An actor once told me that all he wanted was to voice a villain in a Disney animated movie, if that counts. I don't really care, as long as I look decent in any photographs, lol.

This will have to do, Kevin, until Jeopardy calls you. Did you hear about the Ken Jennings blog controversy calling Alex Trebeck a robot?

Minor fame? Congressman?

Add an update to this post that reads "Dug Steen suggested his name is one of my posts would do the trick" and mine would be satisfied.

In my younger days, I used to peruse the Scientific Citation Index to find out the number of references to my papers in publications by other authors. Needless to say, soon the utter triviality of the whole enterprise dawned on me one morning, and I was cured of the urge to publish.

Dan Okrent is the twisted mind who unleashed Fantasy (nee Rotisserie) Baseball on the world.

I'd settle for being a stunt double.

Years ago the NYC public television station auctioned off getting your name mentioned on the next Monty Python Album. If you have an early version of the Holy Grail soundtrack the winners name is printed somewhere on the jacket (I'm not at home right now so I can't go check).

My brother met a guy named Bobby McGee who said he was the inspiration for the Kris Kristoffersen song. He may have been lying, but pretty cool minor fame, if true.

how about if al mentions your name when he speaks in tongues?

my claim to fame is that I am the only colour blind female mechanical engineer over 6 feet tall having B negative blood type in the world!

To be one of Kos's failed election picks. It'd be nice to get that much cash from deluded liberals. Of course, the legion of Kos's failed picks is so large that it's hard to stand out in that field.

My name has been immortalized in the acknowledgments or a world famous novelist living in Ireland. It's been many years, and I no longer own the business of our acquaintance, but it was a thrill at the time.

A bit part in a successful and good sci-fi movie or TV show would guarantee you normal people anonymity but geek fame. You could travel around to con's all the time making a few bucks, picking up nerd girls.

Kevin - Okrent clearly is a weird dude. Any more info on why he just so vehemently hated Krugman?

(Particularly when Krugman made him look like an idiot...)

Video is da bomb for minor fame.

But Michele - female colorblind? I didn't even know that was possible!

Name fame rules, and face fame sucks. Or face fame sucks, and name fame rules, whichever way you care to look at it.

But name fame is really the best of both worlds, influence and anonymity.

"My brother met a guy named Bobby McGee who said he was the inspiration for the Kris Kristoffersen song."

Didn't Kristofferson mean Bobbie to reference a lady, and only the Joplin version made us think he was a guy?

"Any more info on why he just so vehemently hated Krugman? (Particularly when Krugman made him look like an idiot...)"

Don't you thnk you've answered your own question?

Yeah Okrent's notebook was seriously creepy. Can you say Unabomber? What on Earth could convince a person to let that be seen by cameras?

Still I liked the movie a good bit - Jon Stewart and Clinton were especially good.

Just remembered my name fame. Calvin Trillan once wrote a fictional story (it appears in his book Uncivil Liberties) about an author with my first and last name -- and even got the spelling right. The amazing part is, the description is so accurate, when people I know read it they ask how do I know Calvin Trillan and when was I an award winning author.

There are so many other great clues for Drum.

Klook-mop device, grunt and croaker relative, suck on this solo, etc.

To have a teenager write your name on a trapper keeper 25 years from now as a cool obscure retro reference. That's about as minor a tribute as you can get. (I had Quang Duc on mine.)

Minor celebrity? How about husband of one of former Plaster Casters?

Tripp,

There are three basic variants of color blindness. Red/green color blindness (deuteranopia) is the most common deficiency, affecting 8% of Caucasian males and 0.5% of Caucasian females. The prevalence varies with culture.

Red/green color blindness may slightly increase an affected person's chances of contracting leprosy.

http://tinyurl.com/lb6ta

I guess I have to stay well away from lepers.

Tripp,

There are three basic variants of color blindness. Red/green color blindness (deuteranopia) is the most common deficiency, affecting 8% of Caucasian males and 0.5% of Caucasian females. The prevalence varies with culture.

Red/green color blindness may slightly increase an affected person's chances of contracting leprosy.

http://tinyurl.com/lb6ta

I guess I have to stay well away from lepers.

