Zero Degrees of Separation

The local paper ran a story today about hometown "hero" Zora Andrich, had made it to the next round by becoming one of Joe Millionaire's final two. Realizing how close I actually lived to such (near) greatness, I started reminiscing about the number of times I had actually stood in the warming glow of greatness.

1. Sugar Ray Leonard entertained a group of about 10 employees in the office of a store during a grand opening appearance. Wonderfully witty, warm and very relaxed and for some reason he felt the need for some exercise. Suitable equipment being handy, he proceeded to jump rope at an amazing speed. The rope was actually whistling through the air. He didn't even break a sweat and spent about two hours on the store floor signing autographs.

2. Mary Lou Retton arrived in the company helicopter (which her management insisted upon) that landed on the outer edges of the parking lot (another grand opening). She sprinted (with her entourage) into the store, whisked through the assemble multitude and made a bee line back the chopper. We gave her a 1.2 for style.

3. Larry Bird made an appearance at our annual managerâs meeting. We put him up in a suite at the hotel and had a chance to spend an hour or so with him prior to his speech. This is a BIG man. Standing next to him makes you wonder what a REALLY big NBA player is like. He seemed a bit uncomfortable, but was gracious and at times funny. Someone asked him why, after dropping out of Indiana, he went to work on the back of a garbage truck. His response: "I had to do something."

4. My favorite was about 20 years ago in the lobby of the Opryland hotel. While in the elevator, I was assuming the obligatory foot staring position and wasnât really watching when the doors opened. I ended up bumping into (literally) James Brown. He was wearing a floor-length fur coat and for a moment I thought I was being mugged by a bear. No big deal, we both apologized and went on our respective ways. Later I realized James had missed a golden opportunity for one of his signature "get back!" lines.
   

Update: 2-13-03 Do I feel just a gullible as the remaining two? Yer darned right I do. I tuned in to see the final episode and got a re-run/re-hash/retrospective of the previous shows.

Update: 2-18-03
The local paper reported yesterday that Zora had moved. Perhaps she took that $500,000 and moved down the road to Frenchtown., NJ. Hmmm.