Ok I just had the most random conversation with my dad

[Reverend_Smitty]

We were sitting on the couch watching Pimp My Ride (yeah it's one of those guilty pleasure shows) and out of the blue he asks me..."What do you think about Bennett Serf?" After a few seconds I went "huh?!?" He was like "you know Bennett Serf, he used to be on old those old game shows" My reply "I don't think anything of him...What the hell kind of question is that?"

He responds "Well I watch him on the Game Show network and anytime someone who has anything to do with space travel is on, he asks when are we going to land on the moon (keep in mind these are What's My Line from the 1950's). I thought about it so much that I had to go online and check and see if he lived long enough to see man land on the moon. The internet said he died in 1971. I feel much better now knowing that he was able to see that happen"

I walk away shaking my head in disbelief at just what transpired.

[Shoeempress]

1. Now there is a conversation you don't have everyday.

[Reverend_Smitty]

3. no, no it's not

In fact I never in my wildest dreams ever expected to have that conversation

[Kerrytravelers]

2. Random... but at least he didn't exalt* as a great leader of humanity,

I'm rather random myself...

[Delarage]

4. It's interesting how the mind works....

When I make some random statement like that, I try to analyze all the various connections that got me to that point. It can be quite difficult.

[swag]

5. Appropriate, since Cerf founded Random House

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bennett_Cerf

some highlights (not included: publishing Atlas Shrugged):

In 1934, Cerf won a landmark court case against government censorship, and published James Joyce's unabridged Ulysses for the first time in the United States. Critical reviews of the book were pasted into a special copy, which was duly imported and seized by U.S. Customs. Cerf later presented the book to Columbia University.
. . .
Recognising a need for humorous reading during World War II, Cerf produced the first of many compilations of other people's jokes under the title Try and Stop Me. It was a runaway success, and he continued with similar compilations for the rest of his life.
. . .
In 1960 Cerf bet Dr. Seuss $50 that he couldn't write an entire book using only fifty words. The result was Green Eggs and Ham. Curiously, Cerf never paid him the $50.

[Reverend_Smitty]

6. Well he did have an interesting life

but I still don't know why the conversation happened...just another head scratcher I suppose

[joneschick]

7. we had Bennett Cerf's Book of Riddles

what do you lose everytime you stand up?
your lap

If you throw a stone in the Red Sea what does it become?
Wet
etc., etc.

My brothers and I loved it and my girls found it at my mom's and loved it all over again.

[sandnsea]

8. I think it gave him pleasure

It's nice when people get to see their dreams realized. He wanted to share it, and there's really no other way to share something so abstract then to just blurt it out. Seems to me.