The Chuck Colson Award

I am starting a competition, in fact a new thread for this blog. It's for all of you - Britons, Americans, wherever you live - with an interest in the politically obscure and trivial.

But I don't start things unless I have a decent chance of winning them myself. So before you start rating yourself let me just tell you a few things that will put you in your place:

• A few years ago, while walking down the street near my London office, Chuck Colson walked straight past me.
• I was the recipient of a large, hideously ugly, mother of pearl gift from Yassir Arafat.
• Art Laffer drew a Laffer curve for me on a napkin.
• I possess the autograph of Aslef union leader Ray Buckton.
• I have spoken on the telephone with Dom Mintoff, the former Prime Minister of Malta.
• I have shaken hands with Alexander Dubcek.

Here's the competition. I am looking for all contact - spotting in the street yesterday, autograph collected in your youth, meeting held with, picture taken with, gift received from, or whatever - with political figures.

Now famous is fine but semi-famous is even better, faintly ludicrous is best of all. Pictures are particularly welcome, especially if they show the semi-famous figure doing something prosaic. Bruce Babbitt shopping for a new television would be ideal.

Either post your "spot" in the comment section or send me an email with picture to commentcentral@thetimes.co.uk. There will be suitably obscure and ludicrous prizes, although winning, of course, isn't really the point. I'll also be updating you as all those great entries come rolling in.

(UPDATE: see the best entries so far here)

(UPDATE: After the massive response, I give you the best entries of the week)

(Another UPDATE: A photo special)

(Yet another UPDATE: David Grossman of Newsnight with a photo that will be hard to beat)

(Ah hem, UPDATE: Jumping around on Karl Rove's bed)

(WE HAVE A WINNER! The grand finale of the Chuck Colson Award 2006)

Comments

[Chris Mills]

As a young reporter covering the General Election campaign of 1997, I was sent along to a hastily arranged press conference in Exeter at which Angela Browning (Tiverton and Honiton Tory MP and then junior agriculture minister) announced she was resigning to spend more time caring for her autistic son.
I stood immediately to her right during her brief speech while several national snappers stood back taking pictures.
I opened up The Times/The Telegraph and Mail the next day to find pix of Angela and me with myself identified as her said son.
I can't say either of us saw the funny side.

[Megan]

I saw Clare Short just after she resigned in Somerfield Perry Barr, Birmingham looking at steak. She had some biscuits in her basket and she was talking about a wedding to the woman at the checkout when we were in line as well.

[Christopher Gillibrand]

I met Ken Livingstone at the Tory party conference. He invited me to join the Labour Party. I informed Mr Livingstone that I was the son of a trade union leader. He told me that I would therefore never join the Labour Party (I being far too well informed on their machinations). Some years later, he left the Labour Party. His return, unlike that of the prodigal, was not repentant. I have now left the Conservative Party but will not return unless not me, but they repent of their ways! The Conservatives (now in name only) are sunk into the addictions of over-regulation and over-taxation and also desperate to win the affections of the quango state (the heart has it reasons, but why, why, why?). I suspect that it will fall to UKIP to restore the good name to conservatism, gathering the faithful remnant who will come into their inheritance and eventually govern.

[billy]

I saw Blair babe Jenny Jones in Safeway at Wolverhampton when she was an MP. I made a comment about socialists and she ignored me.
Her husband John was a nice bloke.

[poldraw]

I was performing live on Latvian television with a Norwegian gospel choir, when food poisoning kicked in. The following day the Latvian minister of Health came to my hotel room, sat on my bed, and asked me if the city we were performing in and the Norwegian city where the choir is based, could stay twinned.
I said it would be no problem.
I can't remember the minister's name, as I was more concerned about not throwing up at the time...

Oh, and I've been personally told off by Israeli minister Natan (Anatoly) Sharansky for drawing Sharon as obese.

[Zandra Culliford]

In my first year as an undergrad at Cambridge I had the dubious pleasure of going clubbing with Shadow Cabinet member Alan Duncan, after a debate at the Union. He was wearing a particularly fetching black polo neck, which was quite unsuitable for the sweltering temperatures of Life, the sweaty student night club in question. This did little to curb his enthusiasm however, and the memory of his dance moves returns to haunt me every time I see him on Question Time.

[Stephan]

I once asked Monika Hohlmeier, former minister of Bavaria for education and culture and daughter of former prime minister of Bavaria Franz-Josef Strauss, for the way to the loo.

[Sarkis Zeronian]

I enjoyed a pint of bitter in Porters English Restaurant, Covent Garden, with former Reagan Attorney General Ed Meese.

I recommended he read Peter Hitchens' "The Abolition of Liberty". Hitch P. can often write a load of rubbish in the Daily Mail but this book is excellent. I found out at a later date he had indeed read it whilst researching a piece he wrote for the Hertiage Foundation.

[William Norton]

Someone who may or may not have been former Liberal Party leader Lord Grimond walked straight past me outside the Albert Hall once.

[John Hirst]

I became politicized whilst in prison, having served longer than Nelson Mandella. Paul Foot sent me political books and signed them. Kevin McNamara the former MP sent me a copy of the Woolf Report into the prison disturbances of 1990, and I met Lord Woolf in Hull Prison as he conducted his inquiry. I made history with the prisoners votes case, and it dawned upon me that I was famous. I met and spoke on the same platform in the House of Commons, Douglas Hurd, Mark Oaten and Rambo. Diana Johnson MP who took over from Kevin McNamara, I met outside Tesco and in her maiden speech in the Commons she referred to our meeting and this is recorded in Hansard.

If this does not deserve first prize, what about a consolation prize?

[Martin Wilkinson]

I hold the record among my friends for spotting senior politicians on the tube. I have shared underground carriages with Neil Kinnock, Norman Lamont, Douglas Hurd and David Owen. Kinnock refused to sit, standing at the end of the carriage staring fixedly ahead into the middle distance as if to say: "Don't you make eye contact with me, boyo."

[Richard]

Francis Maude used to be part of our circle of mates at school. Chatting up the birds from the girls school up the road.. smoking fags in the park.. Frank was there!!

[Richard]

Hugh Simmonds (go on look him up if you don't know or have forgotten!!) fancied himself as a rock manager back in the 70s and he used to bring his proteges to my home studio. Nice bloke.. if you kept him at arm's length.

