Streetwise Streetwise (December 03, 2003)

If you could be a famous person, who would you be and why? @info:Question and interviews by Lorraine Sanders. Photographs by Scott Stuppi. Asked on University Avenue in Palo Alto.

Carolyn Rathburn
Artist Live Oak Street, Santa Ynez
"Fame is not what it's cracked up to be. I think I enjoy anonymity. I think I wouldn't want to be famous."

Marland Chancellor
Physician Channing Street, Palo Alto
"I don't want to be anybody famous. I like my life like it is. People in the public eye are under so much scrutiny these days for things they do that have nothing to do with the reason they became famous in the first place. We have created a cult of personality. We have raised fame to the point of religiosity."

Doug Kelly
Physician and venture capitalist Skyline Boulevard, Palo Alto
"That's assuming I'm not already famous. Abraham Lincoln. He was a man of principle who rose to the occasion in an extraordinary period in history, a time when it was easy to be unprincipled."

Patty Stevenson
Retired Byron Street, Palo Alto
"Around this time of year, I'd like to be Mother Theresa because she helped everybody. But nobody could live up to her legacy."

David Levine
Writer West Street, South Attleboro, Mass.
"Lincoln. He was involved with some interesting issues about keeping the country together. He had to deal with moral issues and alter his perception of things. He was beset by many special interests and pleaders."

Steve Jacobs
Retired Bryant Street, Palo Alto
"I'd like to be President of the United States. I would make the changes necessary to help the people less fortunate than me."

Gabriel Micek
Student Cornell Street, Menlo Park
"Can I be a man? OK, Tracy McGrady, because I like basketball. He's a basketball player for the Magic."

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