Fame happens

Our most famous contributor would barely make a Z-list, but that is no impediment to a blogger.

The stranger who stops on the street and greets you like an old friend. Fame can be like that, only more so, a lot more.

It is the friend who calls and cheerfully asks if you are aware of a  new textbook where some of your stuff is used, or the unknown editor leaving you a voice mail saying that you need to call back urgently because they want to publish that unsolicited article and will bump another author in order to get yours in.

Which makes your competitive girlfriend so upset over your success that she goes on a month long sex strike.

Yes, a small amount of fame is fun, except for that girlfriend thing. Sadly, a true story.

That famous contributor of ours tells of the nuisance factor of fame, of way too many people gushing about "that one video". Making you part of their lives, maybe at a time when you haven't even remotely figured out what your life is or should be.

Another friend has less to worry from strangers and a lot more from someone who was a friend. Ferocious "comments" and blogs by this former friend turned up everywhere in a web search. As outlandish and crazy as much of that stuff was, at some point even the FBI asked our friend for a chat.

That's the sort of "fame happens" events, where "fame" just might have replaced another four letter word.

And then there is the heartwarming saga of The Great Rodriguez, the story of a musician from Detroit who became bigger in South Africa than Elvis, yet remained unknown in the U.S. until some South Africans for whom his music had been the soundtrack of their revolution found him.

The film "Searching for Sugar Man" is nominated for an Oscar, and Rodriguez is booked for Coachella, California, and Glastonbury, England.