Famous People I've Touched

This week's topic is on famous people I've touched. It turns out there aren't that many.

I touched Steve Martin when I was in college and he was doing a stand up routine and playing the banjo. He was hilarious. Toward the end of the show he wandered through the audience and came down my row.

I touched Steve Prefontaine when I got his autograph. I also had a conversation with him. That is if me asking, "Steve, can I have your autograph?" and him grunting, counts as a conversation. Speaking of conversations, Frank Shorter, Olympic Marathon gold medalist once asked me, "What place did you come in?" and I answered him. Another fairly short conversation.

These don't count as "touches", but I've almost touched two presidents - Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford. In both cases they were walking down a line of people, shaking hands. All I would have had to do is reach over some people, lunged a little, and thrust my hand at them and I might have gotten a handshake. But in each case I worried how their secret service agents were going to interpret that move, so I chickened out each time.

Initially I thought this would be a cool blog entry, but I don't have much in this category. One of my goals in 2012 will be to touch a famous person.