You can’t throw a dead fish without hitting a sushi bar in this town. That’s not such a bad thing, since both Beth and I like sushi.

Lately, we’ve been going out for sushi about once a week (not a cheap habit), and our preferred restaurant is Teru Sushi. Teru Sushi is also popular among the celebrity set. It seems like every time we’re in there we see someone who looks vaguely familar in a ER walk-on role kind of way, and occasionally we see people who are familiar in a “holy shit, look who that is!” kind of way.

For example, a few years ago we had sushi with Captain Kirk. Well, maybe not with him, but William Shatner was definitely at the next table, and he was telling his self-absorbed stories loudly enough that we felt like we were part of his party. And his dinner companions, boy, they were lapping it up. It was obvious that they were there needing him to agree to do something for them, and they were grinning and nodding up a storm as he went on … and on … and on … and on about his trip to Mexico … and his home remodeling … and his trip to Mexico… But the vibe I got was that they weren’t going to be getting what they wanted — but the Captain would: an audience.

Saturday night, we saw another big celeb there: Paul Stanley, lead singer of KISS. That was pretty cool. He and his stick-thin girlfriend sat next to us at the bar and we exchanged pleasantries about the cucumber roll. I had no idea who he was at the time, but he looked vaguely familiar, and I overheard (eavesdropped) enough of his conversation to figure out that he was about to go to Australia and then Tokyo on tour. That put me on the musician path, and then when he and I made full-on eye contact I knew who he was. He ordered toro sashimi, in case you’re wondering.

That’s it. I just wanted to do some namedropping. And recommend a good sushi restaurant. But mainly just namedrop.