[oil sands/celebrities] Travelogues in 6 Degrees of Separation
Everyone on Earth is six degrees of separation from everyone else; six handshakes apart. We are all friends of friends of friends of friends … you get the idea.
Thinking about this about six years ago, I decided that I would try to get within one degree of Sandra Bullock and Anna Nicole Smith. So to do so, I have to meet someone who knows one star or the other.
It’s actually a great side project to have. You’re at a conference having lunch with a bunch of people where everything you know about them is written on their name-tag; or at a break in a business meeting and you’ve already exhausted all of the professional small talk and you have to sip your coffee and decide either to move-on to some other person, or, delve into something more personal than, “how long have you been with the department?”
“So, who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?” I ask. The respondent wrinkles their brow and looks up at the ceiling.
“Well, I’d have to say X. Why do you ask?”
“I’m trying to get within one degree of Sandra Bullock and Anna Nicole Smith. But it’s neat to know that I’m one degree separated from X.”
For a long time, I was two degrees separated from Sandra Bullock. In the movie “Speed”, the Japanese bus passenger, the woman that tips off Dennis Hopper to the fact that he’s watching a video clip because her purse appears and disappears; that’s my mother’s cousin, Midori Ohama. Me to my mom is zero degrees of separation; through to Midori is one, through to Sandra is two.
Then in 2002, I was riding in a Ford Explorer with some brass from TrueNorth Energy, en-route from the Fort McMurray airport to the Nomad Inn, and I asked vice-president, Darcy Levesque, if he’s ever met Anna Nicole Smith. Anna Nicole was well into her lawsuit against her “step-children” for a share of her late, aged husband’s fortune, J. Howard Marshall.
Most of Marshall’s $800 million plus estate was shares in Koch Industries out of Wichita, Kansas, and success would give her a measure of control over it, and its wholly owned subsidiary, TrueNorth Energy. TrueNorth was applying to dig a massive, open-pit tar sands mine in north-eastern Alberta. Among other things, the mine would excavate an irreplaceable fen-type wetland. I’d e-mailed Anna Nicole about the matter, requesting some form of statement that might be used to help protect the fen.
I had recalled an episode of the Anna Nicole Show where she and her lawyer buddy, Howard Stern, were riding in a limosine en-route to a gala. Somehow the subject of Palestinian suicide bombers came up.
“Wouldn’t that, like, hurt?” Anna asked.
“I think you should make a statement,” Howard suggests. “I think you should come out against Israel.”
“I’m not saying anything about that!” Anna replies, “Nope. I’m not saying anything.”
So, I didn’t expect, and didn’t get, a reply. But I think it’s neat to tell people I e-mailed Anna Nicole Smith as part of my job.
“No, I haven’t met her,” Darcy replies as the Explorer rumbles down the highway into the Athabasca River valley towards downtown Fort McMurray. “I’ve met the Koch lawyers who have met her. They’re not too keen about possibly having her on their board of directors. Why do you ask?”
“I’m trying to get within one degree of separation to her,” I say. “Her and Sandra Bullock.”
“I’ve met Sandra Bullock,” Darcy offers.
“Really?”
“One of my friends is a model in New York and I was visiting her one time. She was showing me around and we went to this restaurant in Greenwich Village where Sandra happened to be. My friend knew her and asked if I'd like to meet her. Sandra’s a really nice person, really down-to-earth.”
So, me to Darcy Levesque to Sandra Bullock - one degree of separation. Haven’t gotten any closer to Anna Nicole, though.
- - - - -
Here’s my Travelogue in 6 Degrees Challenge, kind of like a LiveJournal Amazing Race:
Starting with the LiveJournal ‘random journal’ button, or by otherwise locating a LiveJournal of someone you don’t know(maybe by reading the Posted This Minute Page?), explore the site until you can write a 250-500 word story about what you got out of it in your own LiveJournal.
Then follow their ‘friends’ link to map and scout out whose LiveJournal you’ll go to next. Explore that site until you can write another 250-500 words about that person.
Repeat six times, until you find someone that you’ve actually met, thus proving that we are all friends of friends of friends, proving the six degrees theory. Or arrive at a seventh strangers’ site and lose.
