Bruce Feiler - Where God Was Born, Abraham, Walking The Bible

The Art and Craft of Name-Dropping
Thursday, March 8, 2007

I admit to an interest in the sociology of name-dropping, when it works (rarely) and when it doesn't (too needy). It has something to do with where you see the celebrity. Seeing a celebrity at a tony restaurant in New York is not that interesting. Seeing one in a dump in Baton Rouge is. Seeing a celebrity riding in a limo isn't interesting. Seeing one riding on a roller coaster is. You get the idea. I still need some more work coming up with categories.

But today I received a name drop of a different kind: In an email! From a Blackberry. With no comment, just a subject line. From Mrs. Feiler Faster, at TED:

Subject: Just met Forrest Whitaker :)

Hmmm. Acceptable. Or not. Hard to tell. He did just win an Oscar.

PS: I'm afraid my old pal John Aravosis fails the Name-Dropping Test. Seeing a Daily Show correspondent on the streets of New York is not worth repeating.

Posted by B Feiler at 7:00 AM
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