Post your interesting/funny brushes with fame here

[robin3mj]

Does performing genetic analysis of famous dead athletes count? I mean, you can't get closer to someone than having their DNA in your freezer right? Will claim HIPPA as Lou did and not name names.

How about hanging with the chairman of the Nobel Assembly in Stockholm. I keep lobbying for a prize and he keeps telling me to try harder (kid).

-Mark

Do you have Ted Williams's head?

[Mr B]

Was in this fancy Noo Yawk sporting apparel store and some dapper chap recommended I buy me a $250 wrestling suit, so I obliged.
Few weeks later I look on a website called Manual Fer Speedos and it turns out the guy that rung me up's like toadly Innernet Famous!
#influencer

[Mabouya]

it turns out the guy that rung me up's like toadly Innernet Famous!

These days, who isn't?

[chasea]

Was in this fancy Noo Yawk sporting apparel store and some dapper chap recommended I buy me a $250 wrestling suit, so I obliged.
Few weeks later I look on a website called Manual Fer Speedos and it turns out the guy that rung me up's like toadly Innernet Famous!
#influencer

Oh, that asshole.

[ericpmoss]

Nothing great, but better than nothing...

NYC 1995: Ran into Patti Smith. Literally, About knocked her over at a little place called le Deux Gamin. She is teeny, very shy, and needs to bathe more often. And watch where I'm going.

NYC 1996: At a Thai place with friends from a recording studio. I said, "Hey, that's David Byrne. I should try for an autograph." The recording studio friend says, "That's not him -- he's much taller than that. You'll make a fool of yourself." So, I didn't go over. After he left, the friend said, "Oh, wait. I thought you said David Brenner."

NYC 1997: 5 feet from Christy Turlington. She was waiting with her chaperone near the front door of the bldg. where I worked. Her chaperone got between me and her like I was a leper, actually spreading her arms like a protective mother hen. Have to say, I understand why they called her a supermodel. Mind-numbingly stunning.

Chicago 2000: Maynard Ferguson. I went to his show, and afterward headed to my favorite Indian place, where I ran into his lead sax player -- turned out we had attended the same Maynard show while at University in 1983. Maynard showed up -- turns out it was his favorite place, too. Got introduced, where I asked him to autograph a CD. He noticed it was a bootleg. Oops. Good sport.

... long dry spell ...

Portland 2009: rode elevator with John Cleese. Man he's tall. Forgot to ask if he was an archaeologist. Turns out he drinks coffee rather than tea. I decided not to bother him for an autograph or parrot sketch. After some awkward silence, he says, "What's with your lifts' control panels over here? You need someone from NASA to run one." I offered to apply science.

[Mabouya]

We need more Christie Brinkley / Christy Turlington stories.

All you NE Pats fans, I'd think you'd have at least one or two "Gisele stopping to help you fix a flat" stories.

[Mark Walberg]

My mother once found herself standing next to Salvador Dali in an elevator in New York.
It was a surreal experience!

[Mark Kelly]

Years back when I was at uni my then wife and I worked as nanny /au pair for someone who was / is a TV personality here. The baby daughter has grown up and followed in her mother's footsteps, she's now a presenter on a TV show here. When I see her on screen I say to myself "I changed your nappies".

[NYCfixie]

I felt very lucky to grow up in Manhattan but that meant bumping into famous people all the time and honestly nobody cared. This was all before TMZ and the paparazzi made it important.

- Mickey (and other various Yankees) at his restaurant - Mickey Mantle's on Central Park South.
- Almost every celebrity and their kids at FAO Schwarz toy store before the holidays.
- Emilio Estevez and a few other brat packers downtown. They were walking, we were in a Jaguar XJ6 and felt so superior.
- Ricky Schroder was in the third row at the Duran Duran concert at Madison Square Garden. We were in the first. circa 1984 or 85

- Jay Z at his office on lower 5th avenue (I worked at an Ad agency in the building after college). We talked in the elevator for a few minutes and he said come up and check us out sometime

The best had to be in Florida. At the opening of Epcot, Michael Jackson was there because they had a Michael Jackson themed room. I have a picture taken standing with him and he had his arm around my shoulder. I should have sued when I had the chance. I could have retired by now.

[ldamelio]

Another cycling one I forgot - Greg Lemond did a benefit ride here in central NJ in 2000 as a fundraiser for the Bicycling Hall of Fame which at the time was in Somerville. Friendly and genuine and listened intently as he was regaled with story after story of cat IV greatness. Spent a few minutes at the head of the group riding with each rider and was friendly and open at autograph session after.

[deano]

When I was probably a freshman in high school I ran into "the Gas Man" from Dumb and Dumber at John Wayne Airport. I approached him and told him I was a great admirer of his work. I could look his name up on the Internet, given that I only know him as the Gas Man, but that'd spoil the fun.

I was with my mother and we saw Ralph Lauren. She wanted to approach and tell him how much she likes the stuff his company imports. I walked right up and said I trespassed on his ranch in Colorado once and wasn't sorry about it. I was riding up Lizard Head Pass and got caught in a heavy thunderstorm, lightning striking all around. So I took shelter in a thicket on his property until a car came by.

Only just last night, I went to LDOC, which is Duke's party for 'Last Day of Classes'. My grad school buds and I go to cavort with each other and watch the undergrads debauch themselves. T-Pain and Jeremih were the headliners, tons of people around going crazy to second-rate Top 40. All around us was a goodly portion of the basketball team - Jahlil Okafor, Justise Winslow, Grayson Allen, etc. Towering 11 feet tall, swarms of girls all around, all the troubles common to first round picks. T-Pain brought them on stage. Strikingly similar to my own college experience.

