seemed to, as I recall, look at me a little funny. About 15 seconds later as I get in the elevator, as I recall. I think something to the effect: Woah- Wait! that was Kathryn Zeta-Jones.

What was funny about this was it was just us two for about 30 seconds in the hall as we, walking in opposite directions, walked toward each other, and I was so tired, it didn't even dawn on my who she was. I think, honestly, the only reason I even ended up realizing it was her was because of the funny look she gave me, which seemed like she was expecting more of a reaction, not in a snobby way, just that she was suprised, because she was used to it, and was sort of expecting the usual.

Also, I think it was a few days later, that A very similar thing happened to me, with Colin Powell. The funny thing was this one was down in the hotel lobby, and he was surrounded by people, who i am sure were security, and I was trying to go through some doors, I think they were rotating doors, as well as standard doors, but a whole entourage of people were coming through them. Well, so being in a sort of servitude mode, beign an employee, I just figure, well, I'll wait, and as i do, I see Colin Powell, who, I again, being really tired and in another mindset, don't recognize. Well the problem, is I don't really care much about celebrities such as Catherine Zeta-Zones and other actors, and similar types, but people in politics, (if the right ones) are pretty much my heros, at least they used to be, and I used to pretty much idolize them, well, so they pass me, in the middle of the lobby, and it finally clicks "That's Colin Powell!" And other than him and his peoples, there weren't very many people in the lobby, so it wasn't me just seeing him in a crowd, where others were all around too. And so I am so excited I literally can't think straight, and I see him and his entourage start to get into the elevator on one side of the lobby, at this point and I am so not thinking straight, because I am so excited to see Colin Powell, that I start walking toward him briefly, in a sort of feverish, excited way, and we make eye contact, and at that point I realize, wait, he is surrounded by bogyguards, and I am way excited, and walking over their almost frantic, which if it weren't a statesmen or politician, I wouldn't at all do,and think to myself, "I don't think you are coming across, so well...as in a little, or A LOT, too excited, etc." and so having realized this, that I am either coming across like a suicide bomber, or someone who is an annoying fanboy, but honestly probably the first, I stop walking, and just turnaround.... Its kind of hard to explain more than that. It all happened so fast... but man, I wish I would have recognized him earlier, but also I wish I wouldn't have come across like a suicide bomber, walking hurriedly towards, the Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Anyway, so just thought I'd share those...

Three brushes come to mind:

1) In 1990, one of my former law professors invited me to hear Dr. Russell Kirk speak at a Federalist Society seminar. There was a reception for Dr. Kirk afterwards. I got very lucky; my professor called me over to meet Dr. Kirk personally. (As it happened, he and my former Property prof knew Dr. Kirk rather well.) I listened to their discussion (believe me, I know when I'm intellectually outclassed--I wasn't even anywhere near Dr. Kirk's league !) for about 20 minutes or so, and before he left, Dr. Kirk actually autographed my copy of his book "The Conservative Constitution".

I found out later that Dr. Kirk very rarely gave autographs. That book occupies a prominent place on one of my bookshelves.

2) During his 1992 Presidential campaign, Pat Buchanan came to East Syracuse for a press conference/photo op. Some local Republicans went to see the press conference. It was actually a fairly small one (about 20 of us); small enough so that the attendees not only got to see the press conference, but a group of us actually got to talk to Mr. Buchanan at a little length. His assistant set it up so that we each got a chance to speak to him for a few minutes.

When it was my turn, we talked about taxes and entitlements, and some "culture war" things. He struck me as being QUITE knowledgeable about matters fiscal, as well as rather a cordial person in person. When he got his syndicated radio show a few years later, I was able to get on the air with him several times. (He claimed to remember me, but I know he was simply being polite.) Once we had a good time giving the Rev. Barry Lynn (of Americans United for Separation of Church and State) the severe grief about a girl who tried to get into the Citadel. Fun !

3) Bill and Hillary Clinton once came to Syracuse for a meeting with their local Democratic moneyman Terry McAuliffe. As it happened, they arranged with local media to set up a photo line outside the courthouse.

I was in the law library down there when I saw the Secret Service pull up and start setting up the rope lines. Naturally, I went out to see what was happening and to get in on the fun. After all, one should not pass up a chance to see and possibly talk to a President, even if one thinks the man is personally loathsome.

We had to wait in between the ropes for quite a bit before the Clintons pulled up. They got out, and you could tell right away that Hillary, at least, was completely UNthrilled to be there. They started shaking people's hands, and when they got to me, well---I couldn't resist. I said "Hello, Mr. President. How's Monica ?"

I could swear I saw Hillary's ears turn just the tiniest bit red when she heard that. And she did, too--I saw her turn and look right at me, just for a second. And I remember getting something of a look from the Secret Service man behind her.

One sees the shot, one takes the shot---what can I say ?

