Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Have You Met Anyone Famous? Who?

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A black squiggly autograph

The Internet says this is supposed to be an autograph.

I’ve never met anyone who is universally famous like Beyoncé or President Obama, so my answer to this question depends on your definition of the term fame and which social circles we may or may not have in common. Here are a few people who are famous in some subcultures that I’ve been in the same room with.

Curtis Hinds

Those of you who have followed my site for a while might remember that I was a preacher’s kid growing up. Curtis was (and still is) well known as a travelling pastor and speaker in certain Protestant circles. I knew him as a family friend who would occasionally come to visit us in the Midwestern portion of the United States or take us out to dinner when we travelled up to Ontario.

He was (and I’m sure still is) a friendly man who always had amusing new stories to share about his travels.

 

Robert J. Sawyer

Robert is one of Canada’s most famous science fiction authors. I’ve blogged about several of his books here like “Calculating God” and the Neanderthal Parallax Trilogy in previous posts.

He sometimes pops up at various literary events and festivals in Toronto. I’ve met him once so far. He was a kind and welcoming man to everyone around him that day, so do say hello if you also enjoy his work and see him around at a bookish event someday.

 

Devon Soltendieck

This one might take a little bit of explaining. Much Music is a tv channel that is like Canada’s version of MTV. Devon was a Much Music host in the 2000s. In the mid-2000s, I was riding the subway when I saw someone who looked really familiar to me. I couldn’t stop staring at him as I tried to figure out why he was so familiar.

“Okay, so how are we related?” I silently asked myself. I had occasionally run into distant cousins and other relatives whom I recognized but whose names did not immediately come to mind when I lived in the United States. Due to this, I assumed it was another case of me seeing a third cousin or something and needing some time to realize we shared recent ancestors.

It was only after I’d arrived back home and turned on the TV that I realized I’d probably seen a famous person instead.

He was facing away from me on the subway, so I hope he didn’t notice me staring at him. I would have politely ignored him if I realized we didn’t actually need to play the “how are we related” game after all. Ha!

 

Person photographing her white dog. That is the sum total of my celebrity experiences. I tend to avoid celebrity culture and take an alternate route if I see paparazzi clogging up a sidewalk here in Toronto, but I hope everyone who is into that sort of stuff has plenty of opportunities to rub elbows with celebrities if they so desire to.

I’m ending this post with a stock photo of someone photographing her dog because the thought of domesticated animals being famous makes me giggle. (Although there are some famous furry friends out there, too).

 

19 Comments

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19 Responses to Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge: Have You Met Anyone Famous? Who?

  1. I bet everyone else on the subway was looking at him and having then “is it him, well looks like him. But I’m not sure “ conversation.

    Closest I’ve come to any celeb is a handshake and hello with the actor Anthony Hopkins.

  2. Those are pretty cool. I’d probably have better answers if I attended cons, but… it’s been years.

  3. They were famous to you and those around you, that counts.

  4. James Schoch

    Sports star Ralph Sampson who I beat out for starting basketball position in Jr High. He went on to make millions playing in the NBA. Baseball pitcher Chad Billingsley grew up across the street and we chatted about that one day at spring training when he pitched for the LA Dodgers. I’d say Spencer Burke was/is still a star in the church world who has traveled the globe as well as a couple other well known friends like Richard Rhors and N.T Wright and others back in my church days. Ex governor Jan Brewer here in Phoenix as well as local Phoenix mayors the past few years.

  5. James Schoch

    PS just remembered Brittney Griner lived in our apartment building in Phoenix and we rode in the elevator a few times and I got seats in the vip section at a Diamondbacks baseball game and met their ceo Derrick Hall that day as he was near us along with Randy Johnson who helped them win the World Series back in the day.

  6. James Schoch

    Brittney is currently being held in a Russian jail and has Bertín the news for the past few months. She’s a WMBA star.

  7. Famous is famous! I don’t think I could top your list or be even close.

  8. Famous is definitely contextual. Enjoyed the post.

  9. True, famous can vary between people. Good post.

  10. Okay this is such a fun question! And I agree, it very much depends on your definition of famous! I have met most of The 100 cast, and quite a few of them are also known for other shows as well, so… maybe some of those guys count? And I have met a bunch of authors, so I also imagine that a few of them count- especially those who have gone on to have popular movies/shows, like Leigh Bardugo and Nicola Yoon. Glad you got to meet some people too!

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