To be linked from the Yarn Harlot's blog. (If you don't know who she is, you need to stay in more.)

Tripp,

There are three basic variants of color blindness. Red/green color blindness (deuteranopia) is the most common deficiency, affecting 8% of Caucasian males and 0.5% of Caucasian females. The prevalence varies with culture.

Red/green color blindness may slightly increase an affected person's chances of contracting leprosy.

ed/green and blue color blindness appear to be located on at least two different gene locations. The majority of affected individuals are males. Females are carriers, but are not normally affected. This indicates that the X chromosome is one of the locations for color blindness. Male offspring of females who carry the altered gene have a 50-50 chance of being color-blind. The rare female that has red/green color blindness, or rarer still, blue color blindness, indicates there is an involvement of another gene. As of 2001, the location of this gene has not been identified.

http://tinyurl.com/lb6ta

I guess I have to stay well away from lepers.

Email Will Shortz and lobby for blogophere themed puzzle. Endless possibilities there. Such as:

Down
3. Butt scratching blogger.

Okrent seriously weird? What about his little club, the Innard Circle, also known as the Offal Truth?

It's a bunch of bored Manhattanites who regularly get together to eat what they call "organ meats", the animal parts that turn the stomachs of most ordinary meat eaters. They meat up [pun intended] regularly to eat hearts, kidneys, tripe, intestines, brains, pancreases, etc. Then they relax after dinner by hitting each other over the head with inflated pig bladders. (Just kidding about that last part, but the rest is true.)

This little group also sits around having serious discussions about whether more peripheral body parts such as ears and tongues count as organ meats.

Apparently Okrent is mighty proud to be a member of this little club of Hannibal Lecter wannabes. There's nothing wrong with eating any of this stuff, but to eat it obsessively, and to meet every few weeks to eat it in the company of other obsessives, and to obsessively obsess together about the subject? Yeah, that is seriously weird.

What would be the height of fame?

-Jerry Lucas, who do you want to be when you grow up?

-Jeffrey Davis

-Sandy Koufax, who do you want to be when you grow up?

-Jeffrey Davis

(follow up to previous post of mine)

I ought to mention that my son has already achieved a small measure of fame. A famous game developer included him (via his nom de nette) as a character you meet along the way to solving one of the game's adventures. The charcter raves a brilliant torrent at you. The correct response, I think, is to leave some gold and flee.

(I may be misremembering the response part.)

Minor fame: To have an award-winning book dedicated to you. Yes, Howard has achieved this. He's now working on his next "minor fame" goal: To be the somewhat-known yet anonymous blog critic of bicycle tours.
--
HRlaughed

sorry about the triple post

Minor fame: be revealed as one of George W. Bush's cocaine dealers.

My father worked for Grumman Aerospace in NY in the 60's. He worked on the lunar module. Each of the mechanics were asked to sign a poster attached to pole. The poster (a photo of the LM)was then laminated and my father's signature (along with a hundred others) is now forever posted on the moon's surface. I've always thought THAT was cosmically cool!

Did you hear about the Ken Jennings blog controversy calling Alex Trebeck a robot?

Suppose you are a Kenn Jennings and you are a trivia whiz (Trivial Pursuit's your game) and as an accountant by trade you were once a supervisor for H & R Block. A buddy of mine has that situation.

To be on Bush's enemies list?

Maybe that wouldn't be so cool...

On Okrent: Don't forget his birthday party where guests wore numbered badges indicating how long they had known Okrent. Has to be the height of an inflated ego to do that. On Wikipedia, will be found under pompous.

How about the guy that finds Bush's missing driving records? Or the guy that finds the memos about the voting machine rigging in Ohio?

michele:

Now that's seriously hot :)

Minor fame? I dunno ...

My *ambition*, though, is to have Bill Bruford listen to my original music and record a drum track to my CD.

One of the very few rock drummers out there who could hack all the time signature changes ...

Bob

How about the guy that finds Bush's missing driving records? Or the guy that finds the memos about the voting machine rigging in Ohio?

Took longer than I expected for the moonbats to come out. Must be a sale on birkenstock or sometihng.

