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Many people can claim to be a national expert on a particular topic (There's a lot of books and studies on any subject). Many non-famous people have been on the Today Show.
Many people become so envious of, even enraged by someone else's success that they have to tear them down, even someone completely anonymous, whose skill is unknown to them, mentioned in a completely no-stakes environment like a thread on a message board. People are weird.
Why do I get the feeling that the demands for posters to identify the famous or notable people they knew or encountered in the past are simply for the purpose of calling us liars if we do?
If your goal was to embarrass or hurt me, you've wasted your time. Believe me or don't believe me, it will not change reality. It won't erase my former friend's skill or the books he has written or deprive him of the substantial consulting fees I'm sure he commands for his expertise.
Many people become so envious of, even enraged by someone else's success that they have to tear them down, even someone completely anonymous, whose skill is unknown to them, mentioned in a completely no-stakes environment like a thread on a message board. People are weird.
Why do I get the feeling that the demands for posters to identify the famous or notable people they knew or encountered in the past are simply for the purpose of calling us liars if we do?
Yep! Over time, you get to know the trolls that offer no worthy content to the forums. Consistently browbeating other posters is one of many reasons I have a large healthy Ignore List.
I personally never knew anyone who went on to become famous later.
We did have a friend who was a pediatrician in Memphis, he'd gone to high school with Elvis (Humes HS), our friend was a freshman when Elvis was a senior so he knew who Elvis was but wasn't really friends with him and wasn't particularly impressed with him.
Later, when our friend had become a doctor, he would volunteer yearly at mobile children's clinics in remote areas all over the world in places where children had serious diseases but very little access to hospitals or medical care.
In spite of the remoteness or language barrier or cultural differences, whenever any of the locals or other volunteer doctors learned he was from Memphis the first question was "Do you know Elvis?"
No matter where they were from everyone knew of Elvis. And they all thought he was so lucky when he said, "yes, I went to school with him!"
I went to high school with a girl who became a famous sports caster
a guy who became a famous to the area radio personality
a gal who is movie producer
we also lived next door to a family whose son was/is an NFL player.
One of my former roommates has been with the Met Opera in NYC for a couple of decades now. Another couple went to Hollywood, and has been in some films. A good buddy went on to have his own production company designing the crazy concert sets for headlining acts that tour. Quite a few success stories and certainly interesting lives.
Fame....it makes the meetings harder to come by, but seemingly more appreciative when they actually do happen.
Yep! Over time, you get to know the trolls that offer no worthy content to the forums. Consistently browbeating other posters is one of many reasons I have a large healthy Ignore List.
Can't be bigger 'n' mine.
I knew several jazz musicians who went on to form a band. Probably not everyone's definition of famous, but hey.
Most of mine are in the music world. The music world is weird though. I have examples of friends who play guitar/drums/bass in and tour with bands who are playing large amphitheaters and occasionally arenas every year. But since they aren't the 'face' of that band, they can easily walk down the street in most cities and hardly anyone would ever recognize them. But they're out there playing late night shows, playing in front of 2,000-10,000 people a night on tour, getting nominated for grammys, sometimes contributing to writing songs for other well-known artists etc. Are they 'famous' if they aren't 'get recognized on the street' famous?
If we limit it to people who later became 'famous', my list mostly matches what I said in my first paragraph.
A good example: a friend of mine in college (who is still a friend of mine) dropped out to focus on the band he performed with, and they have made a fulltime career of it, including a grammy nomination and a career of billboard charting albums.
If we include people in my life who already had large success that would borderline on 'famous' in the right crowds before I met them:
-one of my family members I'm close with on my wife's side has been grammy nominated for more than one music project, played on multiple late night TV shows, etc. They were already well established when I started dating my wife.
-my wife has performed as a member of one of these music projects for several years, as well as danced with a world-renowned dance company in NYC for several years before that, and has been invited to be a backup singer for arena-touring artists
I understand why people are interested in getting the 'names' behind who people are posting, but I can also very much appreciate not giving specifics - just as I haven't.
Last edited by Sunbather; 03-05-2024 at 12:17 PM..
One person I went to school with became a published author after doing a lot of work overseas in a war zone, and another went on to have art exhibitions in galleries and to do public art installations. Neither one is so "famous" that most anybody would have heard of them unless they happened to be in very specific circles, so there's no point in me naming any of those names.
I did get to be considered a friend by Dave Brockie, the late singer of GWAR and a few other guys in the band for a number of years before he died. But that's not really all that special in the sense that the guy accepted tons of people as friends very easily. He had a generous spirit. He had thousands of people like me that he called "friend." I felt honored by it anyways, but it was more about who he was than anything particularly special about me. Easy enough to drop that name without worries that anyone figures out anything in particular; I was not part of their scene in Richmond (thank god)...and since they are the obscure-cult-classic of the punk/metal world, most people wouldn't even know where they're from if they knew who they even are. /shrug
In the course of hanging out with him and the band in various places at various times, I did get to briefly meet some other famous people. A few of the guys from a certain show/movies where dudes find inventive ways to hurt each other for fun (J.A.) and Ice T, were among the more memorable encounters.
Not what the OP was really asking, I know. But I didn't go to school with anyone who became truly famous, no.
On the "infamous" side, in one of my early jobs I had a co worker who went to same high school as Jeffrey Dahmer.
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