Bacon

I haven't played in a movie, so i don't have a Bacon number. But in 1997, i was in the Mendelssohm Club, a chorus in Philadelphia. The Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra hired the chorus and also hired John de Lancie (you might know him as "Q" in Star Trek, among many other roles) as a narrator in a performance of Honegger’s King David. So, i performed on stage with John de Lancie. This is a fact which, i'm sure, he does not recall. There were over 80 of us in the chorus, and i never talked to him in any kind of one on one way. Well, i looked it up, and John has a Bacon number of 2. So, if my performance counts (no reason it should), then i have a Bacon number of 3.

I did have a curious concern. When i was a kid, i had all sorts of fantasies. Most of them were a bit stupid. And, almost all of them had come true. In fact, when some of the more outrageous fantasies actually happened, i started getting worried. One of the stupider fantasies had not yet happened. And it was sort of a recurring thing. I call it "Getting Stuck On An Elevator With A Celebrity". Since it recurred, i could sort of get an idea by what was meant by a celebrity. That's because it seemed to be a different celebrity each time. I avoided the elevator.

These days, i define celebrity as someone who has admirers that they've never met. And, since i volunteered, i now help produce a monthly TV show, Astronomy for Everyone. I'm in almost all the episodes. A few months after the show started, i was at Astronomy At The Beach, a really big public event that the Great Lakes Association of Astronomy Clubs sponsors. This is an organization that is made up of about eight area astronomy clubs. They bring somewhere between 70 and 100 telescopes to a park, and between 3,000 and 13,000 people show up over two nights. Anyway, at the event, one of my friends said that a member of the public admitted to knowing my name. It shouldn't have been a big surprise. My estimate is that about 10,000 people watch the show. I meet my definition of celebrity.

The really stupid bit about this "Getting Stuck On An Elevator With A Celebrity" fantasy is that it involves getting stuck on an elevator. At best, this is a nuisance. And now, i've actually gotten stuck on an elevator. It's not an at best experience. So, does this count? Or do i have to get stuck again, only with someone else? I take the stairs alot. If you think you might be a celebrity, try not to get on an elevator with me.