So. Tell me about a low-level celebrity who influenced your life for the better or whom you just really admire. The more obscure the better.
Bob Kupa'a Smith
The other is another PBS instructional TV host: the late Bob Kupa'a Smith, host of the language arts and etymology show Wordsmith.
I first discovered him as a kid, of course. Wordsmith was the number one factor that inspired my love of words, linguistics, and classical etymology.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wordsmith_(TV_series)
And then I ran into him again as an adult, while he was still alive, after stumbling across his Facebook. Sadly, it's no longer around. But he had evolved into EVERYTHING you wanted your childhood heroes to be.
In his late 80s or so, he was taking computer science courses, had dyes his hair blue, and had taken up food criticism as a hobby. He was everything I wanted to be but lacked the energy and, above all I think, the *hope*. He was teaching kids and being the "groovy old guy" up to his last moments and I am so lovingly envious.
Hope you're on a nice celestial beach, Kupunakāne, where every grain of sand is a word cell and every word is kind and honest.
And wow, it turns out MOST OF THE SERIES is up on an archive. That was a nice, unexpected gift: https://media.dlib.indiana.edu/catalog?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search_field=all_fields&q=wordsmith
Bob Kupa'a Smith
@zebratron2084
Oh yeah, the word-roots-on-balls guy! I remember that show!