[Tom]

What's more fun than having Ray Buckton's autograph?

The Aslef Quiz!

http://www.aslef.org.uk/module_images/RMS%20Quiz%20Questions.pdf

[Tom]

I once had a lengthy drunken argument in a westminster pub with Derek Draper. Whatever happened to him?

[Chris]

I once stood next to the late Donald Dewar at Glasgow airport, as we both gazed hopefully at the departure board. And I once waited for the salesman at Faringdon Records to finish serving Clive James.

But if you want obscure, when I worked at BT in the mid-eighties, I met Charles Z. Wick, who was at that time head of the United States Information Authority. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Z._Wick

[Kulibar Tree]

I think it's a little unfair to lump Alexander Dubcek, a man of obvious moral courage and integrity, together with those genuine nonenties, charlatans, and outright crooks.

Cheers.

[Peter Briffa]

My mother once shared ( I'm told that was all ) a carousel at Luxor airport with John Prescott.

I saw that Frank Field at Whitechapel tube station, alone on a Saturday night. I remember thinking how sad that seemed ( he probably thought the same about me ).
A year later he was in the cabinet, thinking the unthinkable.

[Chris C]

I was once woken up when a student by something clattering against my window at some unGodly hour. I sprang up (it was c. 6:30) and there was Jonathan Aitken who had tripped over whilst jogging around the quads of my college (why he was doing so, I do not know).

I had a similar experience a few years later, bumping into Norman Lamont when I was in a dressing gown (he had invaded my flat, not I his).

More in the spirit of the competition;

- I once queued up behind Bernard Weatherill at a pharmacy as he waited to pick up a prescription.

- I have an Adrian Slade story, although I only found out who he was subsequently to meeting him (so I don't think that counts).

[Hugo]

The other week, after a discussion at the Carlton Club, Derek Laud from Big Brother punched me in the belly because I told him I was glad he didn't fancy me. I'm sure he only meant it in jest, but it was actually quite sore. Does this count?

[Paul Dennett]

Cast your mind back to a wet and gloomy Bournemouth twenty-something years ago, where a group of youngsters prepared to take the Labour Party Conference delegates by storm, festooned with badges and sweatshirts bearing the legend "Have you got the guts for the SDP challenge?". Among them a certain Mr D. Finkelstein. I also served.

[Mary Shelley, London]

I stood one person behind Anne Widicombe in the taxi queue at Charing Cross station.

She was nice & chatted with us--the person in front of me and me--about how transport in London sucked (she did not use that word). This was before she went blonde and I looked down--I am quite tall and she is quite small—and saw she had a white spot surrounded by black hair (where men have a bald spot) at the top of her head. Hopefully she didn’t notice how I was staring at it; I remember thinking “she should really do something about her hair colouring.” A year or so later she was blonde.

[Steve]

I didn't meet Alexander Dubcek, but I did go to his lying-in-state in Bratislava.

[Tim Barrow]

I used to walk to work across St. James's Park a few years ago, and I would often see Peter Mandelson out for a morning stroll with his pet dog. On one occasion he had stopped to talk to two Indian gentleman, who I was pretty sure I recognised as the Hinduja brothers. This was well after the passport scandal - in which all involved were cleared of any impropriety, of course - but it was nice to see that they'd kept in touch...!

[Richard Whitehead]

I have recently seen David Owen - not once, but twice!!! - using public transport in London. I can reveal he has a particular affection for the Waterloo and City Line, otherwise known as 'The Drain'. I wonder if he seems a connection between the nickname and his political career?

[chris.gillibrand@skynet.be]

If I may be allowed to enter twice! This I suspect reduces my chances of winning rather than increasing them.

My identical twin brother standing for the Conservatives was beaten in tbe mock school elections by the slick campaign of one Michael Crick, now of the BBC. My reverend brother has since headed off from Manchester to Wales via socialism and St John’s College, Oxford (this college also took Mr Blair beyond socialism!). Conversions run in the family (see above).

One evening, in the Chapel of St John’s College, I saw Harold Macmillan, shortly before his death, attend College Evensong (even though he almost converted to Catholicism in his youth, Macmillan’s love of Anglicanism is a key to much of his life). Notwithstanding his domestic and economic policies, Macmillan was an admirable opponent of appeasement (as a Catholic sympathiser, he knew the continent very well).

Macmillan was moving slowly but was guided by the great medieval historian, Sir Richard Southern. I have never seen such an indelible image of greatness.

[Tim]

I met Oliver North in the bathroom at Dulles Airport outside Washington DC. Which I thought was the best place to meet him . . . close to a toilet.

[Hip Gnosis]

When Romano Prodi, currently Prime Minister in Italy, held a far lesser post (I know whereof I speak), namely that of President of the European Commission, I once found his personal VISA statement in the morning’s bundle of post at my office. His Brussels residence being in those days right around the corner from my office, and I happening to know which building he lived in, I went and hand-delivered the envelope, directly and in person, into the slot of his letterbox. I refrained from opening it and faxing the contents to the Daily Mail.

[Joe Briefcase]

While in Manhattan many years ago, I was bumped by a taxi at an intersection, hard enough to send me flying into a pile of snow on the side of the street. The cab driver didn't bother to stop.

But I didn't even register what happened, and already two well dressed men were helping me up. They pulled me up from the street, helped shake the snow off my overcoat, checked to make sure I was OK. They were accompanied by another well dressed African American man who was nervously checking his watch and looking down the street, as if he was in far too much of a hurry to stop and help a hit and run victim in a New York Street. I recognized the man.

The two gentlemen who helped me up where Secret Service or otherwise bodyguards, and the man was Clarence Thomas.

Highest court in the land, and can't take 5 minutes to help someone hurt in the street. I wish I could have told this story at his confirmation hearing.

[Ferruge]

Back in late 2000 I had just started working for Yahoo! in the San Francisco Bay area. One day I was off to do some on-site training, which brought me to one of the several scattered buildings Y! had at the time that was different from where I usually worked. As I walked up the steps to the door, out walked Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House (and probably Presidential candidate in 2008) who had resigned his post just a year or two previous. That was absolutely the last person I expected to see on the Yahoo campus that day.