Your servant,

Lord Karth

Oops. Forgot. That little hick college called Fresno State had a professor of English named Phillp Levine who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry. He was getting rid of a bunch of books from his office and was sticking them in a cardboard box in the hall outside his office. One of them was a collection of Robert Frost poems and I ask Levine if I could have the book. I still have it, with Levine's scribble and underlines in it.

Lillian Faderman was also my professor at Fresno State and she was nominated for the Pulitzer twice. I took her class in Gay and Lesbian History. She *stripped* in LA night clubs to pay her way through graduate school.

Levine's "What Work Is"

We stand in the rain in a long line
waiting at Ford Highland Park. For work.
You know what work is--if you're
old enough to read this you know what
work is, although you may not do it.
Forget you. This is about waiting,
shifting from one foot to another.
Feeling the light rain falling like mist
into your hair, blurring your vision
until you think you see your own brother
ahead of you, maybe ten places.
You rub your glasses with your fingers,
and of course it's someone else's brother,
narrower across the shoulders than
yours but with the same sad slouch, the grin
that does not hide the stubbornness,
the sad refusal to give in to
rain, to the hours wasted waiting,
to the knowledge that somewhere ahead
a man is waiting who will say, "No,
we're not hiring today," for any
reason he wants. You love your brother,
now suddenly you can hardly stand
the love flooding you for your brother,
who's not beside you or behind or
ahead because he's home trying to
sleep off a miserable night shift
at Cadillac so he can get up
before noon to study his German.
Works eight hours a night so he can sing
Wagner, the opera you hate most,
the worst music ever invented.
How long has it been since you told him
you loved him, held his wide shoulders,
opened your eyes wide and said those words,
and maybe kissed his cheek? You've never
done something so simple, so obvious,
not because you're too young or too dumb,
not because you're jealous or even mean
or incapable of crying in
the presence of another man, no,
just because you don't know what work is.

Because I've spent my whole life in Washington, D.C., I've seen people I've later recognized from the newspaper, but never thought much of it. Also, none of my stories are heartwarming.

I knew in a work-related context several Washington Post writers and editors, including some who went on to win Pulitzer Prizes. They weren't warm but were professional. I'll give a special mention to book critic Jonathan Yardley, though, as being very fair and decent, but I met him before he worked for the Post.

I was in line behind Bono at an ATM at one of the several banks at the intersection of 72nd Street and Broadway, NYC, in the mid-1980s. (I said nothing, and neither did he.) He had a gold Visa card from one of the big British banks, and he was having trouble using the ATM, but I wasn't familiar with that particular ATM myself.

I was a few feet from Jackson Browne at a private event in the late 1970s, but made no attempt to introduce myself. I listened to him talk to someone else; although somewhat distant, he was polite and well-spoken.

I sat across from John Kerry, traveling by himself, on a District subway train (northbound Red Line) one afternoon in the mid-1980s. Last year, while out for a walk in the early evening, I came upon Mr. and Mrs. Christopher Dodd in front of the Madison Hotel here, effusively bidding goodbye to several hotel staffers whom they treated as their dearest friends; the staffers did likewise. I saw a man I later recognized as Eliot Spitzer several times around Connecticut and L NW. Also early evening, late 2006, I was walking on K Street, NW, crossing in front of an underground parking garage. I've had a few closer calls, but I wasn't pleased about having to dodge an older, white-haired, very well-dressed and very arrogant man driving an equally immaculate black sportscar. I didn't know who he was until he hit a homeless pedestrian earlier this year: Robert Novak.

Salad bar at DC Superior Court. I reach for the tongs for the broccoli. A tall man reaches for the tongs quickly and grabs them before I do. Ralph Nader really, really wanted some broccoli right then.

When I was in college, I interned on John Ashcroft's 1994 campaign for the US Senate. I mostly did typical intern stuff, but toward the end of the campaign, I actually got to accompany Ashcroft and a senior staffer to a fundraiser across the state in Kansas City.

On the way there, it was just me and Ashcroft facing each other in the back of this six-seater plane and the staffer and pilot up front. He could have just ignored me (who was I to him?) but he asked me all sorts of questions, told me stories about his wife and kids, etc. Years later, my aunt and uncle visited him at his office in DC, and he actually remembered that I had interned for him.

He was (and hopefully still is) a good & decent man.

I met someone almost everyone on this board has seen, but no one on this board has heard of.

I worked in the guy's yard as a teenager. He had a ton of prize day lilies, which I, being a teenager, thought was kind of an effeminate hobby. He told me a thousand stories about life in the 40s, 50s, and 60s and talked a ton o' politics. But he never told me that he was in the secret surface. He also never told me that he was assigned to protect Johnson when Kennedy was shot. Everyone's likely seen him - he's standing behind Johnson in the famous picture of Johnson being sworn in on the plane on Air Force One. His name was Rufus Youngblood.

