Who are you six degrees from?

[Fight_n_back]

I was friends with a comedy producer who was best friends with Nicole Boxer(daughter of CA Senator Barbara Boxer) who married Hugh Rodham who is Hillary Clinton's brother.

So for awhile I was how ever many seperations that is from the President.

Tracey (my friend) actually got to go to the White House for the wedding.

Nicole is quite attractive by the way.

[arwalden]

1. Me--> My Mother --> Kathy Way --> Bill Clinton

My mom worked in the White House as a secretary for Kathy Way who was on Clinton's domestic policy staff. She's got a couple of photos of herself with Bill Clinton and another one where she's holding "Socks" next to a WH Christmas tree.

One of the photos is personally autographed (NOT "autopenned" and not rubber-stamped)... very cool!

-- Allen

[arwalden]

2. Does "Six Degrees" Mean That There Are Six OTHER People

who connect you to your "target"? Or does it mean that the target person is actually the SIXTH person (or the sixth degree)?

See message above... am I two degrees from Bill Clinton or three degrees from Bill Clinton?

-- Allen

[Nevernose]

4. I believe you're two degrees away

I think that the "target" of the six degrees of separation would actually be the seventh person.

[GregW]

3. Kevin Bacon - Two Degrees

Me --> Sigrid Thornton --> Olivia DeHaviland --> Kevin Bacon

[Pale Blue Dot]

44. Me too!

Me - Eddie Bracken - John Candy - Kevin Bacon

[populistmom]

5. George Will in 3 and Dan Rather in 2

myself- my mom- her best friend when I was little became Mrs. Will's (I think her name's Madeline?) assistant

myself- my dad- interviewed as a delegate by Rather during the 1968 Democratic convention

[nuxvomica]

46. Then I'm two degrees from Morley Safer

So I can include everyone he knows as third degree. With that wide a net, I could be within 4 of the likes of Osama bin Laden, which would put me at a 5 or 6 degrees of the BFEE.

[Bridget Burke]

6. Fewer than Six....

Me -> former Co-worker -> her Ex -> Shrub.

(Living in Houston, I could probably make several connections with him--if I wanted to. I also know a cousin of Anna Nicole Smith--who's a better class of folk than the Connecticut faux-cowboy.)

A while back, there was a "2 degree" string, which I ignored. Rumination left me with a list of people who'd met people that I'd met:

* The Reverend Jim Jones

* The Reverend Ian Paisley

* General Curtis E. Lemay

* Woodie Guthrie

* All the Dixie Chicks

* Tim Robbins

* Julie Christie

...lots more connections in the music world...

[Az]

7. I believe the theory is

that we are all 6 degrees from everyone else.

[arwalden]

10. You're Correct... The Challenge Is Being Able To Find The Chain

of people that will get you to your target.

-- Allen

How many generations backward in time can the six-degrees reach? Six times the average life expectancy of (say...) 50 would take us back 300 years.

[DemBones DemBones]

55. Well, Light Horse Harry Lee and Ben Franklin were

both delegates to the Continental Congress, so I can link to Franklin (born in 1707) in six degrees.

Since I have a link to Robert E. Lee, I started working from him, checking some dates, and who was where:

1) me--->

2) my grandfather--->

3 )his father (my great-grandfather) ---->

4) his second cousin (an early portrai photographer who did some of the famous photos of) ---->

5) General Robert E. Lee --->

6) Governor (of Virginia) Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee
(Also a Captain in the Continental Army and
Robt. E. Lee's father) ---->

7) Benjamin Franklin (born 1707)

That gives me six degrees of separation from Ben Franklin, which is 298 years from now , almost that 300 you posited.

Until I found the proof that Light Horse Harry and Ben were both at the Continental Congress, I had George Washington in between them. Harry was asked by Congress to give Washington's funeral oration, which contains these famous words:

"First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen...second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life."

Light Horse Harry fell on hard times after being governor of Virginia -- just about the time his son Robert E. learned how to walk, Harry was sent to debtors' prison!!! (In the U.S.!!!) (This was educational as well as fun.)

I knew from doing genealogy that the more money someone has, the easier they are to trace -- and money is often allied with fame, so I stuck with famous people from Robt. E. Lee back.

As Ben Franklin wrote:

"If you would not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading,
Or do things worth the writing."

