Brushes With Celebrity – Now With Envelope-Opening UPDATE

Greetings, my fellow port swillers!

Ol’ Robbo’s father had a weakness for what became known in the family as “seein’ da stars”.  Any time he was near anyone who could claim any level of celebrity status, he would begin to act like a groupie, sometimes to the extent of requiring restraint.  I don’t know why, that’s just the way the Old Gentleman was.

So I thought of him and smiled when I came across this little meme reposted by Mixolydian Don:

“List 5 famous people you’ve either met or have been within a few feet of, but ONE is a lie. Then let your friends guess which one they think is a lie.”

Shall we play?

1.  Margaret Thatcher
2. Antonin Scalia
3. John Cougar Mellencamp
4. Tom Wolfe
5. Aaron Copeland

Have at it!  (Answer revealed tomorrow.)

UPDATE:  Thank you all for playing, either in the comments or in your heads.  Here are the results:

Margaret Thatcher – TRUE – When Ol’ Robbo interned in Parliament during her tenure, he snagged tickets for Prime Minister’s Question Time on a couple occasions.  It was a thing of beauty.  I wouldn’t count that, however.  Instead, I actually crossed paths with the Iron Lady in the hallway at Westminster one day.  We made eye contact and she smiled quietly to herself.  She was a good sheila, Bruce, and not a’tall stuck up!

Antonin Scalia – TRUE – We attended the same Mass for some years.  He usually had something to say to the Padre afterward about some point in the readings or the homily and I sometimes hung around with a small knot of people to listen in.  I also once saw him in the grocery store in a Hawaiian shirt, khaki shorts and Berkenstocks chatting amiably with a shelf-stocker. That was….interesting.  (BTW, seeing him on a weekly basis, I also saw his declining health, especially toward the end.  Which is why I dance with impatience every time the smothered-with-a-pillow meme bubbles up.)

John Cougar Mellencamp – FALSE – But I didn’t just pick him at random.  I was working as a bag boy at a golf club one summah when word came down that JCM was in the neighborhood and had called in for a tee time.  There was much excitement and running about in the clubhouse and the cart shed to put our best foot forward.  Fellah never showed up, nor, I understand, did he bother to cancel his reservation.  There was much disgruntlement.

Tom Wolfe – TRUE – My law school commencement speaker.  We shook hands but that was about it.

Aaron Copeland – TRUE – This would have been in the mid-70’s.  He was in town on a guest-conductor gig and my parents, as members of the local symphony society, hosted a reception at our house.  Fortunately, they didn’t try to make me play the piano for him or anything.  Instead, it was basically “Shake hands. Now scoot.”  He was pretty grumpy and reserved.  FWIW, I’ve never much cared for his musick and consider him to be a Johnny One-Note, but not because of that.

So there you have it.  Those who guessed correctly are invited to pick up their winnings at the window.