[Tom]

When I was a kid Charles Bronson almost ran me over. He was a next door neighbor part time (as in his house was a mile or so from mine with no intervening houses) and it was winter and we had an ice storm so the sledding was awesome. I was following the snowmobile trails with a Flexible Flyer and coming down one field if you took the stonewall just right it was like a bobsled run except I didn't and sailed out into the road. I look up to see a car skidding to a halt - on a road you have to understand has maybe one car a day go through. It's Bronson, clearly mentally dialing his lawyers. I get up and grin sheepishly and wave "Sorry." He starts laughing and returns my wave and heads on home.

[TTX1]

When I was a kid Charles Bronson almost ran me over. He was a next door neighbor part time (as in his house was a mile or so from mine with no intervening houses) and it was winter and we had an ice storm so the sledding was awesome.

Norwich? My Aunt lived there and we'd see him occassionally at Dan & Whit's, etc.

[Tom]

West Windsor and Hartland. Town line went through his kitchen.

[nortonnels]

I worked the Portland NAHBS booth with Dario P. This was at the tail end of his illness and he was starting to sneak a cigarette here and there. We noticed he had the look of a homeless guy with a baseball cap pulled over his face and a heavy jacket. One of the guys with us told him as long as he looked homeless he should hold his hand out and ask for spare change. It became a running joke with us. This was the year Robin Williams came to NAHBS and we all went out to dinner. Robin seemed to be a really down to earth guy and fun to talk to, then he'd go off on one of his rants. We had told him about having Dario beg for spare change so he took that and ran with it. I'd love to have a recording of that now. He said he was a famous frame builder who needed spare change to buy materials to make forks. That segued into loosing all his money because they were cocaine forks. Then his monologue ended as quickly as it began and we (and the rest of the restaurant) went back to normal conversation. After dinner, the rest of the Gita folks were headed in one direction and I needed to head to the airport to return to Charlotte. Robin kindly agreed to have his chauffeur drop me off as they were heading to his private plane. We had a great discussion on the way about Dario's paint work and how his frames ride. Once we dropped Robin off and I got to the airport I had a couple of hours to kill. Walking through the airport I heard someone call me from a bar. Ended up having beers with Peter Weigle, Don Ferris and a few others from NAHBS. My other great story if from the Barber Vintage Motorcycle Festival a few years ago. I spend probably half an hour talking to an older gentleman talking about a friend of his who was there with a couple of beautiful Nortons. He had ridden Daytona back when the race started on the beach. A few weeks later, I saw an article online that mentioned Knobby Clark was at Barber. That was who I'd been speaking with. Knobby is easily the most famous motorcycle mechanic ever and I had not idea who I was talking to.

Nelson

[BShow]

Several years ago I was picking up a sandwich at a shop in Woodbury, NJ... great sandwiches, but for the life of me I can't remember the name of the place. Anyway, in walks El Wingador. The thing that caught my eye were his massive, Kmart quality shoes. I bet they were every bit of size 20. I worked in a specialty shoe store at the time... its what I noticed on everyone. Anyway, the guy was picking up his lunch: two, two foot subs and a family size bag of chips. he made it clear that the food was just for him. Disgusting. A quick google turns up a seven year sentence for cocaine distribution from his Kia. Wow... That's two winners that I've encountered.

[steve garro]

IMG_4079.JPG

I worked the Portland NAHBS booth with Dario P.
Nelson

Dude is pure class.

I owe him a trout fishing trip.

- Garro.

[zetroc]

I forgot this one - around 2002 I bought a '56 VW Beetle from Bruce Roehrs. He was moving out of SF and to Berkeley and wasn't going to have room for it. He told me a bunch of stories while I waited for the tow truck about buying it from hippies in Arizona who used to drive it around the desert. The floor pans have a bunch of dents from hitting boulders and they had drilled holes in the rear quarters so they could strap jerry cans of gas to the sides. Later he used to tie his skis to the roof with rope and drive up to Tahoe, then he parked it for 20 years and got pretty seriously into motorcycles. He died a few years ago, too young, and 13 years later it's still in my garage and still has his Ramones sticker on it. He may not have been a rock star himself but he was a very cool guy.

[TMB]

Many more years ago than I care to remember I ended up in an odd situation where a very well known guitarist from a chart topping (for many years) band became a client. There were a group of people trying to enlist him to invest in a project so that they could play off his name.

He figured out pretty quickly that I wasn't in favour of the deal and was running interference between him and the leeches.

We became friends of a sort from that and I have been to his home many times, know his wife and some of the kids and even some of the grandkids. He tried to teach me to play guitar (it didn't work).

I have met a lot of interesting and well known people through him

I still get a handwritten card every year on my birthday and used to get invites whenever he was playing in town. He doesn't tour much anymore though.

I guess people like that aren't used to meeting people that aren't looking for something.

Nice guy, like him a lot.


I now live in a place where a lot of current and former pro athletes own homes and I know many of the hockey players, both current and retired.

A bunch of the current guys go the same gym I do, and we frequently get together for BIG breakfasts and coffee after the gym.

The guy that just won the Art Ross plays poker at the neighbour's every Tuesday and shows up for the neighbourhood beer and BBQ sessions.

Surprisingly a number of the hockey players ride a lot. They are great to ride with on the flats, if the wind is blowing, and they make me look like a climber .... What's not to like?


A number of former pro cyclists around as well.

[mnoble485]

image-2934515518.jpg

My sister is leading a more interesting life than I am. She sent me this over the weekend. I'm not sure the statute of limitations has run out on my "brushes " with the rich and famous. Let me check with my lawyer.

Mike