Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Seen in the IC

I went to lunch in downtown IC with some coworkers today. As we turned to park into our space, one of them said, "There's Kerry." I thought of my friend Kerry, who moved away over the summer, and became confused. Then I looked up to see John Kerry standing right by our parking meter, shaking some hands and posing for photos with some passersby. We all smiled at him. He smiled back, and then ducked into one of our local sushi restaurants (here for those of you scoring at home).

This may not seem like a big deal to those of you with local populations in the six figures, but here in the IC, celebrity* sightings are rare. They tend to happen only if Ashton Kutcher is home to buy a new trucker hat or Tom Arnold is opening another loose meat restuarant.

I wanted to say something to JK but couldn't think of anything. I thought about saying, "Wish you had won," but thought that might make him think, "Thanks for reminding me I couldn't beat a talking chimp, buttmunch."

*There are famous writers in town all the time, but I'm referring to actual celebrities. You know, people in Us magazine.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You should have said...

Keep hitting back hard, dude! At little late, I know. But, still.

:)

I, myself, would be much more excited about the famous writers than those that appear in the pages of Us Magazine.

Churlita said...

I'm sure that Kerry uses the term buttmunch all the time. I can't wait until he calls W. that on television.

He supposedly rode on RAGBRAI the same day I did, but I never saw him. Cool for you, though.

Brando said...

Maybe if JK had used "buttmuch" during the debates, he would have won.

The one writer who I was really starstruck by was Salman Rushdie. He gave a reading in town, and one of Becky's classmates hosted the party afterward. At one point, early on, the hostesses husband was in the living room by himself, talking to Rushdie, because all of us were too intimidated to talk to him. We were eventually ordered in to relieve our fellow comrade, and Rushdie turned out to be very pleasant and friendly.

Also, I saw a commerical for the local Fox morning program yesterday. It said, "You never know who will stop by Good Day Iowa," and showed clips of Taylor Hicks, Jenny McCarthy, and...you guessed it, Tom Arnold.

Anonymous said...

I would be so tongue tied in a room with a famous writer!

I would have no words to say!

Get it?!

No words for a writer!

:)

Churlita said...

I graduated from high school with Tom Arnold's sister. I've only met him once when he was at the mall with Roseanne.

I think the writer I was most nervous around was Louise Erdrich when she read here and I was 18.

If you want to run into a bunch of politicians in Iowa, hang out at the Hamburg Inn right before the caucuses.