Who is the most famous person you've met in person on a one-to-one basis?Mine would be President Jimmy Carter in April 1979. I was working as a news director for a small-town radio station in Michigan and I was invited to spend a day at the White House for one of their out-of-town news editors events. Ten other reporters from all over the country and I spent the day in the Old Executive Office Building getting briefed by administration staffers. Then after lunch we were escorted into the Cabinet Room in the West Wing, and after a moment, in came President Carter. We got to ask him questions for about twenty minutes -- I asked about ethanol -- and I got to shake his hand and get my picture taken with him. I also got to interview Alfred Kahn, the president's "inflation czar" and the man credited with deregulating the airline industry. (Full disclosure: I think I got the interview because Mr. Kahn is married to a relative of mine.)
After that would come the playwrights like Arthur Miller, Neil Simon, Stephen Sondheim, Edward Albee, and the honorees at the Inge Festival over the years.
