Ira Glass and Yo-Yo Ma

If you've ever listened to NPR's excellent show (now a podcast) "This American Life," you'll know the voice of Ira Glass, its organizer and narrator. It's a great program; I've never listened to a single one that wasn't truly interesting.

I was working at the Burlingame Apple Store towards the end of one of my work days, when a woman came in to pick up her desktop iMac, which had been repaired in our Genius Bar. iMacs were pretty heavy in those days, 30+ pounds, so I asked her if she needed some help getting it out to her car. "No, my brother's here. He'll take it out for me."

So her brother approached us, with an item in hand that he wanted to buy. He gave me his credit card, on which the name "IRA GLASS" was emblazoned.

"You're Ira Glass? I'm so pleased to meet you!" said I. Now, as it turns out, NPR isn't the most popular listening medium for most of the way-younger employees of the Apple Store, so I was the only one around who got excited about my encounter with this "famous" man.

In Palo Alto a few years later, a man was shopping for iPhone cables. I helped him out, and on his credit card, it said "Yo-Yo Ma." I said, "You're Yo-Yo Ma? I love your music!"

He said, "You'll probably raise the price, knowing who I am!" I didn't, though.