[ronnykmarshall]

8. Kevin Bacon

My friend Cindy Alexander has performed with The Bacon Brothers several times. Since I run her fan club, I guess that makes me two degrees off.

[terrya]

9. I guess I'm two degrees from Stephen Sondheim.

My partner, Doug, knows Sondheim. They correspond and Doug considers Sondheim a mentor (Sondheim has made suggestions concerning the musicals that Doug has written).

So, I guess I'm two degrees from Sondheim.

Terry

[thom1102]

17. In a similar vein...

My partner's brother's partner is a musical director on Broadway. He was musical director of Little Shop of Horrors, Geopetto (the TV movie with Drew Carrey), Chicago, Miss Saigon, and most recently, the soon to close Never Gonna Dance, among others. Through him I could probably be within 3 steps of almost anyone in Hollywood:

Bob->Drew Carrey
Bob->Wayne Brady
Bob->Ellen Green (Audry in LSOH)-> Christian Slater
Bob->Brent Spiner (Geopetto)
Bob->Nana Visitor
Bob->Bebe Neuwirth
Bob->Rick Moranis (LSOH)
Bob->Steve Martin
Bob->Chita Rivera

And these are just a few of the people that I know he knows. I guess that isn't really fair... Oh well!

[terrya]

18. Very impressive!

Some nice connections to Broadway (Chita Rivera, Bebe Neuwirth, Brent Spiner)

:-)

Terry

[thom1102]

22. It's really cool, because inevitably, either Bob, or my partner's brother

know someone who is in a show that is currently running, and can get us house seats (Good seats in the orchestra). The seats are regular price, but you always know that they'll be good. Bob offered me the opportunity to accompany him to Miss Saigon, and watch the show from the pit. Unfortunately, I was never able to take him up on the offer, but we did get to attend the final performance and the after party as his guests. That was very cool! I got to meet Lea Salonga (the star of the show) and Cameron Macintosh (the producer and major Broadway player). Sometimes it's good to know people.

[eyesroll]

11. Quite a few people

My aunt runs a booking agency in LA -- musicians and entertainers for corporate parties, department stores, movie premieres, that sort of thing. She usually goes to the higher-profile ones to make sure everything is OK.

More directly:
Me -- My great-grandmother --- her first cousin -- her granddaughter Beth -- Eddie Vedder. (Beth Liebling of Hovercraft is Eddie Vedder's ex-wife.)

Me -- Anna Slotky -- The entire cast of the Home Alone movies
(A friend of mine in college was dating Anna's brother, and both of them would come and hang out in our dorm. Anna played one of the McAllister kids.)

[Whitacre D_WI]

20. Yes, and I gave Anna a cigarette when she was fourteen.

I didn't know she was that young, honest!

[AlienGirl]

12. You don't want to know...

:scared:

Tucker

[regnaD kciN]

15. Yes, we do!

Enquiring minds want to know...

[Snow]

23. Whoa! Is AlienGirl Jenna?

confess!

[AlienGirl]

33. Luckily, no!

I'm five degrees from Shrubbo.

Me--->my roomies--->some telephone guy--->some guy who did business with Bush's grandpa--->Grandpa Bush--->Poppy Bush--->Shrub.

But I'm only one degree from a disreputable Lousiana politician; and two degrees from that guy who did business with Grandpa Bush. Ugh.

Tucker

[regnaD kciN]

36. David Duke???

But I'm only one degree from a disreputable Lousiana politician

Although there are lots of disreputable Louisiana politicians, that's the only one that I think would be so objectionable that you'd want to hide your connection.

[AlienGirl]

40. Yep.

And the other guy I mentioned is like a zillion times worse. :puke:

Tucker

[AlienGirl]

34. I'm two degrees from a guy who did business with the Bushes

If I mention the guy's name, this thread will die.

Tucker

[VelmaD]

13. Karl Rove

was my Campaign Politics prof in grad school so I'm only 1 degree away from anyone who works in the current administration. Blech. :puke:

[Jade Fox]

42. Rove taught college?????

What were his class titles, Rat-fucking 101 and 102?

Did you get any sense of how exactly that guy manages to sleep at night?

[regnaD kciN]

14. One of the producers of my latest feature film...

...is Clinton's second cousin.

And I attended the same boarding school as Garry ("Doonesbury") Trudeau and (gasp!) John Kerry...but not at the same time as either of them. But I was a classmate of Michael Kennedy (R.I.P.), the son of RFK (likewise).

