Close Encounters of the "Celebrity" Kind

I have been traveling a lot for work lately and a keep running into "celebrities".

First October 22nd 2006
On a flight to New York from Salt Lake Mr. Paul Schaffer was sitting in the first seat in first class. As I followed the line of boarding passengers through the first class section Paul was on his cell phone so his voice and laugh confirmed that it really was him.

Second November 14th 2006
ESPN's NFL Football Analyst Chris Mortenson was returning his rental car to the Atlanta Airport branch of Budget Car Rental the same time I was. I sat next to him on the shuttle ride to the terminal, he was flying delta too. I didnt get the Mort Report though our only conversation was going for our bags while getting off the shuttle Mort asked me if a particular bag was mine and I said no, this one is. It was funny to see how people reacted to him because almost every guy knew exactly who he was but most women didnt even notice.

Third November 15th 2006
Ok so you probably dont know who this man is but he is my favorite of all the "celebrities" I have run into and the reason I took the time to write this blog entry. His name is Kim Peek. He sat behind me with his dad on my flight to Toronto this morning. He is known as the "Real Rain Man." It was amazing to listen to him. If you tell him your birthday he can tell you the day of the week it is on that year, how long until you turn 65 and can retire and the day of the week that will be on in addition to historical events that happened close to your birthday. When you tell him where you are from he will tell you the area code for your town and every other area code in your state, zip codes for your town and surronding towns, and highways around your town. When something catches his interest he will just spout of facts about whatever has interested him. Since we were flying into Toronto he was very interested topics about Toronto. He likes to play this game where he starts describing what he is thinking about his favorites for the trip were " I was a diplomat, nobel prize winner, prime minister. Lester Pearson" (Man who the Toronto Airport is named after) And he acts a lot like Dustin Hoffman portrays in the movie. When he is playing one of his games he will get more and more excited and then yell the answer. Then repeat it calm himself down and then say something like "yeah dad it's Lester Pearson." Well he is from Utah so one of the games he was playing was "I served a mission here, the Toronto Blue Jays signed me, 3-2-1. Danny Ainge!!!" There was also a little bit when he was giving a synopsis of the upcoming movie The Work and the Glory 3 and how it comes out this week. He was a really interstering and friendly man. He just seems to love what he talks about whether it is sports, history, or geography. I am glad I got to be on the flight with him.
http://www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org/savant/kimpeek.cfm#update