I managed to slip off to a con recently and ran into one of those “impossible to get” guests, but with a twist — this one wants to come to cons, for the fun of it as much as anything else.

The guest in question, and I was more than a little surprised to run into him (even more so that he wanted to talk to me!) was Lorne Greene. He wasn’t on the con’s official guest list, instead, he was there as an attendee. From talking to him, he’s interested in getting onto the convention circuit but first wanted to check out the scene in-person. (He went full-out on it too, going so far as to show up with a reasonable facsimile of his “padded-robe” uniform from the original BSG.) He’d like to start coming to cons this year and gave me a card with all the appropriate contact information.

Talking to a friend about this encounter a short time later, we agreed that it was pretty cool someone of his stature actually wants to go to cons — so many of the well-known stars price themselves out of range. I was particularly surprised though since I thought he’d passed away about 20-25 years ago.

And that’s when I woke up.

Sure, booking Lorne Greene presents a few more challenges than most guests, but the good news is that he wants to be there.

Now if I could just remember that phone number….