[CBHagman]

16. Three degrees from Peter Lorre, two from Bela Lugosi

My Aunt Julie hung out with Lugosi before he was famous. Lugosi worked with Lorre, so that puts me three degrees from him (and a lot of other people, including Ed Wood!).

[Zero Gravitas]

19. Clinton, Wolfowitz, Bush

Wolfowitz: 1 (ugh)
*: 2 (double ugh)
Clinton: 2 (woo-hoo!)

[UnAmericanJoe]

21. Was 2 from Kurt Cobain nt

[DemBones DemBones]

51. Me, too! Also River Phoenix.

me ---> daughter ---> Kurt Cobain

me ---> daughter ----> River Phoenix

She knows a lot of people still living, too, thank goodness.

Edit: I guess that's first degree?

[Pithlet]

24. Dan Rather, and Jack Nicholson

I dated someone who's dad gave scuba lessons to Dan Rather.

My step cousin is marrying Jack Nicholson's cousin.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

25. Me --> Richard Stallman --> Dennis Kucinich (nt)

[confusionisnext]

47. me -> ... -> Queen of England

me -> friend -> friend's boyfriend -> friend's boyfriend's uncle Douglas Hurd, foreign affairs secty for -> Margaret Thatcher -> the Queen

[bubba_fett]

26. Two from Bill Clinton

A friend of mine interned at the whitehouse during his term (haha no, not Monica lewinsky).

[Whitacre D_WI]

27. Me ---> Dennis Kucinich ---> WilliamPitt! (and many others)

Okay, it's not like I know Dennis all that well; but I did spend almost an hour chatting with him once, and he recognized me the next time we met.

I'm two degrees away from lots of people in the entertainment world. I know most of the members of the Columbus, OH music scene from the '80s-'90s, and they know lots of people that you might have actually heard of.

[Westegg]

28. Paris Hilton and Abe Lincoln

My girlfriend in the '80s in L.A. was friends with Paris's parents, and would drag me to parties at their house, where I met Paris when she was, I guess, about seven or eight. I once got her a glass of water because she was crying and no one seemed to notice and I felt sorry for her. I didn't actually get it for her---I asked the housekeeper to.

Honest Abe? He married into my dad's family via Mary Todd. My dad still has the portrait of Abe that was used as the basis for the $5 bill.

[bif]

29. Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown Marian McPartland

A close friend is friends of all three! (I know, Ray's no longer with us.) Plus Hank Jones and the late Tommy Flannagan.

[MrScorpio]

This post has two purposes....

Trigger GrovelBot!!!

And to mention that I'm only four degrees from Heavyweight Boxing Champ Joe Louis

Me - Mom - Grandma (sister) - Joe Louis (brother)

[DU GrovelBot]

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[JohnLocke]

31. Friend => Mother/Father supplied drugs to Rush's Maid ==> Rush

Completely true.

[Lefta Dissenter]

32. Tom Hanks

My adopted brother grew up ('till 6th grade when we adopted him) next door to Rita Wilson.... TaaaDaaaaaahhhhhh! I'm FAMOUS!

On a sadder note: My dad did work with Ann Richards, who is the latest person I'm blaming for our having bush in the White House (if she had beat him in the race for Governor, he'd be back in TX drowning his sorrows, instead if in the WH causing ours). So I'm some number of degrees from bush, but I don't think I'm going to tell anyone about that.

[Liberal Christian]

35. Kevin Bacon - Three Degrees

Me -> My brother who was in "Stardust Memories" with -> Sharon Stone who was in "He Said, She Said" with -> Kevin Bacon

[ikojo]

37. Me ----> My dad---->Moe Howard of the

Three Stooges....

My dad was a barber to the powerful and well connected in Springfield, IL...Moe Howard was in town for some appearance at the State Fair. He needed the Moe Howard haircut and went to my dad's shop.

Another one....

Me---->my friend Barry (he owns a recording studio)--->a former employee of Barry's (was a guest on Tech TV)--->Leo Laporte of Tech TV.

[rucky]

38. Two Degrees from Tony Danza

my former next door neighbor is his brother

[lojasmo]

39. clinton et. al.

My dad-Paul Wellstone-Clinton et al. three degrees.

My friend Dana-Dan &Matt willson, John Munson, Jake Schlicter (semisonic, trip shakespeare, the flops) YAY! two degrees

[plurality]

41. I'm two degrees from any important person on the planet.

Me ->Dick Gephardt, Joe Lieberman, or John Kerry -> Everyone else.

