The joy of name-dropping

I have always liked to name-drop whenever I can do it. I have also long appreciated the Kevin Bacon game (the six degrees of separation concept) and variations on it. The two are obviously related. How far removed are you from, say, the future President of the United States? Well, you can see below that I am just one person removed! If case you don't recognize my name drop - the woman pictured is Obama's very charming sister, Maya. We had a lovely talk and she shared many details about her big brother. She claims for example that while Barack is a good dancer, she is much better. I believe it.

In some ways, this post probably belongs in the "Whatever is On My Mind" blog but Maya is Hawaiian so it works here, too.

Now, many of you may know that I am writing a book about Wagner. It will be a very quirky book. One of the questions I do answer is how far separated are Kevin Bacon and Wagner (using film, opera and a paternal link to make the connection). The answer, surprisingly, is 4! Kevin Bacon was in a film with Kenneth Tobey who was in a film with Lauritz Melchior who was in an opera conducted by Seigfried Wagner, the son of Richard.

Now, a more pleasing route from Bacon to Wagner is through a 5 person connection with Peter Lawford (and Erik Estrada) that links through a film called Where is Parisfal?

Ok, this last bit really has nothing to do with Hawaii.