Six Degrees of Separation

So here I was watching something I never thought I’d ever wind up watching… So You Think You Can Dance. Yes, I’ve turned over my man card to the authorities, but in my defense I’m a warm blooded mammal, I must admit I find the women very easy on the eyes (aka hot), which is OK for me to say only because Dania is ogling at the abs on some of these guys (some people would have used a different vowel on the last word… I just think they’re emotional, that’s all). While watching this show Dania suddenly points out that she was taught dance for one year by one of the main choreographers sending people to Vegas and also choreographing in Vegas, Mia Michaels. Apparently she was a teacher at some dance studio in Miami where Dania took classes. It made me start thinking, how I am linked to certain people by so few, well, “links”, for lack of a better word. And it made me think of the whole notion of the Six Degrees of Separation. And that made me wonder how I am possibly linked to certain people.

Now, supposedly the six degrees of separation refers to six steps that each person is from every other person in the world through people they know. Well, according to this I am a mere two steps from Alex Rodriguez (A Rod) since many of my coworkers actually know him… there is an ARod tournament at Columbus which he annually attends, and I have seen him there a number of times. That puts me at three degrees from every Yankee who has played over the last six years with him. Pretty cool. It also puts me three degrees from my all-time favorite baseball player Reggie Jackson, who is a friend of A-Rod’s. Now, I’ve met Reggie, but I don’t think that counts, so I’ll leave it at 3 degrees. I’ll get a ruling on that later from a six degree expert. First I gotta find one of those.. hopefully he is only a couple of degrees away himself.

Probably the most famous Six Degree person is Kevin Bacon. There actually is a game called Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon where one has to find a link between certain actors and Kevin Bacon through movies they’ve been in. I was wondering if I was six degrees from him myself. Well, I came up with this in but two minutes earlier today so I know I am… maybe I’m even closer but here it goes. I played softball some years back with Danny Pino, he of Cold Case fame (it’s a show on CBS for those who don’t know). I’ve known him since he was in Coral Park High School YEEEEARS ago. Well, Danny was in a movie with Andy Garcia, who is friends with Bill Murray, who was on SNL with John Belushi, who was in Animal House with… KEVIN BACON!! So, we have… 1) Danny, 2) Andy, 3) Bill, 4)John, and 5) Kevin Bacon. I’m only 5 degrees away from Kevin Bacon!! Pretty cool, huh?

So, who else can I come up with… how about politically? I have a friend Alfie who worked with our former Mayor Alex Penelas who knows Bill Clinton, who spoke at Barack Obama’s nomination at the DNC. That puts me only 4 degress from our president. If only I agreed with the guy just a little bit more…

And how about this one… going back to So You Think You Can Dance. I’m not going to use Dania’s link here, because I’m pretty sure this choreographer doesn’t even remember Dania. But I still have a quick link to the show, that I only learned about thanks to facebook and that little sidebar that now appears thanks to that new layout that I can’t stand. It seems a friend of mine, Becky, knows not one, but TWO, of the dancers on SYTYCD. One of them,Brandon, in particular, was her student. My daughter heard me saying she also knew Jeanine, who dances with Becky’s daughter, and asked if Becky had any pictures of her on facebook. (She wanted me to become a “fan” of facebook of both dancers.. I declined, citing the inability to hand over a man card I no longer owned). While looking for a picture of Jeanine, I instead found a picture of Becky with Brandon, just before finding a picture of myself with Becky. I’m but two steps away from this dancer dude, Brandon. Which puts me 3 steps away from judge Nigel, four steps away from producer Simon Fuller, 5 steps away from Simon Cowell, and 6 steps away from anybody who has ever been on American Idol. If I take a slight detour I get something even more intriguing. As I mentioned, I am four steps away from Simon Fuller who produces SYTYCD, as well as American Idol, and also America’s Got Talent. That puts me 5 steps away from David Hasselhoff, a judge on AGT, which leaves me six steps away from yes, you guessed it… NO, not the Baywatch babes! Though I am… but I find this other link MUCH more interesting. I am six steps away from SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS who got to ride on “the Hasselhoff” in his movie. How cool is that? If I follow the right path, I can get to the sponge himself!!

To finish off, I found another pretty interesting link, considering this topic. I have a former student of mine, Andy, who is currently directing movies in Hollywood. Nothing big yet, but maybe he’s on his way. Well, I saw a short film of his where he stars with none other than “Uncle Carl” from the Freash Prince of Bel Air. Of course he was “Uncle Carl” to the “Fresh Prince” Wil Smith, who got his big break on the big screen in a movie called, you guessed it, “Six Degrees of Separation”. So, I am but 3 degrees from Wil Smith! His costar was Stockard Channing, who is also of Grease fame, meaning that I am 5 degrees from the entire cast of Grease (so is my wife because she knows Andy, which if she was easily excitable, she would find this pretty cool… but she’s not. She leaves that sort of excitement to the big nerd in the family… me).

So, who are you linked to, and if you know me, by default you are linking me to them too! I want to know the world! Am I really six degrees from everyone? Heck, I’m but two degrees from people in Nigeria, Mozambique, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, China, the Canary Islands, and Korea, to name a few countries, so I’m sure that it’s a matter of time before I can link myself to Mopatu (tongue click, cheek click) LucLuc from Zaire, some bushman waiting to be discovered for “The Gods Must Be Crazy Part III”. That would be really cool! After all I’m only 2 degrees of separation from Bono from U2 at this very moment, and he does a lot of work in number of African countries. With a little work, I’ll get to meet him and then I’ll be down to just ONE (no pun intended).

Feel free to cue me into YOUR degrees of separation. Let’s see what we can find out.