h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hey there John.
Why the BBC job link on your page?
I've just quit my job with them so there'll be an exciting position opening up in Milton Keynes for anyone who enjoys bureaucracy and comas.

Just for a laugh. I have this BBC fantasy - spawned, I think by Monty Python - about life at the beeb. The comment about the stuff in the margin reminded me of the BBC announcers... "For those viewers, who may have just tuned in, a reminder that... on BBC 2". Do they still do that?

I realize that real life is probably a bit of an anti-climax. Sorry if I stirred any unpleasant memories.

(Ever meet anybody famous?)

The BBC unfortunately caught the MTV generation virus and now all the TV programmes have fast-cut/wobbly-camcorder/last-year's-dance-music type trailers and links between them. Plus they created this daft 'concept' brand-image thing featuring balloons flying over different bits of the UK. They do still tell you what's on BBC2 though.

Anyone famous...mmm...in nearly three years I've only managed to meet Patrick Moore, Richard Dawkins, Chris Akabuse and Howard Stableford.
I used to work for the Performing Right Society just off of Oxford Street and used to spot more famous people in a lunchtime pub crawl than I managed here. Paul McCartney and Linda came to my office once but I ran away! And Mike Batt (he of The Wombles) used to run the place. When Pete Waterman got his job I knew it was time to move on.
Plus I was in a band years ago and we used to support lots more famous people, like The Stone Roses and Blur, so I'm not that excited by it anyway as I realised that just because you're famous it doesn't make you worth knowing.
I did meet DNA once, but as it was a book-signing for Dirk Gently I don't think it counts.
How about you? Feel free to name-drop...

Mmmm... Ah, famous people I have met (which is to say: formed part of a human blur in front of) include:

DNA in Pittsburgh, USA , this past April... booksigning thing after his talk at Carnegie-Melon U.
Kurt Vonnegut... not met exactly... sat with a mob of other people listening enraptured.

Did actually meet (as in actually talk to)... Christopher Lloyd and Beth Chatto... two icons of the gardening world I admire very much.

Talked to Clive Barker at a book signing, too (just before he moved to LA and turned fruity. Hope that doesn't happen to DNA).

We used to go to a lot of Startrek conventions, to oogle celebs. We saw a lot of cast members. Funny thing this celebrity business. It' not really a very healthy thing, I think; especially the way it manifests itself at sci-fi conventions.

In August, my wife and I are going to see his Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet in Indiana, USA. Part of the attraction there, I confess, is his celebrity. But I also adire him very much. And neither of us wanted to pass up the opportunity to see him. It's hard to say precisely why.

I remember seeing something about William Shatner writing a book about the mad fandom of Trekkies where he conducted research by attending conventions in disguise. I'd love to read that.
Fame's a weird thing. I love all those brainless bimboes who "want to be famous". I can't think of anything I'd like less. Money would be cool; but guys in treetops with long range lenses on your bedroom window and 'friends' willing to sell you down the river, who the hell wants that?

Who indeed?

My wife and I, and a friend, went to a convention in Schenectedy, NY once. It was just after Shatner wrote the infamous "Startrek Memories", in which he was brutally frank, mainly at the expense of the rest of the cast. Naturally, there was a lot of Shatner-bashing going on. There was a middle-aged man wearing a Captain Kirk costume, who we had noticed was getting quite worked up about all this. Later on, as we stepped out of the elevator into the hotel lobby, we were immediately confronted by police wearing SWAT fatigues shouting and gesticulating that they had "TOLD" us "ONCE TO STAY OUT OF THE LOBBY!!!" Poor Captain Kirk was upset to the point where the authorities were worried about him upgrading his costume phaser. We missed whatever scene had inspired the appearance of the police, who were able to lead the poor fellow away without any real trouble.