May I introduce....?

ROSEMARY:

I'm not much of a fan girl. Maybe it was growing up in New York where it was not that unusual to see the odd celebrity on the street, in a restaurant or at a basketball game. Native New Yorkers either are - or pretend to be - too cool to make a fuss over someone famous.

"Oh yes, that's Robert DeNiro having a drink with Mike Tyson. No biggie. Harrison? Uma? He's taller, she's thinner. That's nice."

But this blog isn't about name-dropping. Not exactly.
I recently drove from DC to Connecticut with two large boxes of CDs on the passenger seat. I can drive anywhere with a few cans of diet Red Bull and good music. The CD I kept going back to was a compilation of John Barry's greatest hits. Not familiar with the name? He's responsible for some of the best movie music of the past 30-40 years. From Born Free and Out of Africa to James Bond films, to Walkabout and Midnight Cowboy, Body Heat and Dances With Wolves. I can't imagine anyone being brilliant enough to create original music and I found myself thinking it would be really cool to meet him. I know - I'm a New Yorker. We're not supposed to gush over celebs, but there I was. Gushing. (As much as you can gush in a car by yourself.)

Excluding other authors - no sucking up allowed - who would you really like to meet?

HALLIE: I've always wanted to meet Lynn Johnston (10 points to anyone who knows who that is). She draws/writes the comic strip "For Better or For Worse." Like probably a gazillion other women of a certain age, I've always felt Lynne (I feel we are on a first-name basis) was spying on my life. The (2 older) kids in the strip are my kids' ages, and I so recognized the situations. Her main characters aged (like me, surprise surprise) in real time...until she dialed it back 30. I hope she has real kids and a goofy husband like her character Elly (and if she doesn't, then I'll just keep on pretending that she does).

HANK: I love that comic strip! That said, I'd like to chat with oh, what's his name, who draws Calvin and Hobbes. Bill...Watters?. (Watterson...)

Do you suppose he's as clever and aadorable as that comic strip? Stephen Sondheim. Although I'd be tongue-tied. I have a very good pal who is very good pals with Hilary Clinton. It would be fun to see what she's reallly like. I mean RO, it would be just as fascinating to be a fly on the wall in those people's lives, wouldn't it? (Can flies hear?) I saw James Taylor in the Gap once--I left him alone, but it was all I could do not to gush. I was going to say---I couldn't have made it through college without you. But I decided to let him buy his jeans in peace.

ROBERTA: Meryl Streep, because I so admire her work. And she keeps producing amazing characters and looking amazing as she gets older.

ROSEMARY: Who else would we like to meet?? Who would you like to meet?