When you’re famous, it’s really easy to become even more famous. This is the absolute truth. So famous that you are able to take an odd situation, and make it really trendy. For example, this past year, Lindsay Lohan and a whole pack of celebrities popularized the concept of checking into rehab. Rehab was cool, trendy, the new place to be. But because LiLo was already so famous, she one upped herself, and made going to prison, an extracurricular activity that may seem immoral, but was actually now, glamorous. I kid you not. For awhile, because I love Lindsay, I told everyone I was in prison, but I really meant I was at work. You get the idea.
On Tuesday, Bono (the peace loving shades wearing frontman of U2) became really famous for hitchhiking. Hitchhiking. You know, what you do when you’re stranded on the side of the road, with your thumb stuck out, hoping to get a ride to anywhere but where you are at that moment. He was in Vancouver hanging out, when it started raining. Apparently not able to adapt to such harsh Vancouver weather conditions, he decided to hitchhike along with his assistant. And of course, another not so local celebrity, Edmonton Oiler’s Gilbert Brule just happened to be there to pick up the non shades wearing Bono and his assistant at the time. Within a matter of some Vancouver rain, an extended thumb, and an A List Celebrity and a C list athlete, hitchhiking and picking up hitchhikers, is now the next claim to fame.
There are perks to picking up hitchhikers in this case. For Brule, this meant backstage passes to a sold out show, and a very special shout out labeling him as a “hero” in front of a stadium of crazy fans. Special. However, for those who don’t believe in happenstance, luck, and possess some legitimate common sense, I urge to reconsider picking up hitchhikers. The skeptic paranoid in me still believes that when an individual is seen standing at the side of the road with their thumb extended, caution should be secured in place. What if this person is an axe murderer, why are they in need of a free ride, are they escaping from the state penitentiary, or maybe they just plain forgot to take their meds and will mistake you for their ex wife and well, murder you. Exactly. Not every hitchhiker will be able to hook it up with free passes to a concert, I’m just saying.
Having said all this, I will entertain the idea of picking up a hitchhiker for sheer entertainment the next time I shall come across one. Thanks to Bono, I will think about how glamorous it would be to maybe pick up an accidental celebrity, running away from some regular weather catastrophe, and then be mentioned on every blog, paper, and gossip site for days to come. Because despite the fact that I am paranoid, you gotta help a lending hand sometime. Because as Bono can now attest to, “sometimes you can’t make it on your own.”
Funny enough, U2′s “Beautiful Day” just came on the radio. So, ENJOY!
