This isn’t the Sherri Talley Jones Smith, etc. kind of name-dropping designed to simplify the lives of women who just want to be who they were born to be.  No, this is the kind where people (you know them) casually mention the name of a celebrity they “know” in an effort to seem more important.  That kind can be annoying.  It leaves you with a name-dropping gone bad sort of feeling. 

If used creatively, the art of name-dropping can be very effective and entertaining.  For instance, remember the 1988 vice presidential debate where Lloyd Bentsen said to Dan Quayle, “I knew Jack Kennedy.  Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine.  Senator, you’re no Jack Kennedy.”  Another example of name-dropping gone good is what takes place in the newsroom.  Subjects and people are artfully discussed with reckless abandon and very thoroughally, so as to ‘get the facts’.  Yeah, we’re just doing our jobs.

With that in mind, who do you know?  I’ll get us started.  I went to school with Jane Spaulding Carter, the controversial mother of Aaron Carter and Nick Carter (Backstreet Boys).  Her father was my English teacher and I had a crush on her brother.  Just a crush.  See, there are some people in the world I haven’t married.  One less name for me to have to drop from the lineup.  So, now you go.  Drop that name!