As I was getting ready for my trip to Chicago for this weekend’s shindig of the year (that would be SOBCon ’07, don’tcha know), for the first time ever, I was finally smart enough (see, you can teach this ol’ dog new tricks!) to print my boarding pass the day before. It sure makes things easy, lemme tell ya!

Since for this trip I’m only traveling with a carry-on (something that rarely happens for me), I was able to blithely stroll past the check-in lines and right up to the security gate. Pretty nice, if I do say so myself.

As I was waiting in that line, though, I began to notice something odd. Practically every person around me (and I mean everybody!) was holding their cell phone in that peculiar pose that could only mean they were taking a picture with the built-in camera. (You know the one, don’t you? Head up, feet apart, shoulders squared, phone hand held high with phone held 18-24 inches in front of your face at eye level…)

I had the distinct feeling I’d stumbled into the setup for a giant painting, and the artist had arranged everything just so. When I turned to see what was suddenly so photogenic, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets strolled by in the security lane for First Class!

Wow, I’m tellin’ ya; that guy is tall! Now, you’re probably thinking, “Well, of course he’s tall, he’s a star center!” Well, sure, but until you see him standing next to you, you really can’t appreciate just how tall he really is. He practically had to bend in half just to get through the security scanner frame.

It made me wonder about a couple of things, though. For instance, I wonder what it’s like to be that tall? I mean, at six-foot-one, I’m (relatively) tall; but we’re not even in the same, uh, league (sorry, couldn’t resist). Naturally he sits up in First Class; but it’s not just because he’s a celebrity. I mean, even if he wasn’t one, the front row is the only place on the plane he’d fit!

Another thing I always wondered about. Now that I’ve had my first brush with a genuine, bona-fide celebrity (unless you count that time I bumped into the World Tiddlywink Champion back in ’03), I gotta ask. Does being in close proximity to a celebrity automatically give me any sort of celebrity status? I know people who really think it does, strangely enough. Don’t know why it should, though. Weird.

Ah, well, I think I’ll just keep movin’ through the security line. Gotta take my shoes off now…