Monday, 11/18

I'm still not totally comfortable with it, but at least I now understand it.

Since we last spoke I've had a couple of encounters with people that have stuck in my mind. The first occurred when a plumber came to fix a leaky bathroom sink. Loraine showed him in and he got to working. I thought of something he should know, and walked into out bathroom to tell him. That's when he stopped working, looked at me, and said--

“I didn't know I was going to have a celebrity sighting today!”

And that followed an encounter at last Friday's “High School Bowl” shoot, where the parents of one of the students taking part wanted to get a picture of me with their student because, as they put it, “You're one of the biggest celebrities in the UP”.

Really? Are you sure about that? And if it is the case, doesn't the U.P. REALLY need a much better class of celebrity?

8-)

You'd think I'd be used to stuff like that, especially since encounters like that have increased since I started doing way too much TV. But I don't know that someone ever gets used to stuff like that. I mean, I know I'm not a celebrity. I'm just a dorky kid who grew up in Marquette and is now a dorky adult who lives in Marquette. I am not a celebrity. Taylor Swift is a celebrity. Jon Stewart is a celebrity.

I, however, am not.

But I get it. In this very small pond I guess that my ubiquitous presence on TV screens, through radios, and leading hundreds of people down the street makes me a slightly bigger than usual fish. It's not like I set out to do it; it just comes with the territory, I guess. And, if we're being honest, I guess it's better being someone's celebrity sighting than it is being someone's object of loathing.

I mean, that just may be me, but still...

So if our paths cross feel free to say something. But don't feel like you need to act like I'm a “celebrity”. Because, as we both know, I'm really not.

I just happen to be an example of the closest thing we might get to a celebrity around here.

(jim@wmqt.com), NOT a celebrity.