I walked into the lobby, still turning my head around to look out the door in disbelief at who I'd just seen. I asked the receptionist, "Was that....?" And she replied, "Yep."

[Vidiot]

I was in an elevator with Bill Richardson (former Clinton Administration Secretary of Energy and UN Ambassador, now Governor of New Mexico) at the 2000 Democratic National Convention. Also at that convention, I was behind Carl Bernstein in line for a backrub at the media-hospitality center. (I'd just read _Heartburn_ and kept thinking "he's one of my journalistic heroes! And an utter jerk!")

I've also explained video editing software to John Snow, Bush's former Treasury Secretary -- he was making an appearance on the news network where I work. He poked his head in my edit suite to ask me directions to the bathroom, but wound up staying and asking me all sorts of questions about video editing and the software I was using.

And I sat across the aisle from former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey at New York's St. Bart's Episcopal Church on Christmas Eve 2004, shortly after he resigned in disgrace.

[Alexandra]

--I saw Danny Glover filming a movie on a street in Passaic, NJ.

--Nicole Kidman passed by me on her way to the bathroom at a restaurant. She was unbelievably beautiful in person.

--I shook hands with Lillian Gish.

--I saw Norman Vincent Peale arguing with his wife and asking if he could buy an expensive pie. She said no because it cost $15.

[anne]

While I was a student at American University in Washington, DC in the 70s, I used to see IF Stone in the library, where he was the only person to have a reserved table among the stacks. He was pretty elderly, and still cheerful and enthusiastic, and I heard him happily telling a youngster that he had wanted to learn Classical Greek for many years, and was finally getting around to it.

[Randy]

When the Peter Weir movie "Gallipoli" first came out in the US I stood in line at the theater behind George F. Will, Reagan budget chief David Stockman and their dates.

[Allan]

One evening a few years back my wife and I were walking past Claridges. The police were out in force so obviously something was up. We hung around for a while and saw some minor royalty (and then HM and Prince Philip.) However it was the wee guy with the big moustache who got out of a fancy car earlier on who caught our attention. There was quite a crowd by this time but we were the only ones who seemed to recognise Lech Walesa. We gave him a big round of applause and in return he looked over to us and gave us a huge wave and a grateful smile - he was hosting the event that night, and it would have been a bit of a bummer for him if no one had even recognised him! I like to think we were doing our bit for UK-Polish relations...

If it's semi-famous you're after then I remember quite a few sightings of and conversations with a certain Daniel Finkelstein when he was a member of the SDP (I used to work at Cowley St. back in the 80s.) Quite a nice chap if memory serves...

[Constantine]

In 1993, I got Paul Tsongas to autograph my "Concord Coalition" pamphlet when he spoke at Boston University. When I moved down to DC this fall, I found that I still had it with me.

[Andy]

Ok - so I'm riding the down elevator in my apt building by myself and it stops on the floor below me. I'm not necessarily looking at the door as it's opening but I can hear a sweet woman's voice in the hallway outside the elevator saying something along the lines "ok - see you next time" or something like that. So who gets on the elevator, dressed very nattily I must say, in a very nice green 3 piece suit, but Marion Barry. I've never seen him close up, but for an older guy (he must be late 60s by now) he's looking pretty good. And I know his wife doesn't live in my building. I really had to stifle the urge to say "SO.. that bitch set you up?" but I didn't. And he ignored me the entire ride down.

About a week later, in my office building I was on the elevator and who gets on the floor below mw with an entrouage was JC Watts - also looking real good. He made a point of making eye contact and saying hello to me which I thought was interesting considering the on-going conversation he was having with his people.

[GeoffH]

I once shared a railway compartment with George Brown (yes I go that far back!) He left ALL the Sunday papers strewn over the floor and seats when he got off the train at Birmingham New Street. Litter Lout.

I took part in a meeting with Eric Varley when he was Sec of State for Energy.

Hosted a site tour at Dinorwic power station for a Plaid Cymru MP whose name is now long forgotten (mercifully)

I took Tony Benn round Dungeness B power station while it was under construction. We went into the clean conditions area so I got to see him in his underpants.

Spoke with Tom King, keeping the industrial correspondents at bay, during the Isle of Grain power station laggers dispute (1979 and on, and on).

Met Stephen Dorrell, while he was still a prospective candidate.

Went to a reception at Edinburgh Castle to meet Richard Ryder while he was Arts Minister.

Met Malcolm Rifkind at a reception in the Scottish National Gallery while he was Sec of State for Scotland. My wife asked him what his job was!

Shepherded Margaret Thatcher round a Scottish factory.

Hosted a lunch for Arts sponsors and introduced them to David Mellor, Culture Secretary.

Bumped into Robin Cook in the Usher Hall. He got under my feet (I'm 6' 4")

Met Vaclav Havel at concert in Prague.

Met Lech Walensa at concert in Warsaw.

[B. Barth]

In Washington, DC in the late 1980s, I stood in line behind Robert "Bud" McFarlane, Reagan's ex-National Security Advisor (and disgraced Iran-Contra scandal figure), to buy tickets to the movie "My Life as a Dog."

[Tom Elko]

I met Tommy G. Thompson, then Governor of Wisconsing, when I was about eight years old. He was dropping the ceremonial first puck, and I was representing my team, at the 1985 or '86 "mite" state hockey tournament.

I was also once told by recently re-elected Maine Governor, John Baldacci, that the great thing about Maine for young people is that it "has a low ceiling," in terms of advancing one's ambitions. He should know.

[Mike from Relaxed Willy]

I was asked by a musician friend in 1976 if I wanted to join him in playing at a Democratic fundraiser in Norfolk, VA for a dark horse Presidential candidate. I agreed, and ended up playing for - and being thanked by - Jimmy Carter.

[John Windle]

In 1966, when I was 11 years old I was seated next to Martin Luther King Jr. on a plane from Chicago to New York.

It was my first plane ride. I had no idea that I was sitting next to the Nobel prize winning leader of the civil rights movement. What I recall about the trip was how nice the man was. He asked me if it was my first time flying, told me he had flown many times, asked if I knew any jokes and proceeded to tell a few of his own.

It was only when we arrived in New York and he was met my a rush of photographers and reporters that I suspected he must be someone important or famous.

