Who Is The Most Famous Person With Whom You’ve Spoken?
Mostly, people will ask you who you’ve met. But I want to know who is the most famous person with whom you’ve actually had a conversation?
For You – Who Is The Most Famous Person?
The concept of fame is odd to me.
Working in New York City for a while, I saw a number of celebrities there. Brook Shields, Jack Nicklaus. Years ago, I was visiting Greenwich Village and Rip Taylor tried to buy me a fur-lined coat. He was very drunk and had a small entourage of hangers-on. I declined.
I exchanged glances with Jill Biden in a restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware. It was shortly before Joe Biden had become president. I didn’t even know who she was. There was secret service in the restaurant and I asked the hostess who it was for.
I’ve met John Waters and even spoken with him for a little while. It was part of a speaking tour he was doing. If you paid extra, you could have a “meet and greet” with him. He was clearly over it by the time he made it to Philadelphia (or wherever it was we saw him).
Then of course there’s knitting celebrities. I’ve met and gotten to know Kaffe, Brandon, Franklin and Alasdair. Also, I’ve met and chatted with Debbie Bliss.
Musically, I haven’t met very many well-known people. Tom Goss and Namoli Brennet are the only two famous people I’ve ever gotten to speak with. Both are incredibly nice.
My Most Famous Person
But my favorite “famous person” by far, was Urvashi Vaid. Urvashi is a longtime LGBT rights activist, lawyer and writer. She was head of the National LGBTQ Task Force when I was newly active in the LGBTQ movement. I read her articles in The Advocate and I was smitten with her smarts, her enthusiasm and her activism. When I had the opportunity to meet her at a NJ LGBTQ activist meeting years ago, I couldn’t have been more thrilled. She was every bit as energizing as I had imagined.
I know it’s not Tom Hanks or RuPaul, but I was starstruck none the less.
How about you? Who’s your most famous person?
Current Knitting
I had two big cakes of mystery bouclé yarn that I thought would make a nice wrap. So I decided to do a simple Old Shale design with it.
I’m hopeful this garment will look fantastic once it’s off the needles. Also, I’m hopeful I’ll figure out what kind of fiber this is. Anyone recognize it?
We ate breakfast with Arlo Guthrie at the Ottawa Folk Festival about 20 years ago, he was lovely, especially to our (then) young son. My most topical encounter for this blog was one year a friend in Britain took me to a large craft festival, and as I approached one booth I was amazed that someone had the nerve to copy so many of Sasha Kagan’s designs. It *was* Sasha Kagan, and we shared a laugh about my indignation on her behalf!
How DARE she!…oh…never mind.
I hung out with Kathleen Turner about 10 years ago at a rather posh fund raiser for Planned Parenthood. We were both smokers in those days and enjoyed a drink and a smoke on the patio. I also made eye contact with Steve Martin while he was at the St. Louis airport filming Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I was flying out of the airport and he was getting made up for a scene. Our eyes met . .
I am a flight attendant on a corporate jet, we cater to celebrities and over the years have met who’s who.
Cannot honestly said that any of them impressed me. Most are very nice people who simply want to relax from point A to B.
In 1999 I met Danielle Mitterand, the wife of the fomer “president de la république” here in France. She was very famous and loved, as she was engaged in human rights, and way much honest than her husband, politically saying.
It was during a conference about the Local Exchange Trade Systems. No need to say that we were a bunch of left minded people, including some anarchists. Some of us were provocative enough. We knew that she was to come there and there was something strange, maybe another VIP coming too, because they were helicopters turning around the place (the meeting occured in a private property in the wooded place). All began as I saw her talking with a man under a debate barnum. They were alone and talked about society in a non private way. I asked if they don’t mind if I listen their very interesting exchange. They say “be welcome”. He was Paul Quilles the defense minister. it was incredible. She asked : Paul, did you read the documentation I sent you, about the LETS ? He said, hu, maybe. She answered : well, Paul, you’re kidding me, I know I’m just the François’s wife, and you don’t care about this thema, do you ? He couldn’t answer, and I was very embarrassed to be there. As people around us saw the scene, a lot of them went to sit with us, and then an unforgettable and very interesting debate began about the (dis)advantages of a complementary, non etatic monetary system. He listen to us eventually. Of course he didn’t care about LETS, but he heard about people who could carry out economically viable projects thanks to these groups.
