I was on international TV a year ago.
Obama came to Richmond to give a speech at the University of Richmond. The missus and I got down there in time to get four tickets, and brought a friend with us.

As we stood in line a statuesque blonde in a severe navy blue suit was walking through the crowd, eyes turning this way and that, and suddenly focused on me. "Excuse me, how many people are with you?"

"Three," I replied, gesturing to my wife and our friend.

"May I see your tickets?"

Uh oh, am I about to get bounced for some reason? Shit. "Uh, sure. Here you go. Is anything wrong?"

"No, not at all. I'll just put these stickers on them. When you go in show them to the people at the gate and they'll direct you."

"Okay..."

We got up there and the girl at the gate gave me a beaming smile and told me to go to Gate 22, around the other side of the stadium. We walked, noticing that there were damn few people walking in our direction, and were shown through a doorway. Puzzled, I went down the stairs to the front row...

...and found myself about fifteen feet from the back of the podium where the man himself was to appear.

It was a good speech, of course, and we applauded at the appropriate moments. My wife guesses that we were chosen because I was a middle-class looking white guy in casual clothes (a blue Oxford shirt and white shorts) and would look good mixed in with the well dressed crowd of African Americans who sat around and behind us. When he turned to leave my wife gave him two thumbs up and he responded by giving her the trademark pointing and smiling.

If you go here www.richmond.edu/obama/ and play the slideshow at the bottom, in one picture where he's at the podium you can see me behind him and to the left in my blue shirt and white shorts, standing out like a neon sign.

People my wife knows in Kuwait saw her on BBC Persia and recognized her. I was also briefly visible as an applauding speck on the Daily Show.

Famous for a couple of seconds, anyway...
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Fri 21 Sep 2012, 22:42, Reply)