Photos: Our Readers And Their Famous Friends

I asked for your best photos taken with celebrities and you did not disappoint. Here's a taste of what you guys sent us. We normally don't paginate our articles, but the number of photos in this post made that a necessity. So just click the little numbers to continue reading.

Update: If you have a picture you'd like to share, send it to flossypics@gmail.com. Perhaps there will be a sequel.

Our readers have posed with the president (that's him with Jeff Winston of Grand Rapids, Michigan).

The former president (shown here with Jo Ann Graham & family).

The former vice president (shaking hands with Karen Elder).

The former candidate (with Paulo).

The former candidate's former rival (posing with Brea and Nathan).

The former candidate's former rival's lift ticket.

Another former candidate (with Creighton Lovelace).

And we even had someone send in a picture taken with Robert Kennedy. (Thanks, Patti Poole!)

But the submissions weren't all from the world of politics.

Two different people sent in this photo of Bob Saget. This either means that Madelyn Otcasek and Alyssa Lane are friends who both read mental_floss, which is cool, or this pic is near the top of a Google Image search for "random photo with celebrity."

Laura Gryder ran into Jay Leno at an In-N-Out Burger in Las Vegas.

And here's Laura with Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy of Mystery Science Theater 3000 fame.

Mary Van Tyne with chef/author Anthony Bourdain.

Di Anderson with Bobby Flay.

Lauren Las, her volleyball teammates, and A.C. Slater.

And here's Lauren with former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

On the next page, a few mental_floss favorites...

Steven Silver (the young one) with Clyde W. Tombaugh, who discovered Pluto.

Tish Strandboge and John Cleese. ("He signed the cardboard part of a Hot Wheel package for me (all
I had, crazy I know). He had never heard of Hot Wheels, and we had a
sort of odd conversation about it.")

Valerie Ashanin Abshire sent in this pic of her husband with Alton Brown.

Swapna Gupta and Krista both sent in pics with Carl Kassell of Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!

Sarah in CA, shown here with Josh Bernstein of Discovery Channel fame.

Adam Smith with astronomy's own Neil deGrasse Tyson, who happened to be on The Daily Show at the very moment I opened Adam's email. ("This year is the International Year of Astronomy. 2009 is the 400th anniversary of Galileo first turning his telescope to the night skies and discovering amazing things (the moons of Jupiter, the phases of Venus, the rings of Saturn, and sunspots) that would change the world, how we see our world, and even how we see ourselves in the universe. I challenge you all at Mental Floss, in honor of this momentous year, to publish a couple of articles about astronomy.")

Kelly O'Brien and former Talk Soup host Aisha Tyler.

Jared Lynch with Bob Barker and his beauties.

We're not done yet...

Joe Meyer and Jeff Probst.

RosAnne and Dennis Rodman compared their piercings at the Venetian in Las Vegas.

Laura Thompson and Dwight Schrute.

Brian Martinez and Jerry Springer.

Jeff Brown and Stevie Nicks.

Allen Harrison of Scottsdale and Billy F. Gibbons of ZZ Top.

Tracie Karn and Lynyrd Skynyrd. ("I told them I had my kids raised, was ready for a new adventure and
asked if I could join the band. They got a kick out of that.")

Anna Bloom and Paul Schaffer.

Nora Hanlon and Ben Folds.

Allan Dranberg and the disgraced former mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, hanging out at Dave & Busters.

Dave Marklinger and baseball's notorious hit king, Pete Rose.

Shelia Culbert, her daughter and original Beatle Pete Best. ("After meeting him, my daughter was telling everyone she knew that 'a Beatle called me cute.' Of course, being 9 at the time, her friends didn't know what the heck she was talking about and weren't impressed.")

One more page, and then we'll get to the winners.

Obama supporters Sean Quinn and Kal Penn.

Andrew Hu's kids with Jackie Chan.

Rebecca Lunny with Seth Rudetsky, from the Broadway channel on Sirius Satellite Radio.

Dawn Holmes' son, Sean, with Henry Kissinger.

Frank Page, his shirt and Trisha Yearwood ("this was taken in 2001 when i was trying to get a comic strip i was drawing "spare parts" off the ground. the comic strip didn't end up doing much for me other than leaving me with a few promotional t-shirts left over. after a trisha yearwood concert, i made my way backstage for a meet and greet. she was amazingly nice. i gave her one of my t-shirts. so, if she ever did wear it, at some point in my life, my head was on trisha yearwood's chest.")

Stuart Steene-Connolly and Kevin Smith.

Tyler Mann and Rob Schneider.

Skye C. Reiner and Kenny G.

Jessica Fickey and Vanilla Ice. ("I said, 'Vanilla, can we get a picture?' Vanilla responded, 'Sure,' took my camera, and took a picture of only me and my friends "“ he honestly thought I wanted him to just take a picture of our group. I then clarified that I wanted HIM in the picture as well, and we re-took it with everyone in it.")

Chris Mackeprang and Matthew Lesko.

Drumroll, please...

Before I announce the winner, let me bestow 1st Runner-Up status on Karen Garrett, who brought the volume with three super celebrity photos:

Jack Donaghy/the guy from Glengarry Glen Ross...

...Barry Zuckercorn/The Fonz...

...and Stan Lee! For her effort, Karen has earned the mental_floss t-shirt of her choosing.

But since I have to pick one big winner to receive a copy of FBI 100 Years: An Unofficial History, I choose Michael Geier, who sent in a picture of himself with Mr. Rogers.

I was walking down the street to work one day when I looked up and noticed a man wearing a bow tie. It's not something I normally see everyday, so it caught my attention. I looked at the man's face and realized, I know that man. He came closer and in a mix of surprise and complete expectation, I said "Hi, Mr. Rogers." I don't remember how he greeted me other than to say he was just as you'd expect: perfectly kind and welcoming. I remembered I had a camera in my bag and asked him if I could get a picture. I got someone to take the picture, Mr. Rogers put his arm around me and then told me that he hoped the picture turned out.

If you have a picture you'd like to share, send it to flossypics@gmail.com. Perhaps there will be a sequel.

See Also...

Our Readers Are Nerds! (We Have Proof)
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15 Reasons Mr. Rogers Was The Best Neighbor Ever
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4 Terrifying Theories in Astronomy