Cool avenues to minor fame: Have an insect, a celestial object, or an obscure disease named after you. Get your name in the Guinness Book of World Records for something obscure. (A friend of mine, for example, holds the record for the largest collection of potato chip bags. He likes to casually let slip in conversation, "And yes, I'm in the Guinness Book of World Records," and then be able to prove it.) Write a political blo--never mind.

To be one of Kos's failed election picks.

I never agree with A-H (fill in the other letters), but this was hilarious.

I found my name in some vampire book and it was not in a good light. I don't know if it's based off of me, but I could see some similarities. Kinda spooky.

i once googled my doctor's name. he turned up a few citations, but they were outnumbered by references to an officer on whatever starship kate mulgrew captained. i told him about it, and he laughed and said, 'yeah, those episodes were written by a former student of mine.'

your pal,
blake

To be Wanker or WATB of the Day on Eschaton.

Fame, notoriety, what's the diff?

Maybe you could get caught with some illegal Viagra?

Graham's diary interest was no big deal to me. Just made so by the MSM and right wing.

Maybe you could get caught wiyh some illegal viagra?

I always thought Grahams diary interest was no big deal, just made into one by the MSM and the right wing.

rmck1, I didn't realize that being colour blind was so sexy ;-)

I think I'd like to have a plate of food named after me. Or any menu item really.

michele:

Actually, it's the over six feet tall that did it :) And being a quant-head in such a male-dominated profession, mechanical engineering ...

So nice to, you know, not have to bend down :)

Bob

Bob,
so nice to feel appreciated! thank you

On Okrent: Don't forget his birthday party where guests wore numbered badges indicating how long they had known Okrent. Has to be the height of an inflated ego to do that.

Aw, c'mon. That's kind of funny. Aren't you allowed to make your birthday party all about you?

My two claims to notoriety are being a three-time loser on the Dating Game, and being misquoted in the New York Times by a very famous playwright. Other than that, I'm pretty obscure.

Funny, just got home from seeing "Wordplay." Enjoyed it very much. And, yes, one thing I learned is that Okrent is neurotic as hell. Can't believe he shared that notebook of his full of his crossword times. That's a sickness. And to think he was public editor of the Times. Wow. In what you would expect to be a movie full of odd people he was far and away the strangest.

How can you possibly hope to be in a crossword puzzle? It is obvious you know NOTHING. Your names have 60% and 75% consonants.

Consider changing you name to Uma.

michele:

Well, probably at least somewhat because every girlfriend I've ever had has been between 5'2" and 5'6" -- I've always had this thing for tall women ...

You know -- wanting what you never seem to get and all :)

Something about level eye contact is just swoony ...

Geez, what I'm I doing *flirting* on Political Animal?

*red face* Okay, enough of this. Carry on ...

Bob

I'd like to write a book that could be found in most large municipal libraries (and sell a goodly number of copies, too; I'm not entirely altruistic). Either that or create the next great sitcom (I went to the University of Maryland and one of my classmates was Peter Mehlman of "Seinfeld" fame).

I'd like to be the one who finally convinced them to walk that damn goat around the bases one time. I am not remotely superstitious, but what could it hurt?

I've made an appearance in a novel. Many years ago, I carried on an series of chats with a promising young novelist, who turned out to be kind of boring. To my surprise, a character in his next novel had my personal background, attitudes and several exact quotes of my comments. But I was a villain. In the thin, formulaic plot structure, I was an cynical intellectual seducer, distracting the hero from his wholesome real world relationships.

The reviewer in Newsweek disliked the book, but singled out my character as the most interesting, lively person of a dull lot.

Ever since, I've had a warm spot for that magazine for employing such discerning, accurate book reviewers. In my own cynical, bad-influence way, of course. And wistfully, since the last time I checked, I'm out of print.

A nine letter answer to the clue, "Useful Idiot", perhaps?

The cats have forgotten how you ditched them when you first moved over from Calpundit.

Took longer than I expected for the moonbats to come out. Must be a sale on birkenstock or sometihng.

Holy crap! The funny American Hawk is back!!! Dude, where have you been? I've been suffering through the now near irrelevant real/fake Al and somebody who has been using your name but has no sense of humor. How about a blue stained dress joke for old times?

"This is the kind of minor fame I seek,..."

Kevin. If you want major fame, the Jews can arrange it for you. They certainly arranged it for Einstein.