Not to brag or anything.

But really they're all dicks, I would have liked to have punched them when I met them.

[veganwitch]

49. you forgot corzine

but he was cool.

[jmowreader]

43. Oh gawd, I hate to admit this...

but I'm one degree from Dick Cheney. Briefed him in Berlin, and ate lunch with him because I was one of the few people we had who'd ever lived in Wyoming. (Long story.) Hence, two degrees from the entire rest of this criminal administration, two degrees from anyone in the Bush 41 administration and three from the Reagan junta.

except for Condi Rice, who I briefed too.

and except for Ronald Reagan. I attended two of his speeches in Berlin. The first is the "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech you all know about. The other was to a business forum in a very classy meeting hall. They invited eight soldiers to hear him speak. Somewhere around here I have the article I wrote about it in my computer.

I'm two degrees from Senator Timothy Wirth (D-Colorado), because my platoon sergeant briefed him. Hence, three degrees from anyone who was a senator at the time.

One degree from Jimmy Carter, who I spoke to at a reception following a speech on the eve of Jesse Helms' last election. Did you know Jesse is Jimmy Carter's cousin?

One degree from Bill Clinton--I was working a problem he was interested in sometime in 1993, and he called during the problem to ask me questions about it.

Two degrees from Tom Cruise. In the movie Losin' It, pianist John Valby played pianist Johnny Hotrocks in the Tijuana whorehouse. I met John at a concert in a bar in Gouverneur, New York, where I asked him to play his song "The End of the Month." (You can see John in his DVD "Concerto for Piano, Voice and 500 Screaming Assholes.") You realize I totally ruined 600 brave, patriotic American soldiers who can never again hear The Army Song without having to bite their tongues to keep from busting out laughing because they know the real words to that song and "over hill, over dale, we will hit the dusty trail as the Army comes rolling along" are not among them. I better not put the real words because they would probably kill Skinner. Which means three degrees from Tom Skerritt (Top Gun) and four degrees from Cheech and Chong (Up in Smoke). This puts me five degrees from Timothy Leary (Nice Dreams), and finally six degrees from Hunter S. Thompson because Leary helped draw Hunter into acid. Actually, John Valby puts me within six degrees of most of Hollywood because Top Gun was full of stars who are well-degreed. I know Kevin Bacon's in there somewhere. (Yup, there he is: Tom Cruise was in A Few Good Men with him.)

Two degrees from General Schwarzkopf. I worked for Colonel Willard Carter, who went on to work for Schwarzkopf in Riyadh. (And who got fired by General Schwarzkopf for reading his private e-mails.) I can also back into Schwarzkopf by going through Cheney and Bush the Smarter.

Three degrees from Steve Jobs: I met a graphic artist named Erik Spiekermann in Berlin at a trade show. Spiekermann designed a font collection for Adobe's John Warnock. Warnock showed Steve Jobs the PostScript language his original LaserWriter was designed around. I also bought a lot of film from Spiekermann's City-Satz service bureau.

This puts the mind to work!

[Scottie72]

45. Probably everyone in the nation.

It is quite amazing how close we are to everyone. Just think about it... Let's say I know about 100 people (probably very conservative) and each one of them knows 100... which means it is already up to 10,000 people. and so on... The number quickly becomes very large.

[Nikia]

53. My grandmother's friend

One who came over to her house frequently campaigned for every U.S. Democrat since Kennedy, but died before she could campaign for Gore. WE went to her house once and she had a picture of her kissing Carter and shaking hands with the rest.

[LTR]

48. 2 from Bill Clinton, 2 from Jimmy Carter

I met Anthony Robbins (the motivational speaker) once. He has consulted with Bill Clinton. Come to think about it, Pamela Anderson was a big devotee of Robbins, as were many other famous people.

My dad did some work with Jimmy Carter (on a TV show related to Habitat for Humanity).

Two degrees from two presidents.

Also, met Dean Barkley, a big player in Minnesota independant politics (was Ventura's choice to be the interim replacement for Wellstone). Nice guy. I even voted for him for the US House in '92. The Ventura connection opens up many, many seperation possibilities.

[Leftist78]

50. ohh...cool

2 from Eric Clapton
3 from Duane Allman
3 from Jimi Hendrix
3 from practically any other famous guitarist.

