1 I have you both beat. I sat behind Charleton Heston at a performance of Nicholas Nickleby back in the early '80s. Ha!

2 I rode around in a car with Arlo Guthrie one night and got stoned with him back in the early seventies. I saw Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin - live. I talked to Jim Morrison in a bar in Miami for a few minutes. I shook hands with John F. Kennedy when I was 8 years old. So there!

3 "I talked to Jim Morrison in a bar in Miami for a few minutes." Get the fuck out! Are you serious? You MUST spill details, even if they were mundane. Was it around the time he was charged for inciting a riot? Seeing Hendrix & Joplin live is almost as cool. Seeing Zeppelin live would trump it all. Oh wait, yeah, must stay on topic....ummm, uhh, the Dutch have F-16s in Afghanistan? Uhh, I thought they were a liberal country! They couldn't possibly be helping out in the GWOT! (yes, that will do)

4 Morrison was in town to appear in court for his indecent exposure charge. He was hard to talk to. Let's just say he was a bit "strange". Arlo Guthrie was a lot more fun.

5 Oh, and you're right about the Dutch. They're "neutral" unless they can make a few bucks.

6 I have you all beat, when I was 8, I walked a mile in a parade right beside no other than H.R. Puffinstuff. Ok, maybe I don't have you beat.

7 Dude! HR Puffinstuff? Awesome!

8 I'm not old and crusty enough to have chilled with Morrison, though I'd trade that shit for all the people I've met...sort of just a result of being in NYC: Woody Harrelson, Alicia Silverstone, Natalie Portman and George Bush (senior). Plus a ton of NYC supermodels with no talent that have no business even being named here...

9 Crusty? Crusty? You little snot! ;-)

10 I've met a few notables, mostly Army guys, and most people wouldn't know them, but I can say I have stood face to face, and even shared beers with, some of the greatest honest-to-God heroes of our century. I met one old Special Forces Sergeant Major at Fort Bragg at the SF club, and the stories he had to tell from his almost 40 years in the Army were nothing less than astounding. He had truly been everywhere, seen everything, met everyone, and killed them. With his bare hands. Okay, I exaggerated that last part. He used a C-ration spoon on some. Oh, and I met Norman Schwarzkopf once too. That was pretty cool.

11 I forgot, my unit was once inspected by Dick Chenney when I was station in Okinawa. But H.R. Puffinstuff was more of a thrill for me.

12 I also saw, but didn't meet, John Quiñones from ABC news once in Atlanta. It wasn't thrilling, just a surpirse. We were having lunch in a trendy Italian place in Alpharetta and I looked around to find the restroom, and there was John coming out. I guess I looked stunned, and all I could say was "hey!" (this to my wife, though I wasn't looking at her), and he must have been used to that sort of thing, (ya think?), because he just looked at me, winked and grinned, and said "hey, how's it goin'?" and continued to his table. Next to ours. We hadn't ordered yet and I've always been wary of trendy restaurants, but I figured if he was eating there the food must be decent. The only thing about the whole meeting that really impressed me was the fact that he's a big guy, and he looked like he worked out, which is a definite contrast to most wimpy news guys you see.