The usual distribution of celebrity (celebrityness? celebrityhood? celebritiation?) is far too sharply peaked. Excessive numbers of people focus their attention on the same famous favored few — and so many others are overlooked who deserve watching.

Everybody should be a fan of at least a few somewhat-obscure individuals, places, activities, groups, topics, and so forth. I have my own list of forgotten faves: Arnold Bennett, coins of 1852, running along creeks in the woods, wiki, etc. (And then there are my ongoing love affairs ... a few of whom are witting, and most of whom I hope don't realize that they have me for a secret admirer.)

Contrariwise, everybody should have at least a few fans — and to deserve them, should invest time and thought to cultivate them, correspond with them, and reward them for their respect.

(see also TopicBennett, CelebrityImmunization (26 Mar 2000), NumisTriviaOf1852 (4 Jun 2000), PyramidPeaking (26 Aug 2000), UsualSuspects (15 Oct 2000), ...)

TopicPersonalHistory - TopicSociety - 2003-04-26

(correlates: PoshBecks, FlyHigh, MercifulSchadenfreude, ...)