Jews are ORGANIZED LIARS.

Here is an example of organized lying by Jews, namely, the establishment of some unknown patent clerk as the "greatest" scientist the world has ever known.

"H. Poincare had already completely solved the problem of time several years before the appearance of Einstein's first work (1905)", H. Thirring, 1927.

"Einstein simply postulates what we have deduced, with some difficulty and not altogether satisfactorily, from the fundamental equations of the electromagnetic field." Lorentz in his book "The Theory of Electrons" (1906)

"... While Lorentz must be considered as the first to have found the mathematical content of the relativity principle, Einstein succeeded in reducing it to a simple principle...." Wilhelm Wien (1911 Nobel Prize in Physics).

"No unprejudiced person can deny that, in the absence of direct and incontrovertible proofs establishing his innocence, Einstein must, in view of the circumstantial evidence previously presented, stand convicted before the world as a plagiarist." Prof. Arvid Reuterdahl

"almost every idea and formula of the theory (of relativity) had been anticipated (actually, in most cases published previously) by others. For example, Voigt formally derived the Lorentz transformations in 1887 based on general considerations of the wave equation. In the context of electro-dynamics, Fitzgerald, Larmor, and Lorentz had all, by 1892, arrived at the Lorentz transformations, including all the peculiar "time dilation" and "length contraction" effects (with respect to the transformed coordinates) associated with Einstein's special relativity. By 1905, Poincare had clearly articulated the principle of relativity and many of its consequences, had pointed out the lack of empirical basis for absolute simultaneity, had challenged the ontological significance of the ether, and had even demonstrated that the Lorentz transformations constitute a group in the same sense as do Galilean transformations." Kevin Brown in "Reflections on Relativity" (believe it or not, Brown is an Einstein supporter).

"It is easily proven that Albert Einstein did not originate the special theory of relativity in its entirety, or even in its majority. The historic record is readily available. Ludwig Gustav Lange, Woldemar Voigt, George Francis FitzGerald, Joseph Larmor, Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, Jules Henri Poincaré, Paul Drude, Paul Langevin, and many others, slowly developed the theory, step by step, and based it on thousands of years of recorded thought and research." Christopher Bjerknes in "Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist"

Albert Einstein: Plagiarist of the Century
Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist
Test Your Knowledge of the History of the Theory of Relativity.

Banging the Drum isn't fame enough?

Actually, one fairly accessible mode of low-level fame is "To appear in a popular documentary like Wordplay." I work in and among the puzzle industry, and I literally know every non-celebrity in every shot of that film. It's a very weird experience. Same thing happened when I read Word Freak, saw Word Wars, and then went to the Manhattan Scrabble Club. ("Oh, my god! It's G.I. Joel!")

Tom Lehrer knew what he was talking about (Jews know Jews):

Who made me the genius I am today,
The mathematician that others all quote,
Who's the professor that made me that way?
The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat.

One man deserves the credit,
One man deserves the blame,
And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.
Hi! Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach,...

I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:

Plagiarize! Plagiarize,

Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don't shade your eyes,

But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize,..

Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.

And ever since I meet this man
My life is not the same,
And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.
Hi! Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach,...

Lyrics from Tom Lehrer's song: Lobachevsky.

Kevin - I do the NYT x-wrd daily - my take is that it is possible for the word "blog" or "blogger" top make the bigtime, but "kevindrum" or "drum" is unlikely, simply because it does not present a new configuration of letters.

There are a few minor players, though, who will live in immortality in crosswords: Golfer ("els"), Ator Johnson ("arte"), rapper ("drdre" or "dre")), mystery writer ("erle"), band ("elo"), etc. Notice that these are all short and are unusual spellings. (And speaking of spelling, you can add "tori" to the list of immortals!)

Many years ago I learned to do cryptic crosswords, and I now can't stand to do the regular ones - way too boring. Good cryptics are brilliant works of art. Each clue is a little puzzle in itself. It's a great shame they have never really caught on in the U.S. like they have in Britain, Canada, etc.

Give it a try:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/tagies/cryptics/solvingguide/solvingguide.html

Speaking of cats, today's NYT obit for Dika Newlin says 'Dr. Newlin, who never married, leaves no immediate family members. She has a surviving cousin and was close to her cat, Spot.'