My father met my mother, sister and I at the airport and told me who it was.

I was still politically unaware at that age, and thought little more of the encounter.

It wasn't until years later, now 13, with the Vietnam war raging, massive anti war marches, racial unrest in major American cities, a bitter presidential campaign and the nearly back to back assasinations of King and Bobby Kennedy dominating the news, I became very interested in politics and the world around me for the first time.

[Brian]

When I was a kid, Ed Koch stepped on my foot at my local county fair. Best I can do, sorry.

[Mike Nilsen]

I went shopping for surplus electronics and attended hamfests (amateur radio conventions) with Bernie Goetz, the Subway Vigilante. He was a friend of my ex-employer. (Non-New Yorkers can look up Bernie in Wikipedia under Bernhard Goetz)

[CJR]

Just a couple of months ago I sat behind former Sec of Labor Robert Reich at a showing of the Al Gore movie in Harvard Square.

Last weekend my wife and I were in line behind Chris Hitchens fan John Malkovich at a local bakery. He was there to buy wine.

A few years ago I tried to visit a museum in Santa Fe. Turns out it was closed for regular museum activity but open if you wanted to get in the line to shake hands with governor-elect Bill Richardson.

I was urinal adjacent to the captain of the Straight Talk Express, John McCain, when he gave a stump speech at the Univ of South Carolina College of Engineering (where I worked) during the 2000 primary campaign.

[Vidiot]

I also met Oliver North, on a flight between Heathrow and Dublin in 1997. He was on his way to deliver a lecture at Trinity College. I pretended to be a huge fan and got a grinning, thumbs-up picture with him. (Which I can't find now, alas, or I'd send it to you.) I showed the picture to all my progressive friends, who got a kick out of it.

[David Shore]

In my role as a musician, I once stood right behind Illinois Senator Paul Simon as he gave a speech. Later in the evening, the Senator and I shared adjoining urinals. I greeted him and he said: "Forgive me for not shaking hands"

[Ken]

I have a bit of an odd advantage in that I worked at what was then (early to late 1980s) a Washington institution, Hechinger.

Hechinger was a Washington based hardware store chain for which I worked at the store most accessible to the political class. Thus I helped Robert McNamara buy lumber and some nails and then first lady Barbara Bush (and her entourage of ten secret service men) find some small household items (gifts maybe? I didn’t ask.). I helped James Watt purchase some plumbing supplies on the Fourth of July made infamous by his substitution of the traditional Beach Boys concert on the National Mall with the “more wholesome” Wayne Newton. I also helped Barry Goldwater locate a Black & Decker Workmate™ tool bench.

But I not only worked in the area I also lived there. Once when running, I was once impressed upon by some secret service men to vacate the area of a local running track. While gathering myself to leave (ok, so I was interested in who might show up) President George H.W. Bush arrived to run. He ran a decent pace.

[PW]

I shared a Guiness and a vegetarian Pizza with former New Zealand Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer and talked about whale watching and animal rights.

[Colin]

I saw Jodie Foster sitting in a chair on West 94th Street in Manhattan when they were shooting the outdoor scene in the movie Panic Room. I yelled out that I could smell her --nt, but I don't think she appreciated my little joke. She must get that one a lot from other aristocrats.

[Pat]

I was in Union Station, the train station in Washington DC, waiting to board a train for New York City. A woman sitting next to me started asking me questions since she was unfamiliar with the trains and how you boarded, etc. She was taking a train to visit her daughter who was in summer camp. As it turned out, she was Shelley Berkley, the Congresswoman whose district includes Las Vegas. She told me she was hungry and I pointed out a McDonald's a little ways down. Since she had time, she asked if I'd watch her bag (or maybe I volunteered to do that) and she asked me if I wanted anything. My first reaction was that I couldn't possibly ask a Congreswoman to bring me something from McDonald's, but then the idea so appealed to me that I said yes. But I just asked for a Diet Coke. While she was gone, I checked out the luggage tag on her bag which had "Member of Congress" on it. I have to say she was very lovely and later talked with great pride about her district.

On the other hand, my best friend was once yelled at by Barbara Bush (W's mom) at a charity luncheon my friend had helped organize, but that's her story to tell!

[Chip O]

I was riding my bicycle at an excessive rate of speed outside the Campus Center at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, when two large well-armed gentlemen standing by a limo looked at me nervously. Out of the limo stepped Robert Mugabe, President of Zimbabwe. (I'd heard he was visiting the campus, which is the only reason I recognized him.)

I think that was the same semester that a bunch of friends and I were being loud and rowdy in a coffeeshop when someone pointed out then-President of Argentina Raúl Alfonsín. A young lady of my acquaintance went up and tried to flirt with him; which was not well received by his security team.

Also once walked by then-Governor of Massachusetts (and 1988 Democratic US Presidential candidate) Michael Dukakis as he was waking from the subway stop up to the State House in Boston. (He was famous for riding the subway to work.)

[RayLodato]

I win.

I saw Barack Obama, American political superstar, accompanying his daughters as they trick-or-treated on my street this year.

[VAR]

Oh, geez, living in DC and being vaguely familiar with who politicians are, you have a lot of these.

()Was on a shuttle to New York from DC with Bill Clinton. Damndest thing - all of a sudden, there he was.

()Used same dry cleaner as Tommy Thompson, Director of HHS. He has a lot of dry cleaning.

()Sat next to Senator Bob Graham of Florida on a flight. He literally had a 15 minute breakdown of his itinerary during the trip. It wasn't a political trip - it was a family vacation.

()Was in a cheap Italian restaurant where the only people in it were me, my fiance, then Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and his wife, Labor Secretary Elaine Chao. They got bad service, too.

()Was in line behind George Will, who was talking with his preteen son about basketball.

()Went to a Blues joint in Chicago and was "surprised" by a performance by Bill Clinton's infamous brother, Roger Clinton. He was really bad.

()Bought a house from a very senior member of the US intelligence community. Great security system.

[Jay]

I ate dinner one table over from Bob Dole at the Four Seasons restaurant in L.A. He was there with a group of Asian men and women, and a few other Americans. As dinner was winding down, he reminded the women that they needed to hurry upstairs if they wanted to catch the Series Finale of Sex in the City. One of them asked if he knew about that because he was a fan. He said no, he just saw the advertisement for it in every commercial break on CNN.