Almost no one will care, but I wanted to mention it because he was such a kind, generous guy. A leader in my church and clearly, a humble, brave man. Here's a quote from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/JFKyoungblood.htm about him...

"As soon as Youngblood heard the first shot he immediately turned and pulled the vice president below window level, then climbed over the seat and covered his body with his own. Youngblood received the Treasury Department's Exceptional Service Award for "outstanding courage and voluntary risk of personal safety" for his action under fire.

In 1964 Lyndon B. Johnson remarked "My life is in the hands of Georgia and it is 24 hours a day under the direction of Rufus Youngblood, and no greater or more noble son has this state ever produced, and no braver or more courageous man." The following year Youngblood was promoted to assistant director of the Secret Service. In 1968 he became deputy director."

pax,

Tap

In 1992, Al Gore came to my college as part of the presidential campaign. He gave a speech, and a number of my friends and I went to protest with pro-life signs. A while after the speech was over, Gore and his wife was walking to their cars, and there was only a rope barrier between him and the (by now, very small) crowd. My girlfriend (later wife) walked up to the line, stood there, and held up a poster of an aborted baby and said, "You can't censor this, Tipper" (remember, Tipper was a big opponent of foul music back then). Al and Tipper walked right by her (naturally), but then a big male student walked over to my girlfriend and pushed her to the ground. Al Gore stopped, walked back a few steps, and then went out of his way to shake the hand of the wannabe "bouncer". He was quite the woman's rights activist.

Me, being the chivalrous boyfriend, said and did nothing to the large student.

Nicolas Cage in the early 1990s at a movie theater in DC. I was in a line for concessions at the Janus Theatre above Dupont Circle. (Gone, but not missed.) We were there to see Bad Lieutenant, the Abel Ferrara-Harvey Keitel project. Two men came in; one joined us in the concession line, the other dashed forward to enter the theater with his head low. I had a flash of recognition, but then thought, no, couldn't be. But when we entered the theater, there he was, hunched down in a seat to avoid notice. I later figured out he was in town filming Guarding Tess, the movie where Cage is a secret service agent guarding a former First Lady, played by Shirley MacLaine.

Obviously, I didn't get a chance to talk politics with him.

Last weekend I was in New York visiting my daughter, and decided to go to the Carlyle Hotel for a drink in Bemelman's Bar. There was piano music and no cover charge, unlike the Cafe Carlyle across the foyer. Lo and behold, I ran into and chatted briefly with Elaine Stritch, my favorite musical theater star of "yesteryear" who guest -stars on 30 Rock occasionally. My other encounter with musical greats was making change for a $20 bill for Liza Minelli in the baggage claim area at the Houston airport. She had just arrived on the same flight with my daughter. Silly as it sounds, it was kind of exciting.

I sold a handmade recurve hunting bow to Ted Nugent about 10 years ago at a hunting show near Chicago. He seemed very nice. I don't know if this was touching greatness, but he is a good shot.

BRUSH with Greatness: Stuck in a revolving door with Tony Bennett in NYC at Bergdorf-Goodman when my sandal fell off jamming the door for 20-30 minutes. Tony's words to me were hardly best described as lyrical.
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MEANWHILE If Dreher knew how to be a betrothed lothario, here is what he would have posted:
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"After the DiCaprio brush, my face-to-face with greatness waned until the night I first beheld the luminous ethereal vapor... masquerading as an earthly being... the angel-of-goddess affirmation: Julie (Dreher). A spiritual tsunami sweeping the residue of my sinful lust far ashore while depositing a debris field of unbridled euphoric blissful heaven-on-earth catatonia. After this destiny collided with lost-cause reason, DiCaprio sightings became relegated to the ranks of cable guy losers."

Circa 1985, I met the actress Lori Singer (Footloose), whom I asked for an autograph. Unfortunately, I thought she was Darryl Hannah, so it got awkward.

I also met Mankind, the pro wrestler (formerly "Cactus Jack"), in the Atlanta airport. I recognized him because he was the size of a Hummer H-1 stood on end, and because he was wearing a t-shirt with a picture of himself. The t-shirt helpfully said "MANKIND" above his photo.

I also crank-called Ed Meese in 1987, when he was Attorney General. He was very nice, and I felt bad for disturbing him at home.

I've also seen Rod Dreher in the NY subway.

When in college back in the 80's i worked the front desk at a Harley, (think Leona Helmsley) Hotel in the the cleveland suburbs. celebs and politicians would stay there when in town to perform/lecture at the Front Row Theater. I met lots of famous people, but my favorite, believe it or not, was Joan Rivers. She just was genuinely charming while checking in and probably made 50 to 60 jokes in the span of about 8 minutes, mostly at the expense of Leona Helmsley. BB King, as you might suspect, is an awesome guy to meet...Andy Williams, not so much.