Switched seat story #2...I was bumped to first class and sat next to an attractive middle-aged woman. Very friendly! She kept looking past me, and I asked if she wanted her husband next to her...yes. I tapped the guys shoulder...it was (then) Redskins coach Mike Shanahan! Swapped seats and had some great discussions about football, and was able to look as he flipped through two thick binders of offense and defense sets. Totally awesome flight! Really friendly guy.
Good story...by the way, your tagline is an important one for me, specifically the Joseph McCarthy part.
And thank you for your service!
As for football, my buddy and I were staying in Buffalo at the Adam Mark hotel there, the same one the New England Patriots were staying in that weekend, and as we took the elevator, the door opened, and Bill Belichick walked in. He was wearing a rumpled beige suit, and had one arm bulging with stacks of notebooks as he reached for the button.
My buddy said “Hey Coach, can I get your autograph?”
Heh, Belichick regarded him like an insect, and with a slight protective turn of his upper body as if to protect the sacred playbooks and stacks of secret documents, said in his characteristic Belichickian monotone “No.”
I swear, I thought it was absolutely hilarious! The entire Belichick experience boiled down to one happenstance elevator encounter! He certainly wasn’t the social butterfly Shanahan was!