My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Like a lot of kids I fully expected to become famous when I got older.

I was hoping to be a popular comedian, or actor, or director, or writer... but I would have settled for a newspaper headline about me saving a bunch of orphans from a blazing inferno, or a network news broadcast featuring my muscular frame jumping in front of a speeding train to rescue a litter of kittens.

Nope, I became famous for over an hour one night, even longer than the proverbial "15 minutes", due to a silly Internet post I put on Reddit. Here's the story:

Last year, over the Christmas break, I saw the newest Star Wars movie with Michael Quiggle, my daughter's fiancé. So this year I was excited to see Rogue One with him while we were all visiting Melanie's family in Casper, Wyoming, the town where I grew up. A day or two before we left Paris I suddenly thought, "Wow, I saw the original Star Wars film in Casper. How cool would it be if I could see the new one in the same theater???"

As luck would have it, not only was the America theater still around, it WAS showing the new Star Wars movie. We bought our tickets and as we were leaving the theater I asked Autumn to take a picture of me standing in front of the marquee:

This is me in front of the America Theater in Casper, WY. This is the picture I posted on Reddit.

I posted the picture to Facebook and then, as kind of an afterthought, I submitted it to Reddit. Now, if you are not familiar with Reddit, it's known officially as a "social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website". Basically, it's just a giant message board where users have the ability to upvote or downvote posts. The site is home to over 234 million "redditors" who submit over 200,000 messages per day. A fraction of these get enough votes to make it to the top ten or fifteen pages of the site. (I've never had a post get anywhere near that.)

A few hours after my update I jumped online and was surprised to see there were already 60 replies to my message, including one where a guy "found" a picture of me in front of the theater back in 1975:

How do you like my 'fro? (After a botched perm in High School my hair really did look like that.)

The fact that somebody took the time to doctor my photo in Photoshop really tickled me, so I told my friends about it on Facebook. I swear it was only a few minutes later when I saw this:

I laughed when I saw this... There's NO WAY I was the top post on the front page. 

Shaking my head with amusement I loaded Reddit and looked for my post. I couldn't find it anywhere and I thought to myself, "Nice one, Tamara... Number one on Reddit... Riiiiiight."

I hit Refresh one more time and suddenly there it was. I was not only on the front page, I was the top post on the entire site! For some crazy reason I was even ranked higher than the messages about Carrie Fisher's heart attack, which was just plain wrong...

With eyes like saucers I kept hitting refresh and my post stayed at number one for over an hour, racking up 51,000 upvotes (probably 500,000+ total views) and inspiring more than 850 comments. I still have no idea why any of this happened, and I think it confounded others too, many of whom accused me of being a shill for the film company.

I read through most of the comments and before everything gets archived and disappears forever I wanted to capture a few of my favorites: (many are not kind):

"Can someone please explain what I am looking at? Is this person famous? Or is this really just a picture of a dude pointing at a theater?" 

"Thanks for pointing at the theatre, I couldn't tell what building it was that you saw the movie in." 

"The circle is now complete."  

"This is the America theater in Casper WY. My family owns it. It remains one of the nicest theaters in Wyoming. Thank you for sharing!"

"Step 1: Be Old. Step 2: Find an old theater with Rogue One playing. Step 3: Buy a Kodak EasyShare because how in the f*** do you get these photos off this god damned iphone wtf is iTunes I need to call my grandson. Step 4: Sweet sweet Upvotes." 

"The comment to karma ratio makes me think this is an advertisement upvoted by bots. There is also no original picture or proof, just a story in the title."

"Who the f*** is dressing you?"

"You sir, are a f***ing legend and yes I'm drunk as Cooter Brown." 

"Wow!!! that was really nice of them to let a homeless guy in. Faith in humanity restored!!!"

"This is my first Reddit account and my first comment. I think this post is really cool and I really appreciating you sharing this moment of beautiful nostalgia with all of us." 

"Your face is so far from the ground." 

"So, what, 40 years and zero life? You're perfect for Reddit. Now maybe tell me something you just learned today that anyone with a brain has known since practically birth." 

"Sounds f**ing awesome you ugly ass grandpa." 

"Hey Clare if you're reading this f*** you!" 

"There's an old guy in your photo. Get rid of him." 

