You know what happened? We elided from Small World/Degrees of Separation connections to a feature David Letterman has (or used to) called Brushes With Greatness. How funny.
Okay, then: I got within a few feet of being taken into the Oval Office by a friend who was a speechwriter for Jimmy Carter. But although Carter was out of town, somebody was in the room so no luck.
I was across the street from Princess Diana as she exited a hotel in NYC. I could have crossed and gotten a close look but of course my self image wouldn't permit doing such a thing!
My husband (I think I've written about this on SI) used to think he was English and French, and descended from a great American, a founding father, one everyone knows, but found out (the sister in law again) that in fact he is descended from a German postmaster (possibly Jewish, not sure) who Anglicized his name. On his mother's side, instead of being French, it seems that his ancestors were Spanish (the pirates), and his grandfather's grandmother was either black, or black and Cherokee. That story is very interesting and dramatic, and there is a lot of documentation, including a few photographs.
I wonder how many people are living with an entirely mythological notion of their roots. |