I only have two hobbies, writing and shooting dice.
Thinking about this about six years ago, I decided that I would try to get within one degree of Sandra Bullock and Anna Nicole Smith. So to do so, I have to meet someone who knows one star or the other.
It’s actually a great side project to have. You’re at a conference having lunch with a bunch of people where everything you know about them is written on their name-tag; or at a break in a business meeting and you’ve already exhausted all of the professional small talk and you have to sip your coffee and decide either to move-on to some other person, or, delve into something more personal than, “how long have you been with the department?”
“So, who is the most famous person you’ve ever met?” I ask. The respondent wrinkles their brow and looks up at the ceiling.
“Well, I’d have to say X. Why do you ask?”
“I’m trying to get within one degree of Sandra Bullock and Anna Nicole Smith. But it’s neat to know that I’m one degree separated from X.”
For a long time, I was two degrees separated from Sandra Bullock. In the movie “Speed”, the Japanese bus passenger, the woman that tips off Dennis Hopper to the fact that he’s watching a video clip because her purse appears and disappears; that’s my mother’s cousin, Midori Ohama. Me to my mom is zero degrees of separation; through to Midori is one, through to Sandra is two.
Then in 2002, I was riding in a Ford Explorer with some brass from TrueNorth Energy, en-route from the Fort McMurray airport to the Nomad Inn, and I asked vice-president, Darcy Levesque, if he’s ever met Anna Nicole Smith. Anna Nicole was well into her lawsuit against her “step-children” for a share of her late, aged husband’s fortune, J. Howard Marshall.
Most of Marshall’s $800 million plus estate was shares in Koch Industries out of Wichita, Kansas, and success would give her a measure of control over it, and its wholly owned subsidiary, TrueNorth Energy. TrueNorth was applying to dig a massive, open-pit tar sands mine in north-eastern Alberta. Among other things, the mine would excavate an irreplaceable fen-type wetland. I’d e-mailed Anna Nicole about the matter, requesting some form of statement that might be used to help protect the fen.
I had recalled an episode of the Anna Nicole Show where she and her lawyer buddy, Howard Stern, were riding in a limosine en-route to a gala. Somehow the subject of Palestinian suicide bombers came up.
“Wouldn’t that, like, hurt?” Anna asked.
“I think you should make a statement,” Howard suggests. “I think you should come out against Israel.”
“I’m not saying anything about that!” Anna replies, “Nope. I’m not saying anything.”
So, I didn’t expect, and didn’t get, a reply. But I think it’s neat to tell people I e-mailed Anna Nicole Smith as part of my job.
“No, I haven’t met her,” Darcy replies as the Explorer rumbles down the highway into the Athabasca River valley towards downtown Fort McMurray. “I’ve met the Koch lawyers who have met her. They’re not too keen about possibly having her on their board of directors. Why do you ask?”
“I’m trying to get within one degree of separation to her,” I say. “Her and Sandra Bullock.”
“I’ve met Sandra Bullock,” Darcy offers.
“Really?”
“One of my friends is a model in New York and I was visiting her one time. She was showing me around and we went to this restaurant in Greenwich Village where Sandra happened to be. My friend knew her and asked if I'd like to meet her. Sandra’s a really nice person, really down-to-earth.”
So, me to Darcy Levesque to Sandra Bullock - one degree of separation. Haven’t gotten any closer to Anna Nicole, though.
- - - - -
Here’s my Travelogue in 6 Degrees Challenge, kind of like a LiveJournal Amazing Race:
Starting with the LiveJournal ‘random journal’ button, or by otherwise locating a LiveJournal of someone you don’t know(maybe by reading the Posted This Minute Page?), explore the site until you can write a 250-500 word story about what you got out of it in your own LiveJournal.
Then follow their ‘friends’ link to map and scout out whose LiveJournal you’ll go to next. Explore that site until you can write another 250-500 words about that person.
Repeat six times, until you find someone that you’ve actually met, thus proving that we are all friends of friends of friends, proving the six degrees theory. Or arrive at a seventh strangers’ site and lose.
I only have two hobbies, writing and shooting dice.