(Cross-posted, with slight edits, from The Crolian Progressive.)
When we talk, for a brief moment, with celebrities, we have no way of knowing whether our snap impressions of them reflect the whole person. I once had a conversation with then-Senator Paul Sarbanes about homeschooling; the Senator was respectful and kind and seemed interested in what I had to say. On another occasion, I sat next to the French Consul-General in New York at a $75-a-head banquet (long story); the Consul-General spoke to his friends in French and ignored me. I'm left with a good impression of Sarbanes and a poor impression of the Consul-General, but who's to say that my experiences with them reflect who they really are?