6 Degrees of Separation

"Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on earth can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries". Thus spake Wikipedia. I've no doubt that this is true.

Allow me to demonstrate. The Spouse used to work in the movie biz. At a cast/crew party I met and spoke, briefly, to the lovely and talented Natasha Richardson. In those few moments I began a chain of connection that gets me pretty much to any and all actors on at least 2 continents.

For example:
Me>Tasha>Liam Neeson
Me>Tasha>Colin Firth (which makes me dizzy with joy)
Me>Tasha>Alan Rickman>all the Harry Potter stars (The Child loves that one).

Never mind that Natasha's mother is Vanessa Redgrave, which puts me 3 degrees from anyone Vanessa has ever known or worked with. Let's put the celebrity factor aside for a moment. Factoring in regular, ordinary people puts me 3 degrees from every hotel clerk, waiter or Palestinian Ms. Redgrave ever met. Which puts me 4 degrees to everyone each of those people ever met.

Here are some more examples:

Me>Tasha>Lindsay Lohan

I've met a cousin of The Neighbor's who went to St. Andrews College and spilled beer on Prince William:
Me>Erica>Wills>Diana.

JM's mom was once hit on by Louis Armstrong:
Me>JM>his mom>Louis>Grace Kelly

Sometimes, in my idle hours, I play this game and marvel at all the people to whom I am connected. And again, those are the ones easily traced through their filmography on the IMDb. All chains of connection we establish through our lives would be equally fascinating, were we able to trace them. What are the links that follow from me to the guy who checked my groceries this morning? Who does he know? It really is a very small world.

And that is why the NSA is getting in on the fun. They aren't accessing our phone records because they want to know about us. No, you silly rabbits, they just want to know everyone we've ever talked to so they can determine whether one of those people talked to someone who talked to someone else who talked to someone in, let's say, al Qaeda. It's a benign game of 6 degrees of separation so let's all just relax.

Here's a fun one: Me>John Kerry>George W. Bush. What is great about that is it gets me 3 degrees to Stephen Colbert and only 4 to Jon Stewart. No, wait, Kerry's been on The Daily Show. Jon Stewart in 3.

And my Bacon number? It's 3.
Me>Spouse>Keifer Sutherland>Kevin Bacon

Your turn.