The landing of Perseverance on Mars reminded me of some interesting past experiences. Bear with me as I do a sort of stream of consciousness that came to me watching the landing and communicating with friends. I have three friends who have worked for NASA, one of whom helped develop the Hubble space telescope. When this friend was working in Houston on the Hubble, he sent me a yellow page ad for a woman with my name, Dawn Starr, who was a “balloon stripper.” HAHA. When my youngest son was taking an aerospace class in junior high school, I mentioned to his teacher that I had a friend who helped develop the Hubble. She asked if he would come to present to the class. I was reluctant to ask, but he graciously agreed and did a great job. He lived only a few hours up the California coast, and brought with him some artifacts from the Hubble. He explained how they kept it charged all the time: in the sun, the batteries would recharge, then when dark they would rely on the batteries that had recharged in the sun.
As I mentioned the Dawn Starr balloon ad to a friend, we had a funny exchange about balloons and I mentioned there are balloon fetishes, as well as multiple other fetishes. There used to be a program on HBO called, “Real Sex,” which featured many types of fetishes, including but not limited to latex, dressing like babies, riding small ponies, etc.
So when my middle son went to be filmed for an HBO film, “I Have Tourette’s But Tourette’s Doesn’t Have Me,” I was surprised when I learned the film’s director was Ellen Goosenberg Kent, the same person who directed and produced “Real Sex.” I said nothing to my son until he was an adult. This 2005 film one an Emmy.
Hollywood was pretty run down when they filmed, but I found a nice, new hotel, The Delano, which had a sister hotel we had visited in Miami. Our friends, whose sons were also being interviewed and filmed for the film, had a different experience. Their boys wanted to know what the floor to ceiling pole was in their hotel room.
When I went across the street to an upscale restaurant, the woman sitting next to me at the bar was friendly. She was originally from South America. She said she worked doing ads for a weight loss pill. She was thin, so I asked her how much weight she had lost. She laughed and said none, that they had altered her ¨before¨ photos to make her look fat.
Starr Treks 
Haha! Love this steam of consciousness, Dawn. (Although now I don’t know if I’ll be able to say your full name with a straight face!) Thanks for sharing. So cool about the movie!
thanks.