I didn't, and never would, vote for the guy, but I was impressed with his charm.

[Marshall Ralph]

Some years ago (pre-9/11, no doubt) I found myself having a morning pee into the roadside ditch a little ways down a rural Idaho highway from, I swear, Dick Cheney. Our cars (my little Ford and his giant Suburban) were stopped and waiting interminably to let a creaky house go by on a trailer. It was early on a frosty morning, and our several offerings made cheery clouds of vapor. Bonus story: Decades ago I sat next to then Attorney General Ed Meese at a national police chief's meeting where I was reporting. He smelled great and I was tempted to ask what kind of scent he used, but chickened out.

[Spooky]

This might be obscure enough for a British newspaper.

Back in 1980, I had a friend who was involved in the Young Republicans at the University of Texas. He was a big Ronald Reagan fan and wanted to get into the Republican victory party, which was well-stocked with the rich and famous. Tragically, my friend was neither. With the boundless confidence of youth, I told him that I'd get him in. We showed up at the Sheraton in downtown Austin (Texas) and walked in the front door, whereupon I pulled him into the press room. Scanning the table, I grabbed a pair of credentials intended for one of the smaller newspapers on the opposite side of the state. We picked up pens and notepads and proceeded to spend the night wandering around, eating and drinking. Whenever security seemed to be looking in our direction, we'd start interviewing the nearest bystander. Friends and family later reported that we were pretty much ubiquitous on the television coverage — whenever the cameras panned the floor, you'd see us earnestly questioning some half-drunk party hack.

Near the end of the evening, my friend came over to say that he had heard that John Connelly, the former governor of the Great State of Texas, and the man who had been struck by the bullet that had assassinated John Kennedy, was upstairs in a suite. Still brimming with confidence, I towed him along to the elevator and, smiling at the security goon, selected the floor two levels above the governor's suite. We walked down the stairs to the floor, waited until the guard at the elevator had turned to examine the occupants of an arriving car, and sprinted across the hall and into the suite.

Inside, surrounded by the awesomely rich and powerful, we saw the man himself. He looked up and said, "Get them the hell out of here." Total elapsed time: ten seconds. At most.

[Matt Spencer]

I once negotiated my wife onto a full shuttle flight between Boston's Logan Airport and Washington, DC's National Airport while Former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger looked on. He shuffled up to the counter and tried to get himself on the flight and was denied. I did have one advantage, though, our dog had already been loaded on the plane and so we needed at least one member of the party to accompany our dog.

I also once flew from New York's La Guardia to Washington's National with my 5 year old son sitting next to former Nixon speechwriter and New York Times columnist William Safire. Although he could clearly see that my son and I were split up, he did not know that we had just gotten off of a plane from Madrid. He did not offer to let us sit together. Eventually a man next to me switched places with my son so we could be together. When we were getting off the plane, he noticed I was reading Norman Mailer's novel Harlot's Ghost and he said "good book." I said yes, I'm really enjoying it. He said "great, I'll tell Norman you like it!"

[Chris]

I lived in Washington, DC for a long time, so I will only put forward the one that made the strongest impression on me

I was on a Metro train full of tourists in the summer on their way to various war memorials, just a few years ago

To my left, reading the New York Times on his way to his office, was Robert MacNamara .

I don't think, even after the film The Fog Of War, that anyone else in the car realized that this single central witness to most of the 20th century, from the booming of Ford Motors to the bombing campaign against the Japanese, to the first use of nukes, to the Cuba Missle Crisis, to Saigon, to the creation of the World Bank, sat in their midst.

[Stephen B.]

Back in the 1960s, I saw John Wayne dealing with an overheated Cadillac on the streets of Nogales - the Mexican border town south of Tucson, Arizona. The people I was with were too bashful, but I stepped right up and looked under the hood with the Duke and a few other onlookers. When he touched the radiator cap, he released a great spew of obscenity, all in the great John Wayne voice - one of my most treasured memories.

[Doug]

When I was 12, I was taking a tour of the U.S. Capitol with my family when I was compelled to visit the restroom. As I was standing at a urinal, several Secret Service agents burst in. They were followed by the President of the United States, Lyndon Johnson. As he stood at the urinal next to mine, he asked where I was from and what I was doing there. I stammered out a few replies; he left, followed by his retinue.
And no, he didn't wash his hands.

[Swift Loris]

Don't know whether this qualifies, but when I was very young, my uncle (a theater director for the WPA) showed a photo of me to Eleanor Roosevelt, who opined that I was a lovely little girl but she hoped I wouldn't grow up to be president.

[Brian Meehan]

I bumped into, and almost knocked over, Warren Christopher at the San Jose airport. This was while he was working for Al Gore's 2000 campaign.

I am still basking in his reflected celebrity!

[Robert]

i went to a party at a fancy house in Hollywood (Bel Air, actually) where a very lost looking David Cameron worked the room, trying to raise money, i guess. he sounded far to the left of usual Democrats we meet at such functions. confusingly.

[GOPhuckYourself]

My friend's father gave me and my friend a ride down to college at the beginning of the spring semester one year. Along the way, we stopped at the house of a fried of the father for dinner. The house was utterly gorgeous, on an isolated tract of land along the Chesapeake Bay, and we dined on what I could tell with my limited experience was some seriously high-class food.

When we got back on the road, I asked what the father's friend did for a living. The reply was, "He's retired now, but he invented the Aegis missile guidance system".

[fostert]

I drank a shot of Irish whiskey with Steve Forbes in an Irish pub in Manhattan on St Patrick's Day in 1989.

[megisi]

I have a Bible autographed by Jimmy Swaggart.

Seriously.

I don't think he wrote that book, though.

[BG]

In the mid-70's, eating dinner at The Court of the Mandarins in DC, I watched former Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg come in with a group of young women. They took a banquette within 20 feet of my table, and the women listened raptly as Mr. Goldberg held forth. In fact, they were so entranced by whatever he was saying that they all failed to notice a rat of considerable substance make its way, (rather brazenly, I thought,) across the floor and under their table. I considered the costs and benefits of saying something to them and decided that the former far outweighed the latter. They finished their meal, and I mine, and presumably the rat his, without further incident.

