Dan Lewis

My Jon Stewart Guests Number

Nate Silver, a baseball blogger who is now a much bigger deal, was on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart a week or so ago.

Bill from The Platoon Advantage has met Nate and made a neat (Nate?) observation:

So I was wondering:

How many of Jon Stewart’s guests have I met and chatted with?

Here’s my list, using Wikipedia’s list of guests as my guide. Some people were on more than once; I’m only putting up their first appearance date.

1) Richard Perle, January 27, 2004. I know a family member of his and met him via that person. Short conversation, nothing about national security came up. But definitely a “chat.”

2) Katie Couric, December 16, 2004. Met her at the When Families Grieve launch event. Someone introduced me to her and we spoke for about a minute or two about the program.

3) Marci Hamilton, July 11, 2005. She is a professor at Cardozo, where I went to law school, and we’ve spoken here and there.

4) Craig Newmark, February 26, 2007. I’ve met him a few times. Gotten coffee and everything. Good guy.

5) Jimmy Wales, January 5, 2011. I used to work for him and know him well. Strangely, I’ve been offered Daily Show tickets once in my life. That date? January 5, 2011. That’d have been weird.

6) Kevin Clash, October 24, 2011. I work for him, kind of.

7) Lawrence Lessig, December 13, 2004. Jimmy (#5) brought him in to speak to us at Wikia once. I spoke with him afterward about copyright and federal financing of campaigns.

So my Jon Stewart Number is 7. For now. If you only count those who know who I am, it’d be three — Craig, Jimmy, and Kevin.

Honorable Mention:

1) Miss Piggy, July 13, 1999. I don’t know Miss Piggy but I know her performer — probably. It’s not clear who performed her that day. But I’ve never met Piggy so this doesn’t count either way. (Kermit was on the show on February 13, 2001, but to date, I haven’t met his performer.)

2) Al Roker, July 20, 2000. He lives/lived in my neighborhood, and I see him around every so often. He once stood in front of me at checkout at the grocery store and I said hi. We didn’t really “chat” so it doesn’t count.

3) Joe Lieberman, September 14, 2000. His step-son (?) went to the same camp I did, and on visiting day, I apparently had a conversation with him about something, but it was only afterward that someone told me I was speaking with Joe Lieberman. And I may not have been, actually, because his step-son (or whomever) wasn’t in my age group, so it’s unlikely that it was me that Senator Lieberman was speaking with. But at least one person said I did.

4) Paul Reubens, better known as Pee Wee Herman, April 9, 2001. We’ve never met, but of February 18, 2012, he tweeted a link to Now I Know. That has to count for something, right?

5) John McCain, July 26, 2001. Met him at a book signing. We chatted for about three seconds, if you include the two seconds it took for him to sign a copy of his book for me. Doesn’t count.

6) Rich Eisen, August 15, 2002. We’ve spoken on the phone, via Twitter, and via email a number of times — although he probably doesn’t recall most of them — but have never met.

7) Joe Scarborough, September 30, 2003. I heard him speak once and am about 50% sure I went up to speak with him after, albeit briefly, and, apparently, inconsequentially if I did.

8) Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, May 5, 2004. Met him, said hi, no conversation. I took a lot of pictures, but there was no “chat” there. I didn’t even introduce myself.

9) Floyd Abrams, April 25, 2005. Went to my old synagogue. Met him at a kiddush club once but it was just a “hi, nice to meet you” thing, if that, until one of his friends came by. Spoke with his wife a bit (it was their anniversary), though.