Lost in the dairy section

I don't think I ever blogged about this, but one day while walking through the Safeway on Kapahulu, I passed someone who looked quite familiar, the gentleman at left.

In fact, I run into a lot of people from the university—often folks you walk by several times a week so you know their face but you have never formally met—and I just assumed it was one of those people. It was only when I got home I had my little epiphany: that's the guy who's the leader of The Others!

At that point, I had deliberately not watched any of Lost (I was waiting for a chance to watch each episode in order from the beginning), so I only recognized him from the commercials on ABC. Had I said anything, I would have sounded pretty stupid.

But now that I'm completely up to speed on "Lost," I think there's a good chance I might run into him again. The Safeway on Kapahulu is the largest (and nicest) on the whole island, probably the whole state. In fact, Governor Linda Lingle showed up for the grand opening in November 2007 (as she probably will when Target opens this March and maybe even Trader Joe's if they ever opened one here; there's not a lot going on in Hawaii when the president's not here on vacation).

First off, I will not go up to him and say, "Hey, you're Ben!" I will say, "Oh, aren't you Michael Emerson from Lost? You do a great job on that show." I've been in media long enough to know that it's always nice when people come up to you and say your name instead of, "Aren't you that guy on that news program?" Or worse, "You're on TV!" clearly with no idea who you are or what program(s) you do.

Come to think of it, I probably should also remember the names of the other actors, too. Honolulu and Oahu are not that big and they shoot Lost scenes all over the island, so you never know who you'll encounter. I just hope the meeting isn't a bending of fenders with someone driving inebriated through the streets of Oahu, as seems to be a theme with some of the Lost actors (who end up dead on the show).