July 25, 2005
Twice in one day. Well, just 'cuz I forgot earlier.

Ever hear that expression about everybody on the planet being 6 degrees of separation away from each other? I believe it.

I was in northern Michigan vacationing this weekend and talking to a lovely lady who also lived at my sister's condo complex on Higgins Lake, and she said, "I don't know if you know much about the music world, but my nephew has a garage band out of Detroit."

I thought, well, probably not. "Who's that?"

"Jack White. His band's called The White Stripes."

Uh, yeah. May have heard about him. Grammy winner with Loretta Lynn. Biggest artist to come out of the Detroit area since Eminem. I even like some of his stuff.

Okay, so I know his auntie, and he knows damned near everybody else in the rock/pop music world. That's 2 or 3 degrees or separation.

And of course, I held open the door for Alexander McCall Smith at Magna cum Murder. And I interviewed Michael Connelly, who met Clint Eastwood. And my sister-in-law played piano with the Sterling Consort for one of James Woods's weddings. And I had thanksgiving dinner with one of my brother's grad students who used to play in a rock band in Greece who knew Bridgette Nielsen, who was married later to Sylvester Stallone.

How am I doing? Okay, my friend Anne Stanton's husband is a bestselling author who knows Jim Harrison (author) who knows Jack Nicholson and Harrison Ford.

Okay, stop, stop, stop. It doesn't matter. Their success, glamour and fame has not brushed off on moi. So what? The point is, the world is a pretty small fricking place. So...

Who do you know?

Best,
Mark Terry