My parents' neighborhood has a ton of Sabres, Bills, and local media celebrities as residents, so seeing someone relatively famous in a local supermarket or restaurant is really no big deal.
I went to elementary school with a girl whose dad was Dave Thomas ... not of Wendy's fame, but rather the host of a popular morning kid's show in Buffalo, Rocketship 7. More recently, her brother was struck by fame. He's Dave Boreanez. Also, in that same elementary school, the PE teacher was the father of Kathy Gleason, a famous gymnast in the 1970s.
Another elementary school classmate was the son of #2 in the Buffalo "family," if you know what I mean. His dad was later jailed, convicted of racketeering charges.
Another "friend of" brush with fame ... one of my female friends in college has a gorgeous sister, who as famous in her own right for being a 97 Rock Angel. She married Mike Peca, of the Buffalo Sabres.
When I was 10, I shook hands with President Ford ... just a few days after he was defeated by Jimmy Carter in the 1976 presidential election.
In grad school, for about a month, I had a job as a driver with a hotel in downtown Buffalo. I gave Lenny Kravitz a lift, and I also met a guest who would later become quite infamous ... OJ Simpson!
I had a date with a local newsbabe shortly after I moved to Orlando. She answered my match.com ad! In Denver, I had dates with a few women who graduated from Columbine High School in the 1980s. An ex girlfriend is the voice talent for waaaay too many voice mail systems in Denver; she also did a lot of voiceover work for local radio and TV ads.
I often eat lunch late, to avoid the loud, Nextel-dragging lunchtime crowd. During one late lunch, I was alone in a nearby restaurant, when an older man and five dusturbingly hip boys walked in. They sat a couple of tables away from me, and were talking about performing with various pop musicians. It was the manufactured band O-Town.
Planning-wise ... I had a beer with Norm Krumholz once, and I unintentionally insulted Andres Duany to his face, after making the wrong choice of words when I met him after an APA conference appearance. Pretty much, every speaker that appeared after him was plauged by technical problems -- projectors going out, lights going out, feedback, that sort of thing. I went up to meet him after the presentation, intending to say something along the lines of "I really enjoyed what you had to say, and I think it's a sign that you weren't affected by the technical problems." What came out was "It seems that after you spoke, everything just went downhill!"
Finally, my senior year in high school ... I was famous! I was on It's Academic, a Buffalo-area high school quiz bowl-like show. My two teammates and I made it to the championship, where we were defeated by 40 points -- two difficult final round questions -- by West Seneca West. I had an hour and a half of air time on Channel 4.