Sunday, May 09, 2021

Was Bonaparte sighted?

Did they see him?  Did they don't?

https://www.futilitycloset.com/2021/05/08/nowhere-man-3/

But what shall we say to the testimony of those many respectable persons who went to Plymouth on purpose, and saw Buonaparte with their own eyes? must they not trust their senses?’ I would not disparage either the eyesight or the veracity of these gentlemen. I am ready to allow that they went to Plymouth for the purpose of seeing Buonaparte; nay, more, that they actually rowed out into the harbour in a boat, and came alongside of a man-of-war, on whose deck they saw a man in a cocked hat, who, they were told, was Buonaparte. This is the utmost point to which their testimony goes; how they ascertained that this man in the cocked hat had gone through all the marvellous and romantic adventures with which we have so long been amused, we are not told.

Let’s alter my original question to listing the most famous people you've actually clapped your peepers on?  No number limit.

42 comments:

  1. Queen Mum.

    Mickey Mantle.

    Stephen Hawking.

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  2. Jessye Norman.

    Stéphane Grappelli.

    The Animals.

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  3. My best one was the Queen, yards away from her carriage, she saw me, Swiss President, I spoke with, Debbie Harry, pressed against, Russian trade minister, worked for, Prime Minister on platform with, gave a speech.

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  4. Cleo Laine

    Carmen McCrae

    Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.

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  5. I've omitted sundry famous footballers, rugby players and golfers of my boyhood. Who remembers them now?

    Ian Rankin.

    Alexander McCall Smith.

    Peter Higgs.

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  6. Enoch Powell

    Gordon Brown

    Robin Cook

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    Replies
    1. I should have asked most thrilling. Another for me Jackson Browne, spoke with.

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  7. Jack Nicholson (gave me advice)
    Sammy Davis Jr (hand shake)
    Kenneth More (bought me a pint)
    Bruce Forsyth (Wilnelia made me a coffee)
    Oh, and in the same room as The Queen during her visit to Berlin in 1982.
    Sandy Lyle and Seve Ballasteros (Police crowd control at Wentworth)

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  8. Jack Nicholson (gave me advice)
    Sammy Davis Jr (hand shake)
    Kenneth More (bought me a pint)
    Bruce Forsyth (Wilnelia made me a coffee)
    Oh, and in the same room as The Queen during her visit to Berlin in 1982.
    Sandy Lyle and Seve Ballasteros (Police crowd control at Wentworth)

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  9. Not thrilled at all by

    Lorraine Chase - escalator John Lewis' Peterborough
    Rula Lenska getting her ciggies also P/boro
    Frank Windsor also P/boro
    Richard Griffiths getting in my way in Waterstones Stratford-on-Avon, politely apologised though, so that's OK
    Ronald Pickup holding up the queue in front of me in M&S - also S-o-A

    Johnny Briggs and members of the Coronation St crew sat at the next table to us in an Indian restaurant in Manchester.
    Bette Lynch (Julie Goodyear) and Jill Summers, Midland Hotel dining room, M/chester. V loud they were but demanded privacy.
    Tommy Steele - can't remember where, I was about 7 at the time. Mother was enthralled.

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    Replies
    1. More thrilled by knowing "Thomas" the Dulux dog, early 90s. He was a Baggybush - Midnight Madness was his official name iirc. Magnificent specimen of doghood in every way.

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  10. Prince Philip
    Kapil Dev
    Dalai Lama
    Roger Waters
    Gordon Brown
    Peter Higgs
    Peter O'Toole

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  11. Prince Philip - threw a paper aeroplane at him
    Kapil Dev - shared railway compartment
    Dalai Lama - handshake
    Roger Waters - short conversation
    Gordon Brown - knew at uni
    Peter Higgs - was my tutor
    Peter O'Toole - next door neighbour

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  12. Hmmmmm. Quite a few, met. Cabinet Ministers, Airships, several heroes. But one Tommy Cooper sat and had a pint with me in a pub in London back in 1971. He was not being funny. Bit morose, in fact. But I cheered him up :)

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  13. And Peter Greenbaum...what a lovely bloke.

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  14. Richard Harris called me a c*** in the Coalhole in Regent Street.

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  15. Correction: The Coalhole in The Strand.

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  16. All the sweet, green icing flowing down ...

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  17. Ha! Ha! Ha!

    What a singer!

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  18. And also

    Hugh Laurie

    Germaine Greer

    Simon & Garfunkel.