After this she was with us for lunch, sitting in front of me at the same table, and we talked a long time together very simply. Her secretary said that she didn’t show her the big amount of death threats she got everyday, to avoid too much stress. During this day in the seminary, she refused soldiers or guards to protect her. Such a brave woman.
The year later, she sent flowers for my wedding : she didn’t forget the moment together. Then she asked for an article in the journal of her foundation France-Liberté. I was so honoured ! And a last time before she died, we met another time, then she split the crowd to greet, and still knew my name. Years later, I’m still very emotional about this remembrance.
Oh, may I add another comment ?
Last year, I attent a concert of Patti Smith here in France, in a small festival in the south west countryside. She smiled at anyone her eyes met, and so I had her stare and her smile. And she interrupted the concert to give out water for the children who were exhausted by the heat. I remember here, carrying bottles of water on the scene.
I waited this moment for 40 years, as she was my favorite female singer when I was 18. I was lucky enough to see and hear her, with the same deep energy and conviction of her soul as before, and I was so impressed.
Thank you Joe for allowing us to recall impressing memories !
Your bouclé and your shale are gorgeous.
I met and spent some time with Nobel Laureate chemist Linus Pauling. Sweet man, kind and unassuming. I was a young chemistry grad student charged with making sure he was taken to the right room and given any food or drink he needed before a symposium where I went to school. Lovely man, he kept telling me to just call him Linus which I finally did even though I really wanted to just call him Dr. Pauling out of respect.
Marie-Helene is so spot-on to recognize the beauty of Patti Smith. She has been incredibly kind to my sister, my daughter, and even to me over the years.
The “most” famous person I’d met (once) was Mother Theresa. She wasn’t yet a saint. I bumped into her in the parking lot of the O’Toole Building when I worked in the Village at St. Vincent’s Hospital. She seemed like a nice lady. Her friend, Dr. Panke, introduced us.
I did meet several famous people while working as a nurse but HIPAA prevents me from saying anything about them. I am happy to have provided good nursing care.
I count Pete and Toshi Seeger as good people- who have impacted so many. I miss them both… I knew them from volunteer work– over 40 years of volunteering at the Clearwater Great Hudson River Revival starting in 1978.
Oh Karen, it’s such an experience to meet such inspiring people as you did ! Happy that you could realise your vocation.
Lauren Bacall. We had a deeply serious conversation about tomatoes at aLong Island farm stand. That voice!!
I had just finished reading Epistemology of the Closet and was thinking how sad it was that I, a graduate student of music in Canada, would never be able to meet Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, the author and tenured English professor at Duke.
Fast forward a few years and we both arrived at the CUNY Grad Center in NYC in the same year, me to start working on my doctorate. I sheepishly knocked on her door at the beginning of the semester and asked her if she allowed people outside of her department to register for her classes.
She responded enthusiastically about permitting students from other programs and that is how I ended up in her Fall 1996 Queer Performativity seminar, where Quentin Crisp made a surprise appearance at our final presentations, invited because he was simply fabulous.
New York City was an exciting place to be.
I live in Wichita Kansas and have seen and spoken to Kirstie Alley several times. She is from here and still maintains a home here. I actually ran my cart into her legs at Joann’s Fabrics! She was very kind about it. I also had the great pleasure of having coffee and knitting with one of my knitting idols The Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl McPhee! She was fabulous and when I asked her to knit a row on my little niece’s sweater she happily obliged!
So, after I commented here, I really had to tell it on my blog, and ask what is really important when we meet a famous person : to be considered by a VIP, or to meet an emblematic people who help to built values for ourselves. Thank you Joe for inspiring this article !