Famous encounters

[bradhurley]

I used to work for the Earthwatch Institute (my title was Expedition Coordinator, my favorite job title of my entire working career so far), and one day I got a call from a woman named Betty Thomas who wanted to go on a research project we were supporting in Hawaii that involved teaching dolphins language (one dolphin was learning a sign language and the other was learning an auditory language of beeps and whistles). I held her a spot on the team and told her to send me her application, which we needed to review before she could be accepted on the project. Weeks went by, and I had to call her frequently to remind her to send in her application. Over the phone she sounded old and crotchety, with a gravely voice, and she was very taciturn. I had my doubts about her. Finally, a week or two before the project I still hadn't received her application so I called and left her a voicemail to tell her I was going to give her spot to someone else unless I received her application the next day. The next day I got a FedEx package with her application. I skimmed it over and noticed a few unusual things, she had put "actor" as her occupation and her hobby was "flying helicopters." I figured she was some eccentric wannabe actor from California, but her medical form indicated she was in good health and mentally fit, so I didn't see any reason to drop her from the team. I faxed the application to the scientist who was running the project, and he told me she could come.

I didn't think anything more of it until a month or two later when the scientist called me; he said "that sergeant from Hill Street Blues was fantastic, she was a great member of the team and everyone loved her!" I had no idea who he was talking about, since I didn't watch TV.

In the early-mid 1980s I had a friend in southern Connecticut who was a caterer, and she got a call to do a catering job for a dinner party a day after her father died unexpectedly. She went to the house where the party was being held and delivered and served the food, but was consumed by her grief and wasn't really paying attention to the hosts other than noticing that they were being very sweet and friendly to her. Finally at the end when she was cleaning up, the owners of the house came up to her and thanked her, and also thanked her for being so cool and normal with them. She wasn't sure what they meant, but then looked at them closely for the first time and realized that they were Gilda Radner and Gene Wilder.