You won't believe who the family and I met!

[JSUPreston]

Yanni!

As the old joke ends: "Dang, brother, I don't believe I'd said that!"

Forgot one other...my BIL. He plays for Papa Grows Funk and the New Orleans Nightcrawlers. Unless you are into funk and brass bands, you probably haven't heard of these groups...but they're really good sounding NOLA based bands.

[dkerfoot]

Forgot one other...my BIL.

I have to chip in one more time - My ex-Brother-in-Law was the Director of Power Tools for Ryobi back in the 90's.

[JSUPreston]

dk, did that relationship have its benefits? You know, a drill here, a tablesaw there?

[gsmittle]

I dunno....

My only celeb encounter was riding up in the same elevator with Stan Musial 40 some odd years ago at his restaurant in St. Louis. I imagine the majority of folks on here wouldn't even recognize the name.

There's several of us here who recognize "Stan the Man's" name....

I forgot in my previous post to mention that I met Harry Chapin once. It was back in the 70's so that's probably why I forgot...

g.

[davethegolfer]

Famous people I wish I hadn't met

While having met 3 past presidents, the funniest story I have about a well known person, not necessarily a celebrity, is about Dr. Edward Teller - so called father of the a-bomb. As president of a trade association we had invited him to speak to our group, which was not cheap. About two weeks before the dinner where he was to speak, we got a chance to add Pat Paulsen, the comedian who actually ran for president several times as a joke. Pat was offered fairly cheap and I decided to add him to the program. During the dinner I was informed that Dr. Teller would not come down from his room since he didn't want to be on a program with a *&^%$ comedian. Had to leave the head table, grab my attorney and go have a frank talk with him. He did give his talk, but was not very friendly about it. Paulsen was hilarious.

[dkerfoot]

dk, did that relationship have its benefits? You know, a drill here, a tablesaw there?

I got a cordless screwdriver and a hand-vac one year for Christmas, but oddly enough, the only real power tool that I got from him was an ancient and much abused Delta tablesaw that he owned prior to taking the job at Ryobi. I really had no experience with table saws at the time and that thing scared me to death. The height/angle wheels were broken off and adjusted by vice-grips, there was no guard of any type, the motor sparked and I was clueless in how to use it. I finally sold it at a garage sale.

I did buy a Mulchinator rechargeable mower for his cost. I love that mower but my oldest son prefered the gas mower so I haven't bothered replacing the battery. My daughter has primary lawn-care responsibility now, so I may think about doing so.

He is a great guy, but I have always lived at least 500 miles away from him and he and my sister divorced within 3 years of his having "made it" at Ryobi. So, I didn't have a chance to fully exploit the relationship.