I was mentioned in the acknowledgements in a book on municipal bonds; it was at a party at my house that the author met the publisher.

I dare anyone to come up with anything more tedious than that...

To have your name a stub entry in Wikipedia with only one error in your bio.

I stepped on Tom McGuane's toe once.

Several of the comedy troupers at my college went on to write for SNL in the last 5 years. In a sketch where Alec Baldwin played Tony Bennett hosting a talk show ('03 or '04), one of the cast regulars appeared as a character named after me! I couldn't believe my ears when I heard my name coming out of the TV.

Michelle above wrote: 'my claim to fame is that I am the only colour blind female mechanical engineer over 6 feet tall having B negative blood type in the world!'

There are 4 more of you somewhere in the PRC.

Paul, no way.

Females make up 50% of the population, B -ve blood is 8% of the population, women with degrees in mechanical engineering - let's say .001, colour blind women are .004 of the population, and women that stand 6 foot one are also one in a thousand so .001

6,000,000,000 x .50 x .08 x .001 x .004 x.001= .96
that means the odds of finding someone like me are about one in 6 billion!

You could always purchase your fame -- SF and mystery authors often donate "be a character in my next book" slots to charity auctions. I've appeared in SF novels, by name a few times. Usually such appearances pass unnoticed except by the person involved and their immediate friends, but I have an unusual name (and an unusual profession, which has shown up a couple of times), so I'm easy to spot -- with the result that I was once sitting at a table at an SF convention when a complete stranger walked by, read my name badge, did a classic double-take, and blurted out, "You're real!"

Michele:

Now the *real* distinguishing question would be what's your enneatype :)

Bob

Michele:

Women who are 6"1' are one in a thousand, really?

If you consider that the ideal height for runway models is a "statuesque" 5'10", three more inches from that doesn't seem all that implausible, despite the fact that tall women are doubtless rare.

As rare as female mechanical engineers? You honestly think so?

Bob

It's a bunch of bored Manhattanites who regularly get together to eat what they call "organ meats", the animal parts that turn the stomachs of most ordinary meat eaters. They meat p [pun intended] regularly to eat hearts, kidneys, tripe, intestines, brains, pancreases, etc. Then they relax after dinner by hitting each other over the head wih inflated pig bladders. (Just kidding about that last part, but the rest is true.)It's a bunch of bored Manhattanites who regularly get together to eat what they call organ meats", the animal parts that turn the stomahs of mst ordinary meat eaters. They meat up [pun intended] regularly to eat hearts, kidneys, tripe, intestines, brains, pancreases, etc. Then they relax after dinner by hitting each other over the head with inflated pig bladders. (Jus

Hi, very interesting site. I really like it.
http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/asp_gratis_hosting/ asp gratis hosting http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/ecommerce_business_web_hosting/ ecommerce business web hosting http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/affordable_web_hosting_wisconsin/ affordable web hosting wisconsin http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/cheap_web_site_design_and_hosting/ cheap web site design and hosting http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/cheap_web_hosting_india/ cheap web hosting india http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/domain_hosting_name_web/ domain hosting name web http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/web_hosting_500mb_free_shopping_cart/ web hosting 500mb free shopping cart http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/design_hosting_site_web/ design hosting site web http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/internet_hosting_service/ internet hosting service http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/.net_asp_dedicated_hosting_web/ .net asp dedicated hosting web http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/cheap_web_site_hosting_package/ cheap web site hosting package http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/free_domain_hosting_email/ free domain hosting email http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/photo_hosting_service/ photo hosting service http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/ecommerce_web_hosting_provider/ ecommerce web hosting provider http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/digitalbroadcastedmultimedia.com_hosting_hosting_provider_web_web/ digitalbroadcastedmultimedia.com hosting hosting provider web web http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/budget_web_hosting/ budget web hosting http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/ecommerce_web_site_hosting/ ecommerce web site hosting http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/free_reseller_hosting/ free reseller hosting http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/cheap_domain_hosting_registration/ cheap domain hosting registration http://coolhosts.awardspace.com/cheap_affordable_web_site_hosting/ cheap affordable web site hosting