Our celebrities are not like your celebrities

I don't watch much Fiction television. There are shows that I like that I catch on DVD or online, like Chuck, but when it comes to actually watching a show on the TV, I'm pretty much down to 'Leverage' and 'Eureka.' But I do watch a metric ton of documentary shows. Roman plumbing? Hawking's thoughts on Black Holes? Guys filming random things in slow motion? I am ALL OVER that.

So recently I've been watching lots of science shows. And therefore I'm seeing a LOT of Neil Degrasse Tyson. He works at the Hayden Planetarium in NY, and he's a frequent guest on the Daily Show and Colbert Report. And he's a talking head for just about any astronomy-astrophysics show or special there is. And he hosts Nova Science NOW on PBS (which is a pretty good science magazine show).

So I was watching one of these shows, thinking how much I have seen of him lately, so I went to his site and wrote him a little fan letter. Nothing much, just like, two twitter-fulls of 'I've enjoyed your appearances and think you have clear explanations of complicated concepts for someone who isn't very knowledgeable, like me.' And today he wrote back!

Dear Ann
Thank you for your kind words below. I try hard to bring the universe down to Earth. I am glad to learn that I occasionally succeed - even on Colbert.
All the best, on Earth and in the Universe.
NDTyson

This makes me happy.