What's your claim to fame?

I’m related to Robert Hooke.
Also, a good friend of mine is Katee Shean from So You Think You Can Dance.

Henry Clay is my great-great-great-great-great uncle. I’m also related to Pippin the Short, apparently. Oh, and I’m part Creole, and that just kicks ass.

Oh yeah, and when I was in middle school, I had a holiday named after me for two years (February 20).

Members of the band The English Beat were at our house once (my dad was involved with a concert of theirs in San Francisco). My dad knows and has worked with Tim Draper. And of course who could forget that episode of Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County where me and my family were extras?

My dad is all over the internet. When I search his name, I can find several pictures and he appears in various articles and there are quotes from him, etc. His venture capital firm has a Wikipedia article, but it is very short and he is not mentioned in it. He appears in the list of investors and such on the websites for the various companies that he’s invested in.

That’s about it as far as I know. :)

According to family lore, my family helped unify China during the Three Kingdoms Era. Failing that, I’m descended from northern nomadic barbarian invaders that got our position in Chinese history by harassing the kingdoms until they gave us land + status.

I’m related to Henry VIII and Veronica Lake.

The WGI team I was on in 2006 won 7th place in the world for our class.

Nothing else exciting.

My mother’s family is one of the most powerful families in Korea :P theres Ministers, internationally well known scientist, a Harvard associate professor (id like to know that guy), and like, the third most politically powerful figure, and the like…dont brag about it cuz it gets way TOO much attention. Just for Fluther folks haha

I’m supposedly related to William Penn, according to family legend. I do know by genealogical records I researched, I’m related to the cousin of President Adams. That’s about it as far as famous family relations.

The coolest celebrity thing that ever happened to me is that I (and my mom and sister) had lunch at Jacques Pepin‘s house, a very low-key meal with his wife and best friend. Then we all took a walk on the beach with his dog.

I lived about a mile from Dorothea Puente when she was caught.

I lived in the area American Graffiti was filmed when it was filmed.

That is about it.

determinsim. i kick everyone’s ass at that. :)
or at least i like to think i do

My most recent claim is about who I know. I was stalked by a famous celebrity stalker because my husband is an acquaintance of one of the 100 people she publicly blamed for her arrest, conviction and sentence to a mental institution.

I was married to the brother of a famous author. I was once an assistant to a locally famous magician.

I once told David Crosby how much I liked the CSN song featured in the first Woodstock movie, and how I thought it was cool that something created before I was even born could have such an impact on me. He was kind of a dick…didn’t say thanks or anything and was obviously miffed about being reminded of his age. Rockstars.

I have met with/had dinner with many many of the major politicians where I live.

I was in a made for T.V. Movie on the USA Network called The Expendables as “Hostile Colonel”. It was a bit part that i got picked for when I drove my actress cousin to an audition. She didn’t get a part.

Edit: I just realized the site has a link to my full name. Took it down :P

According to family lore, we are descended from the biblical Nachshon ben Aminadav, the first Jew to walk into the sea as Moses parted it.
More personally, I have juggled in four different continents.

I have been shipwrecked twice.

Well uh…I met Cate Blanchett in Montréal once.

I was all like, dude! You’re Galadriel! Then she’s all like, yo.

It was epic.

When I read the primary question my thoughts went to my talent for tying cherry stems with my tongue. Yet, the description details lead me to look at pedigree. To which, I point out my grandmother who back in the 50’s was a professional wrestler, she was known as The Sweater Girl of Wrestling. Which, I suppose, can be seen as a way back to understanding my talent with cherry stems and for wearing sweaters.

My little sister is friends with a girl whose teacher dad is friends with Stephen Hawking. One day when the girls drove to a campus to hear him lecture, my sister just about ran him over in her Beetle bug while he and an entourage were in the crosswalk. She’s a lousy driver and in her excitement, she braked too late to make a gentle stop. He thoroughly bitched her out and kept on rolling.

I am related to the guy who sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees.
I am also related to Jean Lafitte.
Also, family legend has it that (through my grandmother’s father’s side) we are descended from a disciple of Jesus (Peter or Paul, I don’t remember).
A large part of my family is in the mob in this country, as well as back in the motherland (Sicily).
My dad’s aunt Peg was a famous horse trick rider and almost married Burt Lancaster. She was friends with the First Lady and had a large ranch in California. Until her husband gambled it all away.

My grandmother is a published author, and has written novels and short stories. Her novels are general of the sci-fi or mystery genre.

My aunt was an exclusive celebrity personal trainer in LA and trained Eric Estrada and William Shatner’s wife. She was good friends with Val Kilmer as well as other celebrities. Once, I went to brunch with her, and BIlly Ray and Miley Cyrus sat down at the table next to us with their entire family. Good thing it was a champagne brunch.

I was in a band for quite a while and had some famous friends (Michelle Branch, Jessica Harp) and acquaintances (Lifehouse, The Calling, The New Radicals, Godsmack, Kid Rock, 98 Degrees). We never got anywhere but we had a large fan base online.
I once won $10,000 in an online contest.
I was a published poet at age 11.
I took vocal lessons from Copeland Davis, who is a well known jazz musician. He has opened for Aretha Franklin and was signed to Atlantic Records for a time.

