I met Hillary Clinton a few years back when she was keynote speaker at an event that was honoring one of my students for his participation in the Stock Market Game. My student’s speech was so funny it brought down the house and had Hillary rolling too. I was struck by her eyes as we spoke. I knew they were blue, but the color was so beautifully deep, you got lost in them, and she was very nice. My principal refused to get up to meet her because she saw herself as a Republican first rather than my student’s principal. I also met Wm. Buckley who was very kind in person. He had a great laugh and smile, but most of all I loved his wink. Dustin Hoffman and I both shared my doctor’s waiting room. That’s also where I met Barbara Cook and we shared medical stories.

I met the members of ELO (Electric Light Orchestra) at a party in Tampa after their concert. My neighbor was in charge of the concert hall & had invited me. They were typical crazy rockers of the time. My dad was a Maryland State Trooper in 1961 and stopped a speeding car on Route 1 to issue a ticket. Turns out it was John F. Kennedy & his brother Bobby in the car. He still gave them a ticket that I’m sure was eventually invalidated! My mother was born here & raised in Germany. While living in Munich in 1941 or 42, her mother sent the six kids outside to play with the neighbors children. Their neighbor was the Minister of Bavaria, that day Hitler pulled up & they met him. Little did he know that by day they belonged to the party and at night they helped the Jews escape in the underground railroad!

My financial planning company specialized in managing money for creative talent in the film and music industry, so most of our clientele were famous. The man who encouraged me to start my business was Irish director Tay Garnett, who directed “The Postman Always Rings Twice” and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” He was the best raconteur I’ve ever known, had a wicked Irish humor and was a dear, dear friend.

Like many here, I am astonished when contemplating this question to realize how very many I have met: especially political and/or military figures. And the most amazing, the one that gives me goose bumps now, I was almost totally oblivious to at the time! Well, I was about 12 years old. Can’t be sure; think it was 1941 or 1942. My aunt was president of the Junior League of Washington, D.C. that year, and they were sponsoring a horse show for charity. My twin-first-cousin and I accompanied my aunt to the event, which included a lot of fete-type booths selling stuff. We were just running around in our navy shorts and striped tops, when my aunt called us over. She seemed a tiny bit cross, which was frustration. The guest of honor, who was it sit in a box with her and other officials of the day, was just arriving way too early. We were assigned to walk her around to see all the booths, etc., while my aunt could finish getting all in readiness. I could weep, looking back! She was the single most charismatic person I have ever met, and I have met a number of our presidents! She wore a hat, and a longish dress made of a sort of lavendar/blue/pink/greyish chiffon or lawn; something like that. She wore a brooch. She immediately acted as though we were the most fascinating creatures she had ever encouintered; and so it was that we skipped happily down the paths with her and excitedly told our new friend all about us: our ages, what grade we were in, where we went to school, what we were readking, our favorite colors, and what we wanted to be when we grew up. We thought we had made a great hit and she would remember us forever and ever. We did not ask a single question of her. We elicited no quotes to remember! My cousin died in 1994, but right up to her death we told each other what idiots we were as children and how this lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had been the best of them all!

I forgot to add this to my post, my old neighbor and friend of forty years, Doug Howes, told me that his brother George & his wife Sherry met our own Liz Smith! Since George raises & shows doxies I’m assuming they met through a mutual love of dogs somehow.

Speaking of famous persons: Since I don’t know where to put this post, I’ll put it here: I sat down with the local paper while I had my lunch, and was distressed to read that this Sunday will be the final episode of “For Better or Worse”….”on Sunday, …story line will end, and creator Lynn Johnston will start at the beginning of the strip, which began in 1979. She will redraw some of the original strips about the Patterson family….She’s calling these comics “new-runs”. About half of the first year’s worth of strips will bee newly drawn and re-drawn and written. …the strip(meaning the last episode) has been dominated during the past year by daughter Elizabeth’s wedding and Grandpa’s diminishing health.” Well, that’s going to be the end of a daily habit I’ve had for all these years. I’ll miss it. And, I would hope that someday, wow does a segment on Lynn Johnston. Last autumn, I had the occasion to share a dinner table with Ted Turner, when I was at his daughter’s farm over in the next county. Nice fellow.