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Very cool. I shook Howard Dean's hand last year when he came out to launch the campaign of my local congressman but I'd love to meet the Big Dog himself.
I gave Al Gore the feely handshake in '93, after a campaign speech at the Indiana state fairgrounds. The Grand Ol' Democratic party sent Gore to Indy since the loss of the state was a foregone conclusion. He spoke, we crowded the stage, and in an effort to get him to look me in the damn eye (which Al wasn't doing with any of the other shake-ees), when it was my turn, I rubbed my middle finger back and forth on the palm of his hand and gave him my best leer. He jumped as if goosed, handshakes were over, and the Secret Service pushed me, surrounded him, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Later, on our way home, his motorcade forced us off the road, contributing to global warming, the invention of the internet, and my mistrust of even benevolent government.
Yea, I feel like "presidents you've met" is one of those things you tell your children (that they promptly forget; I think my Dad met... JFK? But I can't remember, lol).
And as for KIVA, it's been nothing but a blast. And the site is growing by leaps and bounds. I was talking to the KIVA founder at the event- he said that more people have joined the site in the past 2 months than joined in all of 2006. And now that the Clinton book is coming out and talks a lot about KIVA... it is going to go through the roof!
Bono kissed my cheek once. And I've seen photos of him kissing the Dalai Lama's cheek with the same lips he kissed my cheek with. Because I'm assuming he only has one pair. So, you know what that means. The Dalai Lama & I are totally best friends now.
I've never shaken hands or kissed anybody truly famous. Handsome Dick Manitoba, Dave Marsh, Jason Newstead and Tom Perrotta just aren't household names, unless youlive in a very strange household. And none of them tried to grab my ass.
Didn't you shake Rachel Ray's hand? She was there, by the way; I thought of you. She looked slightly different than she looks in pictures. Maybe she dyed her hair; it seemed darker. And she was teeny, though not as teeny as Madeline Albright.
I don't remember, I just sort of stood there and gibbered. She did seem impressed that Jason Newstead had signed my jacket, even though I misidentified him as James Hetfield, that's how flustered I got.
Wow, TPS! My great-aunt wrote about her encounter with Calvin Coolidge in her memoir. She was an actress on tour in DC and literally bumped into him; she let him know that her birthday was also July 4 and was thrilled to share it with him and the US (she had been born in NY, the family went back to Ukraine, but came back to the states when the revolution broke out; her being a citizen made this easier) apparently she charmed him so much he invited her to dinner.
Does Kiva have ways one can donate anonymously? I'd feel more comfortable doing it that way--and apparently it's the highest level of tzedakah (setting one up with their own business anonymously). What I was told in religious school is that the word doesn't quite translate as charity.
photo by splunge
photo by TheophileEscargot
photo by Kronos_to_Earth
photo by ethylene