"WHY the f*** are posts like these making it to the front page?"

"This just makes me happy."

"What a special snowflake."

"Wyoming on the front page! Not for the Tetons, weather, or electoral college representation. It is a non-denominational rare random occurrence of good fortune (otherwise known as a Christmas miracle)."

"You're cute!"

"Damn OP you old af..."

"Heyyy, it's a picture of an old man standing in front of an old theater, thanks /r/pics" 

"DILF!"  

"Nerd! I mean, awesome. Me too." 

"No one cares you old j*zz bag."

"Damn, I dont think it's cool for baby boomers to be on Reddit. It's just weird."

"Did you return to your mother's basement and j*rk off while eating cheetos afterwards?"

Home for the Holidays

After living in Paris for almost 15 months we returned to the United States to spend Christmas with our families. Melanie was in Seattle just a month ago, to help her Mom with some medical stuff, but it was my first trip back to the States since moving to France.

We left Paris on December 19th, arriving in Denver, Colorado after a looooong nine and a half hour flight (with a layover in London). Melanie had an eye doctor appointment in Casper, Wyoming so she flew on ahead, while I spent the night in Denver with Autumn and my parents.

Mom made and painted this nativity scene when I was in grade school. They put it up every year.

I was fairly tired after we got to the house, but I managed to stay up until 10:00 PM. I think this really helped with my jet-lag because it never really bothered me for the rest of the vacation. Mom made a seafood boil for dinner that first night, with shrimp, potatoes, corn, sausages, and other yummy stuff!

I didn't get a picture of Mom's dinner, but it looked a lot like this

The next day, I hopped in our Mazda 623 (which Mom and Dad have been storing in their garage) and Autumn and I drove to Casper. It was quite windy and the warnings kept getting more and more dire as we crossed out of Colorado and into Wyoming: "Warning! Wind gusts of 50+ MPH". Then thirty minutes later: "High Wind Warning! Gusts of 60+ MPH". When we got near Wheatland the sign warned us about gusts up to 80 MPH. (That's about 130 km/h for you non-Americans.)

The high winds blew more than a dozen semi trucks off the road

Despite the buffeting wind, Autumn and I had a great time on our road trip, and I only wish it had lasted longer. We talked about her upcoming wedding (she's getting married in May), her job, my job, and when I told her I frequently listen to the same fifteen Taylor Swift songs over and over again at work Autumn made it her mission to introduce me to some NEW music.

We arrived in Casper just as Melanie was heading out to her eye exam with her brother, Bill, so Autumn and I spent the next couple of hours chatting with Grandma and tasting all the sweet treats she had prepared for us.  Good Lord, it was a veritable cornucopia of Christmas delights: three kinds of fudge, magic cookie bars, mincemeat bars, peanut butter date balls, coconut candy, holly, turtles, and more! So much for my diet. <sigh>

The eye doctor found an issue with one of Melanie's retinas and he recommended that she see a specialist. Turns out it's a good thing she made these appointments because the new doctor found she had a partially detached retina and he recommended immediate surgery! (If the retina had completely detached Melanie would have been forced to get a "cuff" around her eyeball and she'd have spent the next 6 weeks on her stomach.)

Autumn's fiancé, Michael, arrived a few days later and the three of us went into Casper one afternoon to watch "Rogue One", the new Star Wars film. This was kind of amazing because it was playing in the same theater where I saw the original Star Wars movie when I was in High School, back in 1977!

The America theater in Casper, Wyoming. The outside hasn't changed much.

Autumn and Mike, getting ready for the movie to start

As we left the theater, Autumn took a picture of me and the damn thing went viral on the Internet! You can read more about that little adventure in THIS post.

We celebrated Christmas in Wyoming and had Prime Rib for dinner.

I think Mike was hungry. And Dinner was still an hour away!

We were supposed to drive to Denver on the 26th, but we got a lot of snow on Christmas day which threatened our departure.

I took this picture in the afternoon, and it was still snowing when we all went to bed

Melanie thought it would be romantic to take a walk in the snow, but as you can see from my face...

... it was just cold

By noon the next day most of the roads were re-opened and Autumn was able to drive the three of us, carefully, to Denver. (Mike had work so he had to fly back to Seattle.)