Absolutely nothing.

Oh, while it it is not a claim to fame, rather infamy, I can honestly say my family line is just plain full of Gypsies. Not too many on this site can say that, I would think

I am able to leap down entire sets of basement stairs while momentarily carrying a printer under each arm and playing the kazoo…I survived the printers didn’t….ouch…

I’ve met Michael Schumacher and a number of other Formula 1 drivers.

A Google search for my last name turned up several corporations, coal companies, an island, and a castle.

My great-great-great grandfather was the nineteenth Vice-President of the US. My father was a triple ace (WW2 and Korea). I’m a nobody.

I taught Arnold Swartzenegger the meaning of the word Cramp.

A distant ancestor of mine is William Wallace. There are probably thousands of Scottish descendants who can claim relation but it’s still so damn cool!

My grandfather had a cousin who was stationed at Pearl Harbor when it was bombed. He was just an ensign at the time but he directed an entire ship lying on the deck having been injured in the initial attack and got it to safety. Everyone made it off that ship alive including him. However, he lost a leg and that ended his Navy career.

According to one or both of my parents, I caused an airplane carrying Winston Churchill to abort its landing at Rockcliffe airport in Ottawa, Canada, because I was trespassing on its assigned runway. :-p

A handful of unsolved murders.

I played @dpworkin on Fluther once.

My Maths teacher was Lee Westwoods dad.

I live near a liberal factory known as Columbia University.

I don’t have such a this introduction but when i meet someone who I don’t like I tell him that I won the Physics Olympiad last year(I’m number 1 in my country)this scares them and they let me alone
(by the way the olympiad story is true is not just a story)

My father helped develop the concept of drug stereochemistry. Normally drugs are mixture of “right-handed” and “left-handed” molecules, with respect to the way they rotate a plane of polarized light. Sometimes by separating the right-handed and the left-handed molecules, you can get a drug with a different effect or strength.

For instance, the generic name of prilosec is omeprazole. That’s the mixture of right-handed and left-handed omeprazole molecules. But, if you create a drug consisting entirely of left-handed, or S-omeprazole, the new chemical name is esomeprazole. Voila! That’s what Nexium is.

Rather obscure, but that’s what my family is known for. :-)

@Dr_Dredd that sounds like a great claim to fame. (actually, I did understand what you said. I just had to read it twice).

@Brian1946 That is pretty damned cool… I would not mind having that claim to fame.

I fucked Yvonne de Carlo.
—Tony Curtis™

I once shot a man in Reno.

Just to watch him die.

Oy, is it ever a drag to be stuck in Folsom prison.

@Blondesjon So who are you really – Wundayatta or Johnny Cash?

@janbb . . . I’m Batman.

Actually I have some real claims to fame, but they are so old you guys wouldn’t recognize them. I’ll try one. Before she died, Edie Sedgewick was my girlfriend for a time.

@dpworkin Edie Brickell & New Bohemians and The Cult wrote songs about her. Yes, I had to google her, but that still gives you extra sexy points, especially since it happened before she died.

Hell, Bob Dylan wrote songs about her. She was beautiful, too, when she wasn’t anorexic.

I’m a direct descendant of a vice president of the Mormon Church. I make the best soup in the world. One of my cousins is chief science officer for NASA. My dog loves me. My father invented the first paperboard box (think cardboard) built to carry dynamite (Before that, all dynamite boxes were made of wood. Oh, I could go on and on…

@dpworkin I see this. Definitely one to keep on sharing, makes me curious about the rest.

@dpworkin That was before she died?

Well, let’s see. I used to go swimming in Hamilton Camp’s pool. I was in the loony bin with Dean Stockwell. I drove Tammy Grimes’ ex-husband’s Jaguar. I dropped acid with Ken Kesey and watched the Rose Parade. I dropped acid with Tim Leary and with Dick Alpert before he became Baba Ramm Dass. I was Bruce Naumann’s room mate at Walter Hopps’ house. I used to know Dennis Hopper. (That seemed to involve drugs, as well.)

I have thought this before, this only confirms things, you should add renaissance man to your profile.

Oh, I peaked in my 20’s, that’s all.

Wow, is that why you look so old?

Fuck you.

(does the happy dance)

Children.

@dpworkin do you think the acid was related to your mental health issues?

@dpworkin Dean Stockwell was in a loony bin?

@wundayatta What mental health issues? @Dr_Dredd maybe I shouldn’t confirm that. It’s kind of a violation of his privacy. I might have lied.

We’re related to Donald and Keifer Sutherland (on my Mom’s side – her Mom, my Grandma’s side).

@jjmah Keifer Sutherland? Seriously? Holy sh…that’s…Speechless.

I invented the dancefloor.

@dpworkin Oops. Sorry. I could have sworn I read something somewhere where you said you had mental health issues. Must be one of my delusions. My apologies.

Maybe teaching and mentoring will be my minor claim to fame. It seems to be helping with grief and depression.

@wundayatta I saw the same thing, huh?

Yup, you’re both insane.

I am Winston Smith.