I didn't even realize it till just now. That's awesome. :bounce:

Nothing really special about it though. There are a lot of really great musicians in this area. Most musicians around here are only a few degrees from the legends.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. Let's see now...

me--> my dad-->this couple who used to be in our church-->their granddaughter actress Nancy Olson-->who was in movies with both (1) Hayley Mills and (2) Fred McMurray

me-->my dance teacher in the Yale recreation program-->George Balanchine

me-->a friend in Portland-->her father, who was attorney for-->Eartha Kitt

me--->my grandfather-->who was high school teacher to the Andrews Sisters

me-->my grandfather-->as a Russian-educated Latvian emigre wandering around Europe, briefly hung out in Switzerland with Lenin and Trotsky

(These last two were the same grandfather. He had a very interesting life.)

me-->in the same singing group with Elizabeth Kissinger-->although I never met her dad Henry

me-->my former priest-->former bishop John Shelby Spong

Thanks to volunteering at a classical music station for ten years, I'm either one or two degrees from most of the biggies in classical music.

[Mrs. Overall]

54. 2 degrees from Bruce Lee and

2 degrees from Patsy Cline
2 degrees from Picasso
2 degrees from Robin Williams
2 degrees from Caruso (opera singer)
1 degree from Dianne Feinstein
1 degree from Barbara Boxer
1 degree from Nancy Pelosi
1 degree from Clint Eastwood
0 degree from Nicholas Cage
0 degree from Coppola family
0 degree from Mother Teresa
0 degree from the Pope

[AlienGirl]

56. I got permission from the people in question...

So now I can tell you that I know someone who knows someone who was in the bunker with Hitler.

:scared:

I have now Godwinized this thread and it will die.

Tucker

[JVS]

57. How about this

My family is friends with John Metzger, who runs a German restaurant in Ann Arbor, his grandfather won an Iron Cross in WWI while serving under captain Irwin Rommel. Rommel of course worked with Hitler.

Me-->John--->Grandfather--->Rommel--->Hitler 4 degrees

[DemBones DemBones]

58. My grandparents met Calvin Coolidge at the

White House. And they knew Charles Lindbergh and Babe Didrickson Zaharias.

me ---> grandparents ---> Coolidge, Lindbergh, Zaharias

My great-grandfather's first cousin was a photographer and you've probably seen some of his photos of Robert E. Lee. He did lots of war-related photography. I'm proud that he was also the first photographer to treat blacks and native Americans with dignity; he posed them the same way whites were posed in photographs, as people rather than as type specimens.

me ---> great-grandfather ---> cousin --> Robert E. Lee

The rest of my list got so long, I'm going to delete all the connections and just list the people I have a connection to through one other person, like

me ---> daughter ---> Michael Stipe

(That's second degree?)

Lady Bird Johnson (when she was First Lady), Jonathan Winters, Ray Stevens, Chad and Jeremy, Little Jimmy Dickens, the Melvins, the guys in REM, River Phoenix, Courtney Love, Mike Watts (the Minutemen), Johnny Weissmuller, Jimmy Carter, Dan Ackroyd, Mother Teresa, Pope John Paul II.

And I've met famous people, too: Dizzy Dean, Stephen Jay Gould, the Righteous Brothers, E.O. Wilson, Matt "Guitar" Murphy, the Black Crowes, Eugene McCarthy, B.B. King, Pat Conroy, (Episcopal) Bishop James A. Pike (baby boomers will remember him as he was quite controversial in the sixties, and died mysteriously back in the day.)

I can get to Bush, Clinton, or Reagan through friends who know Jimmy Carter (one actually grew up with him in Plains, belonged to the same church, and his daughter is named after hers and another girl the same age as her daughter) or through my husband meeting Pope John Paul II. I'm in Georgia so I should make an effort to meet Carter some time and eliminate the degree between us.

I think once you tie to the pope or a president, you can connect to all other political VIPs, plus all sorts of royals, and those two groups connect to movie stars, writers, etc. Kevin Bacon's bound to connect to somebody on my list.

me ---> Pat Conroy ---> Barbara Streisand (through her making "Prince of Tides") ---> either Bacon knows Streisand or knows somebody who does, right?

[NoPasaran]

59. me --> Kathy Cronkite --> Walter Cronkite

Kathy Cronkite was the host of a cheezy show we produced on Austin CableVision about 15 years ago.