In the late 60s, there was an experiment regarding a gal in Chicago who had many friends, had been in many organizations, and just liked lots of different people! She sounds like my type.
Anyway, they came to the conclusion there were only six degrees of separation between her and any other person in the city.
So, in 1994, this theory became Bacon's Law. I'm not sure who decided it was Kevin Bacon in the movie world who could prove six degrees of separation and some college students from Albright College came up with a game that involved connecting Bacon through movies.
No way could I play this game; I'm not current in movies. The only one of Kevin Bacon's I've ever seen was Footloose. As you all know, I've always related to that town; we didn't dance in Waco!!
There is also a book, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon; it kind of got carried away there. And I'm told that TCM does an annual thing where they show 31 days of Oscar winning movies in which each film shown shares an actor from the previous one. Who in the world has to check that all out??
I bring this up because I maintain, in Nebraska, it's usually only three degrees of separation. We don't move out of state, we just move around, and make new friends. I was expounding on this subject yesterday to the PT assistant helping me with my exercises. She had never heard of the theory, and what's more, I haven't yet come up with the degrees of separation for her and me; but a PT tech who works there and is from Norfolk would obviously be my intermediary.
When I meet someone, I usually ask where they are from within the first fifteen minutes after being introduced. This drives my kids crazy! But it lends itself to figuring out if the new acquaintance knows someone who knows someone; and they usually do.
I get all sorts of information on Wikipedia, and when I was researching this subject last night, I came across this by Kevin Bacon himself: I was in a movie with Eunice, whose hairdresser attended Sunday School with Father O'Neill, who plays racquetball with Dr. Sanjay, who removed the appendix of Kim who dumped you sophomore year; that makes us almost brothers! Yes, that's what I sometimes have to do to find the connection, but I can usually find it!! And it usually doesn't take me that many people in between!
Try it; it's fun!