[Larry Kestenbaum]

During the 1976 campaign, at Bell's Pizza in East Lansing, Michigan, I shared a pizza with then-US-Rep, soon-after-US-Sen, later-Keating-Five-member, Donald Riegle Jr.

At the Fowlerville Farms restaurant on I-96 between Detroit and Lansing, around 1997, I saw then-Michigan-Gov John Engler using a pay telephone. His limousine waited outside. Maybe his cell phone wasn't working?

At a big Detroit political event in 1980, I stood in line for food right behind civil rights legend Rosa Parks.

After my great-aunt's funeral in 1982, there was a reception at her apartment (this was in Chicago). The guest book, probably one they found in a closet and plopped out on the table, had been last used in 1955, and contained effusive comments about my great-aunt and great-uncle from poet Carl Sandburg.

My wife once saw newspaper columnist Judith Martin (aka "Miss Manners") emerge from a stall in a women's restroom in Boston.

[Barbara Hobbs]

I saw Ted Kennedy and a bunch of Kennedy children sitting next to me at a tent circus. It was many, many years ago and my husband had to point them out to me.

[Doug Teper]

I was a press secretary for former U.S. Senator Gary Hart when he ran for president the first time (Pre-Monkey Business)and later was hired to help run events for the New York primary and the Democratic Convention by former California Governor Jerry Brown when he ran for President the third time.

[Tom Kelso, Chicago, IL]

When I was 13, I sent a sample article to Art Buchwald "revealing" that the reason that Henry Kissinger was so reviled was that he used the "legislators only" bathroom during Congressional hearings.

Art sent me back a note saying that "if you are so interested in satire at an early age, I look forward to seeing what happens when you grow up." I am firmly convinced that history has since outsped satire.

[Nick]

When I lived in Krakow, in December 2002, I went to a nearly empty jazz bar in Krakow, and sitting across from my friend and I were none other than Chelsea Clinton and that dude she was dating. After the band finished, I went up and spoke to them, and then they left. Chelsea left a half empty shot glass of vodka, which I took and brought home with me.
Also, walking through the old town in prague, I saw a politician speaking, so afterwards I went up to him and shook his hand. Not speaking czech, I had no idea it was PM Milos Zeman until a picture appeared in the next day's paper.

[TJK]

No pictures of any of these, but:

1) I gave directions to former Senator Herman Talmadge, of Senate Watergate Hearings, at the D.C. Metro Metro Center stop after he had retired from the Senate. I thought he looked familiar and I noticed he was carrying an incredibly ornate leather briefcase with Talmadge in raised letters about six inches tall. He was clearly not familiar with the subway system.

2) I walked past Sam Donaldson on Connecticut Avenue in D.C. one time and just as we passed each other a homeless man tried to beg some money off of him. He was not successful.

3) I ran into a bookstore for a free weekly newspaper one day in Chicago. When I turned a corner in the store, I stopped and stood facing a seated G. Gordon Liddy attempting to autograph his new book. It was kind of sad as no one was in line and nobody seemed to be paying any attention to him. Though I had the opportunity, I couldn't think of anything to say to him.

4) I shook Senator Howard Baker's hand after he gave a speech geared toward a rural southern audience at a liberal northeast university.

[PM]

My wife dated Jimmy Hoffa's grandson for a short time while she was in high school. Her main memory, "they really hated the Kennedy's."

[Andrew]

I met former Georgia Senator Max Cleland in an airport in Florida. He was getting off his plane and waiting for some one to help him wheel his wheel chair out of the terminal, since his party meeting him couldn't get through security. So I pushed him out to the security line, where they were waiting.

[JCNY]

I once saw Stephanopolous at The Russian and Turkish Baths on E10th St in NYC. He was by himself and spent about an hour and a half there.

I once saw Ed Koch coming out of a movie theater on 3rd Ave in NYC. I said hello and he said "hello sir".

Have seen Ramsey Clark numerous times in Greenwich Village and at least twice on the subway.

Saw Chuck Schumer walking through a street market shaking hands in his NY senate campaign.

Saw Bob Kerrey at a steet fair on University Place last winter. He shook my hand and smiled.

[Chris Brew]

In 1975 I won a school debate with Martin Rowson (Observer
cartoonist) by appealing to fear of Russians, then lost the
next round to Alan Duncan (Tory MP for Rutland, Shadow Secretary of State for Trade and Industry) because of his cunning deployment of a series of nice fresh jokes about the Profumo affair (1962). To be fair, the jokes were completely appropriate. If I had been a better
debater, I would have known how to use the knowledge that
they were actually from a Flanders and Swann LP, and
presumably still topical in the minds of of the rather distinguished judging panel.

[Gray]

In the 90s, I sat in an italian rastaurant in Germany for 15 minutes before realizing that at the next table was Gerd Schröder, who was governor at that time. About ten years later, I was at a greek restaurant when chancellor Schröder with his bodyguards arrived and chose the table nest to mine. In the next two years, on two occasions I passed by him when he was on a walk with his new wife. All of those times, he made a face as if he had toothaches. Judging from TV recently, he like his new job much better...

Oh, and I have a framed photograph, bought at the flea market, showing former german chancellor Helmut Schmidt (a good friend of your Prez. Ford), with a handsigned autograph.

[Tim Worstall]

I was at school with Bong Bong Marcos. Saw his parents, Ferdinand and Imelda when they came to pick him up once.

[Lisa]

One morning in the early 1980's I was biking from my apartment in Harvard Square, Cambridge (USA) to my job as a lab technician at the university's biochemistry building. The route took me through Harvard Yard and the Law School Yard, both of which were off-limits to cyclists, so I was trying to make haste. All of a sudden I was pulled up short, realizing I had nearly crashed into the legs of someone. I looked up and it was Archibald Cox, of Nixon Saturday Night Massacre fame, who was then a law professor. He was very nice about it, just nodded and waved me on my way.

We thus avoided the obvious headline in next-day's Harvard Crimson: "Saturday Night Massacre Victim Succumbs to Monday Morning."

[NICK BISKINIS]

Many years ago i was involved at my school's Political Society, and of course you'd write the usual grovelling letters to politicians asking them to come and spend an unpaid thirty minutes talking to sub-adolescents.