Dad and I watched a lot of football while Autumn helped Grandma finish a very tricky wooden puzzle in the basement. Not only were the pieces quite small and intricate, they didn't interlock well, so everything kept sliding around on the polished tabletop.

Autumn said, "Grandma, even if we weren't family I think we'd be good friends!"

The rest of the clan came over on Wednesday to celebrate "second Christmas". We opened gifts, drank lots of spirits, and ate plenty of great food. Grandma made a yummy ham for dinner.

We were opening presents... so I'm not sure why everyone seems so glum in this photo.

Autumn had to return to Seattle before New Years (she and Mike had a party in San Diego), but Melanie and I remained until January 1st.  We watched more football, played some epic games of UNO, and had some delicious dinners, including one at a restaurant called "3 Margaritas". There are not a lot of Mexican places in Paris, so it was glorious!

I ordered a "Coronita", which they make by upending a Corona beer into a margarita. God Bless America!

Mom and Dad, waiting for our food to arrive

We spent a lot of time talking, looking at old photos, and the day Melanie and I left we listened to an old cassette tape of my grandparents talking about their childhoods. Granddad was able to tell stories about his teachers back in grade school, which is really remarkable since I can't even remember who I spent time with this morning.

I think Dad made this photo montage of my Mom for their 50th wedding anniversary

I had expected more jet lag, and before leaving Paris I was absolutely convinced that my "French" would keep slipping out, making me sound like a real douche. But it was almost like my brain clicked over to "American" mode because it all seemed really familiar and I had zero issues re-adjusting. I was kind of worried about driving our car again, after not being behind the wheel for over a year, but even that was fine; it was like I had just driven it the day before.

Anyway, we had a great trip home and we loved spending some quality time with our family! As we will be heading back to Seattle in May for Autumn's wedding we will probably spend our next Christmas in France... or maybe Autumn and Mike will come for a visit and we'll take them to the French Alps, or someplace with lots of snow!

We Have a New Favorite Restaurant!

Just before leaving Paris to spend the holidays in the United States, my Australian friend Steve recommended that Melanie and I share a really traditional French meal someplace. Our first thought was "Auberge Pyrénées Cévennes", where Steve and Deborah introduced us to cassoulet; unfortunately, this amazing restaurant is closed on Sundays... so after a bit of online research I made a reservation at a Latin Quarter bistro called "Le Petit Pontoise".

Zagat says, "Le Petit Pontoise is everything one dreams about in a Parisian Bistro"

I was really in the mood for some traditional French food (and charm) and boy did this place deliver! The decor is old-school Paris and the menu contains classics like veal kidneys, veal liver, sole meuniere, escargot cassoulet, pig cheeks and more.

We arrived at 6:30 PM and I noticed that most of the other guests were American or Asian, which is understandable as the French don't usually eat dinner until 8:00 or later. The restaurant filled quickly so I was glad I made a reservation.

As we were sipping our aperitifs I overheard one of the American diners place his order: "I was here a few days ago... I do NOT need to see the menu... I'm having the Rack of Lamb again!" After the waitress left I asked, "The Lamb is that good, huh?" He replied, with a grin, "Oh yeah. It was amazing."

Needless to say, I had lamb for dinner that night. And he was right. It was incredible.

It's not very large, but the interior is warm and inviting

Melanie and I loved this place so much we not only ate there the night before we left for The United States, we had dinner there again the same day we came home!

Here are some highlights from the two meals:

Au Gratin Parmesan Dauphine Ravioles

Roasted Camembert Cheese with Almond and Honey Crust

Millefeuille of Goat Cheese and Beets

Rack of Lamb with "Bears Garlic" Crust and Fresh Vegetables

Pig Cheeks with Honey and Sweet Spices

Duck Parmentier with Fried Foie Gras Topped with Seasonal Truffles

Grandma's Secret Tart Tatin

For such great food the prices were pretty reasonable, too. My Rack of Lamb was about 30 euros, appetizers are about 13 each, and we had a fantastic bottle of wine for only 42 euros. (They brought us the bottle and said they would charge us based on how much we drank. We were having such a great time we polished off the whole thing.)

The next time you are in Paris be sure to give this place a try:

Le Petit Pontoise
9 Rue de Pontoise, 75005 Paris
http://www.lepetitpontoise.fr/en/