Content Marketing Today

8 Things Most People Don’t Know about Me for 2008

This very off-topic post is the result of being tagged by my colleague and friend Joe Pulizzi.  It’s part of a wacky blog meme that is prompting bloggers like me to share 8 things about themselves.  Some of what follows might be surprising–even to some of my good friends.  So here goes:

• On our honeymoon in Paris, France, my wife, Maxine and I had dinner next to Woody Allen and Diane Keaton when they were still an item. 25 years later, on our anniversary trip to Paris, while we were sitting in a sidewalk cafe, Woody Allen walked right past us.  Coincidence?  Maybe not.  I think he remembered us but was too shy to stop and say hello.
• I lived for a year in West Africa, selling tires.  During that time I was an informal CIA agent, hired to keep an eye on a young Soviet couple.  I was moved into a duplex next to them during their home leave in the Soviet Union.  They never returned so I wound up with free rent with no work to do.  I also learned that the smart people in an embassy are usually CIA types.

• I worked for the Malayan Tin Bureau in Washington, D.C. and spent 3 weeks in Malaysia learning more than I ever wanted to know about tin mining. It’s a beautiful country with lovely people but it was definitely TMI about tin mining.
• I was the high school answer to Rudy Ruettiger of Notre Dame fame.  Even though I weighed only 127 lbs, I got to start one football game at right guard because the coach wanted to reward my effort,if not my ability.  I was in for just one play, though.
• The first time I ever had to speak in public I was so nervous that I literally couldn’t sleep the night before.  And I wouldn’t let my wife come to listen because I was afraid I would embarrass us both.  Fortunately, it turned out ok.
• I have a dog named Mia who is so smart that she has learned to hide rawhide bones in the house and make me find them. There’s something wrong with that picture.
• My best friend from high school emigrated with his family to Australia.  I had the pleasure of reconnecting with him on a wonderful month-long trip Down Under in 2005.  Apart from the USA, Australia is definitely the most wonderful country on the planet–and Australians are the most friendly.  Crikey, we loved the Aussies!
• When I was in high school, I traveled from Chicago to Los Angeles by train with my aunt, uncle, and cousins. Aboard were Bob Newhart and his new wife. My cousin John and I spent the entire trip devising slapstick comedy routines that would crack him up so he would put us on TV.  It didn’t work. So here I am blogging.

Now that I’ve fessed up, I’m tagging my Aussie pal, Brett Gilbertson of Conversion Rate, my long-time CMP colleague and friend, Mike Azzara and my frequent writing muse, web 2.0 guru, Stephanie Diamond.  I’m looking forward to learning more about each of you.