Quite a few encounters, but not the Hollywood or sports types. Mostly well-known scientists or space people at conferences or launches, and science fiction writers at conventions. Plus some guy named Nimoy in front of me at a cetacean panel at a science meeting back in the mid ‘80’s. (“I can’t wait to see how this ties in to your next movie.” Smiles, winks, no comment, of course.) Scientists and authors are all a lot easier to share a meal or drink with than traditional “celebs”; you can meet and talk to them, not just observe them.

For someone more people would recognize, there’s this:

Many years ago, I was at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico, doing a lot of hiking and photography. Late one morning, after I’d been out hiking since sunrise, the light was getting flat, so I headed back to my car. I thought I’d take a quick drive around the park loop to see if there was anything interesting despite the now-blah light before heading to town for lunch. I came around a curve between the dunes and saw a bunch of large commercial trucks off to one side, and a lot of equipment and wiring set up nearby. Around the next curve were a white stretch limo, several state trooper cars and some park ranger vehicles. As I expected when I first saw the trucks, it was a film crew (I'd run into film crews during my travels before). It was not a movie or a TV commercial, though; “Puff Daddy” was here to shoot a music video out on the dunes. I parked, climbed a nearby dune to get a good view but be out of their way, and waited. They were ready to film after fifteen minutes or so more of preparation, and I watched and listened to them do three takes of the song “Best Friend.” They had a full-size white piano out on the dunes for the video, too; I think Mario Winans was at the keyboard. Puff would wrap his head in a wet towel to keep cool between takes. One of the crew would broom-sweep and air-hose-blow the sand around Puff’s feet before each take to smooth away any stray footprints. Various other people worked the light reflectors, boom cameras, sound equipment and other gear. The soundtrack was being played from their studio session for them to lip-synch out here in the desert (terrible acoustics here, you know). I’m sure they cut off access to the area for people just arriving, but for those of us already there, we got to see it if we wanted.