Jim Callaghan was on my list, and he responded with the "i'd like to but..". So i said that if he did come he wouldn't have to stand to give us a reminiscence. In the end he invited me to meet him at the House of Lords "and bring one or two friends if you want to!". Either nobody else in my sixth form knew who Callaghan was (..or possibly i didn't have any friends...) i ended up meeting him alone.

I can't remember all that much of what was said. I forgot to ask him whether he actively sought to get rid of Harold Wilson in 1969, or, had he been re-elected, how could he have continued with Consensus politics. Because i was excited to meet him, i asked him stupid questions about what it was like to become Prime Minister etc.

Anyway he took me to the House of Lords restaurant for tea and cake. The Lords is to say the least, scarlett ornate, and the waitresses that came up kept courtesying and ending each sentence with "My Lord" (i can see why socialists long for the peerage). I felt out of place, having rushed from school in the rain, and my bag sopping wet. The waitress brought a huge slice of cake, but unfortunately a tiny knife to slice it. Normally if at home like everyone else confronted by cake i'd just resort to caveman instincts and stuffed the thing down my mouth, but obviously this was the Lords. Callaghan, seeing the futility of my trying to slice this wall of cake, said "For heaven's sake eat it like a man you're a growing lad!" Callaghan spent much of his career projecting a slightly bluff geniality of 'Sunny Jim', but i have to say he was genuinely cheerful and convivial, very pleasant company. And yes i was in awe of a figure i read about in history books, whose political career began in 1945, sitting opposite me drinking tea, albeit mocking my attempts to slice cake.

The 1974/1979 Labour Government became a major interest of mine, so perhaps had i asked too many questions - ie "Do you think you would have won if you held the election in 1978", he might have bought me things other than cake (eg a ticket home for immediate use). But given that all other ex-PMs or Presidents won't talk to anyone unless they are willing to pay about £1 million, Callaghan was happy to meet someone for tea, buy them cake and chat. He wasn't somehow 'above' others.

Normally with famous people they draw attention to themselves by constantly looking around to make sure people are looking at them.

Quite separately from the above i was once on a train to Cambridge when Rachael Weisz sat opposite dressed casually reading some Shakespeare festival pamphlet. She is not as good looking on screen as she is in real life. It was hot in the train, and she wasn't exactly helping matters, so i moved before i totally disintegrated from lust and perspiration

[Nick Biskinis]

Many years ago i was involved at my school's Political Society, and of course you'd write the usual grovelling letters to politicians asking them to come and spend an unpaid thirty minutes talking to sub-adolescents.

Jim Callaghan was on my list, and he responded with the "i'd like to but..". So i said that if he did come he wouldn't have to stand to give us a reminiscence. In the end he invited me to meet him at the House of Lords "and bring one or two friends if you want to!". Either nobody else in my sixth form knew who Callaghan was (..or possibly i didn't have any friends...) i ended up meeting him alone.

I can't remember all that much of what was said. I forgot to ask him whether he actively sought to get rid of Harold Wilson in 1969, or, had he been re-elected, how could he have continued with Consensus politics. Because i was excited to meet him, i asked him stupid questions about what it was like to become Prime Minister etc.

Anyway he took me to the House of Lords restaurant for tea and cake. The Lords is to say the least, scarlett ornate, and the waitresses that came up kept courtesying and ending each sentence with "My Lord" (i can see why socialists long for the peerage). I felt out of place, having rushed from school in the rain, and my bag sopping wet. The waitress brought a huge slice of cake, but unfortunately a tiny knife to slice it. Normally if at home like everyone else confronted by cake i'd just resort to caveman instincts and stuffed the thing down my mouth, but obviously this was the Lords. Callaghan, seeing the futility of my trying to slice this wall of cake, said "For heaven's sake eat it like a man you're a growing lad!" Callaghan spent much of his career projecting a slightly bluff geniality of 'Sunny Jim', but i have to say he was genuinely cheerful and convivial, very pleasant company. And yes i was in awe of a figure i read about in history books, whose political career began in 1945, sitting opposite me drinking tea, albeit mocking my attempts to slice cake.

The 1974/1979 Labour Government became a major interest of mine, so perhaps had i asked too many questions - ie "Do you think you would have won if you held the election in 1978", he might have bought me things other than cake (eg a ticket home for immediate use). But given that all other ex-PMs or Presidents won't talk to anyone unless they are willing to pay about £1 million, Callaghan was happy to meet someone for tea, buy them cake and chat. He wasn't somehow 'above' others.

Normally with famous people they draw attention to themselves by constantly looking around to make sure people are looking at them.

Quite separately from the above i was once on a train to Cambridge when Rachael Weisz sat opposite dressed casually reading some Shakespeare festival pamphlet. She is not as good looking on screen as she is in real life. It was hot in the train, and she wasn't exactly helping matters, so i moved before i totally disintegrated from lust and perspiration

[Rod]

As a child, I was at a US army base getting my hair cut. In the chair next to me was David Eisenhower.

[Thomas P Champion]

In 1976, my family hosted a fundraising event for Presidential candidate Morris Udall at our Cambridge, Massachusetts home. The Secret Service arrived early, "swept" the house, and made it secure.

Once Udall arrived, two agents took position on the front porch to keep an eye on the guests as they came in. My father asked me to stand outside with the agents and check off the names of the invitees as they arrived.

A number of local notables were there, including Harvard President Derek Bok, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Daniel Patrick Moynihan.

The Secret Service agents remained completely imperturbable, however, until Harvard Law Professor and former Watergate Special Prosecutor Archibald Cox checked in with me and then moved on into the party.

Cox was a slight, stooped, unassuming man with a buzz-cut and a bowtie, but the Secret Service agents were noticeably ruffled, almost flustered, in his presence.

After Cox had entered the house, one of the agents turned to me and asked, "Was that who I think it was?"

When I confirmed that it was Cox, he turned to his partner and said "Now THAT guy has BALLS."

[BG]

In the early '80s, I happened to get the seat next to Ralph Nader on a flight to DC. Talking in the general direction of the seatback in front of me, I immediatly began to regale him with my recent discovery that Army recruiters used individual results from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (supposedly just a free counselling service for schools) to do highly targeted recruiting. When I turned to see if he was as outraged over this violation of privacy as I was, I made another distressing discovery -- he was asleep.

