Paul Simon - The senator

So, I was watching Paul Simon's funeral on C-Span today. (Yeah, I'm a political geek. If you read this on a regular basis, you probably figured that out.) One of the great things about being a upper-lower middle manager for a major multi-national conglomerate, is you get to spend a lot of time stuck in airports in bad weather situations. This is what people with six figure but not seven figure incomes do mostly. We sit in airports like Denver, Chicago, DFW or St. Louis and wait for weather to improve and let our flight go out. If we made seven figure incomes, we'd get a corporate jet. Weather wouldn't be an issue. We sit in these airports on our way to meetings with other managers all over the country. They pay us six figures for this, and you wonder why corporations are going to pot.

If you get stuck enough you tend to run into other stuck semi-important people. I ran into Paul Simon one day at the United waiting area counter in St. Louis. We had both been bumped. Its kind of wierd to be standing at a counter look right and see a senator you've only seen on TV. Bow Tie and all. Being somewhat whatever I am, I struck up a conversation: "So, I guess it doesn't help to be a senator, you still get bumped."
He just smiled and said, "Yah, I guess."
Then I said, "If you'd won the Presidential thing, you'd have your own jet now."
He just laughed.
We both got flights on other airlines. Aftewards I was walking away from the counter and a woman stopped me. "Who was that guy you were talking too?"
I told her. She looked at me puzzled. "Who are you. You look famous too. -He knew you. Can I get your autograph?" I just chuckeled. I love the Midwest.