    And treading the boards

    Sir Ralph Richardson

    Sir John Gielgud

    Sir Ian McKellen.

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  19. My wife offers thespians with most of whom she has appeared:

    Richard E Grant

    Tom Wilkinson

    Maureen Lippman

    James Fleet

    James Norton.

    To round up to the double three she offers the playwright Jeffrey Archer.

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  20. “Philip - threw a paper aeroplane at him”

    Wise.

    Greer hardly a feather in the cap.

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    Replies
    1. "Greer hardly a feather in the cap."

      She would have been if I'd ridden her down with my bike, which is what her behaviour deserved.

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  21. In politics she offers

    John Major

    Ann Widdecombe

    Edwina Currie.

    Royal people:

    Her Majesty Queen Mary

    The Prince Regent aka Rowan Atkinson

    The queen Peter Mandelson

    Writers:

    Mary Beard

    Davis Starkey

    P D James.

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  22. More comments on this one than you could throw a stick at.

    I had that Neil Kinnock in the back of the cab once...

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    Replies
    1. Kinnock? Last one out turned the lights off? I’ve briefly been with E. Curry’s daughter.

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  23. King Olaf of Germany, Queen Elizabeth II, US Vice President Hubert Humphrey (in Downing Street when I was 11), Gordon Brown many times (I threw up on his chair actually), David Steele, John Smith, Iain Paisley, Peter Ustinov in the street, Stephen Hawking (he ran his wheelchair at me for a laugh, or perhaps out of malice), Frederick Sanger (the best of the lot, with his two science Nobel Awards), Peter Higgs, Lord Woolf (I let him have my trifle desert on a plane journey), Rowan Atkinson, Charles Kennedy, does Jasper Carrot count?, then Alex Salmond, on a rare visit to a cafe with his much much older wife, Colin Montgomerie the golfer, many times as he lives nearby, (many other famous golfers as a spectator), the first SAS man into the window at the Iranian Embassy to break the siege (he plays golf at my club occasionally), One of the pilots who bombed the Port Stanley runway (prefer not to name), oh and a NATO Secretary General (prefer not to name), Heinz Wolff, a President of the European Commission several times (prefer not to name), oh and Uncle Tom Cobbley and all... If we really think hard enough I reckon we have seen more than we recall... Oh... i also chatted with the fourth or fifth man to walk on the Moon and... I left the best for you 'till last: Saint Greta Thunberg.

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    Replies
    1. “I threw up on his chair actually.” I’m in awe.

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    2. Oh... and Robert Cook once told me I was a communist, as a criticism, when I challenged him on some issue I forget, and not too long afterwards the Conservative Candidate for Edinburgh Central once told me I was a right wing idiot when I challenged him on some issue I forget... contrasting labels I can proudly wear on each lapel... Lots of memories coming back. Thankyou.

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    3. And I meant King Olaf of Norway right at the top. Sorry Olaf, I was young.

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    4. Sorry Olaf, I was young ...

      ... and needed the money? :)

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    5. I gave him clap... eh, I think I mean a clap... he was somewhat remote, reclining on a soft chair

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    6. and Robin Cook, I meant (names always trouble me).

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  24. Come to think of it, I once went to a drinks party when my host said "Come to the kitchen, I've got three Nobel Prize winners in there." So Fred Sanger, and er, and um. Anyway, three of the buggers.

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  25. Forgot to mention Diana Dors and the scary Alan Lake and his (equally scary) mate Leapy Lee.

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  26. Robbo:
    Sophie Dahl
    Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden
    Benazir Bhutto

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  27. My wife points out that in a hotel we went to we saw both Jack Shepherd (actor and director: did a very decent TV 'tec) and Jonathan Ross (vile TV "personality"). I don't suppose anybody but us remembers George Melly.

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  28. Afternoon tea with Rod Mansfield (who?) Peter Purves and Kathryn Evans his missus. Also reminded this a.m. of encounters with Bob Monkhouse - a true professional and good egg, Ken Dodd, Bruce Forsyth and Les Dawson. Also some minister for diversity whose name I cannot recall - obviously left an impression.

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  29. Got pissed with Billy Connolly before he swore off it, partied with Carol Vorderman and Clive Sinclair more than once, used to travel back & forward to Liverpool with Frank Carson. Also met the cast of Constipation Street in Liverpool Airport.
    Eric the old.

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  30. Nearly forgot, also had a row with Alex Salmond in Edinburgh leading up to the Indyref.
    Eric the old

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