[mfw13]

I've got quite a few....

1) Hammered nails with Jimmy Carter on a Habitat for Humanity project

2) Drove in President Clinton's motorcade during the 1992 campaign

3) Interviewed the first President Bush for my university newspaper

4) Sat next to Joe Montana at a performance of Cats in San Francisco

[Debra]

Two stories:

I was a radio reporter covering Jerry Brown's run for president. He was briskly walking across the campus of Wayne State University in Detroit and all of us reporters were surrounding him, trying to get sound bites. I aggressively pushed my way next to him with my microphone in his face. The Secret Service guys were not happy. Later, when I got back to the station, I realized that the pause button on my recorder had been deliberately pushed -- I'm sure by the Secret Service in all the jostling -- and I had no tape of Brown's comments.

Several years ago, Mario Cuomo was running for governor of New York and his Republican opponent refused to debate him. I worked at a public TV station broadcasting a farce of a debate between Cuomo and minor party candidates. After the debate ended, I introduced my then 6-year old son to Cuomo. He stopped, shook hands and asked my son if he had watched the debate. My son said no and Cuomo said -- for the benefit of the reporters around us -- "don't worry, nothing happened here anyway."

I've met countless celebrities, but then I worked in the media for years so its no big deal.

[Richard Dickson]

I spoke with Elvis on the school playground in Memphis in 1960. He was playing (American) football with his mates and caught a pass next to me on the sidelines. I complimented him on the catch. He thanked me. We had a chat. Anyone seen him lately?

[mfw13]

...and was in the same preschool play group as Lemony Snicket

[Tom Whitwell]

I saw George Stephanopoulos at a Starbucks in Dupont Circle in Washington in the early '90s. Seemed like the right sort of place to see him.

[Drew Robertson]

1) Said hello to Christopher Hitchens at outside bar at Grand Central. He was wearing a Kurdish flag button. I said Iraq war was doomed and made obscure reference to British at Kut in WWI.

2. Saw David Owen at Sports Authority. Recommended warm sweats for his trips to Bosnia when he was trying to save the place.

3. Campaigning for John Anderson at Greenwich train station side by side with George Bush the Elder. Shook hand.

4. Used to see Cyrus Vance all the time on street. But not anymore.

5. Saw Lionel Hampton playing vibes at Cincinnati's Lunken Airport in 1968 for Rockefeller. Shook hands with Rocky and said Nixon's the One! Later spent News Years Eve with Lionel Hampton. He went to sleep at 10.

6. My sister's boyfriend said his mom slept with JFK.

7. Gave Rudy Giuliani a cigar. He liked it.

8. Got hit on by Illinois Senator.

[Stuart]

When I was younger, Mark Shriver of the Kennedy clan was running for our local Congressional seat - which he lost. He canvassed door to door for votes. My father, fresh in from gardening answered the door in an undershirt and his underwear. Not a great site for Mr. Shriver but certainly not the first Kennedy to see a constituent in his underwear. Not sure why Dad answered the door at all in that state but I remember coming downstairs, realizing what happened and being completely mortified. Just had to share

[steve koppelman]

I shook hands and exchanged pleasantries with George Soros on Easter Sunday, 1992. It was in L'viv, Ukraine, at one of those rural village reproduction museums school groups frequent to watch people churn butter and milk cows. I was there with several coworkers from the management institute where I was teaching English at the time, including the institute's director, Viktor Pynzenyk, who briefly served as the country's finance minister. That park was the place to be seen that day if you were aligned with Ukraine's western-oriented political factions. Everyone was dressed in holiday finery and strolling the dirt footpaths. Soros was wearing an overcoat and a very nice scarf.

I met some other prominent Ukrainian politicians that day, but I no longer remember which. Probably whatshisname from Rukh.

[Vadranor]

While on vacation in Moscow in 1992, I went to Novodevichy Cemetary to see the graves of such famous Russians as Khrushchev, Prokofiev and Shostakovich. There was a gravestone with a space theme, and I saw a middle-aged man sweeping the snow off the stone. The sweeper was Alexei Leonov, the first man to walk in space, and the grave was that of Pavel Belyayev, who commanded that flight (Voskhod II). Leonov graciously gave me an autograph.

[J Hanna]

I was attending an off Broadway play by David Mamet. We sat down, and my wife whispered to me, "It's Neil Simon." I said, no, it's a Mamet play. She said, "Two seats over, it's Neil Simon." He was watching a Mamet play.

Isaac from the Loveboat was also in the audience.

[JH]

This is a political figure story.

I was a TA at a largish US private university not too long ago. The morning on the first day of finals in December 1997, we were giving our enrty level 101 final, and as the exam was going on, one of our students asked for our attention from the doorway. The young asian woman asked that she be deferred from taking the final until January because of some family issues that had come up back home. "What's your last name?" "Fujimori." "See you in January."

She was the First Lady of Peru (a fact that was unknown to us until that point), and some of her family had just been taken as hostages at the Japanese Embassy there. Best. Excuse not to take a final. Ever.

[Chris Gillibrand]

In an effort to seriously reduce my chances, by entering a third time, I should add I worked once for Emma Nicholson, then a Conservative MP.

As per my first post, Mr Livingstone, myself and Baroness Nicholson have all gone our separate ways. She may find herself working again with the Conservative Party after the next General Election.

Ironic indeed that the great Lib-Con battle ground of Devon and Cornwell is increasingly Eurosceptic and where UKIP is strongest in the United Kingdom.

[Waldo Jaquith]

Once, as a pushy teenager publishing a 'zine, I shoved my way through a crowd to meet Pat Buchanan. (Wearing a fedora with a piece of paper with the word "PRESS" written on it shoved in the band, because, hey, why not?) I made eye contact and asked him: "Mr. Buchanan, if you could be any kind of animal, what kind of animal would you be?"

He gave me an answer, but I don't remember what it was. "Badger," I think. I was just disappointed that the man didn't have the presence of mind to say "elephant."

[George]

I was at the inaugural graduation of the American Univerisity of Kosovo, watching a friend get her degree. The late president of Kosovo, Ibrahim Rugova, was the keynote speaker. At the end of the ceremony, he walked past me and said "congratulations."