SFGirl By Bay is full of surprises. In response to a meme today, she posted several odd & fascinating bits about herself (which reminds me, I owe Jordan a meme). Turns out SFgirlbybay lives in Herb Caen’s old apartment, shared her Brownie troupe days with Princess Leah, and starred in a Cold Power laundry detergent commercial when she was 8 years old.

This reminded me of one of the first things I learned about my husband, Kevin. When I met him almost exactly 12 years ago and was grilling him about his background (I knew within a few days of meeting him that I had to make him mine, so I wanted to find out everything about him I could), he mentioned having been the original Trident Chew on This man. Maybe you remember the commercial. A guy sits at a lunch counter eating a tuna sandwich, making eyes at a girl down the counter, and he’s got these gleaming teeth. Funny thing is, Kevin only went to the audition to accompany his girlfriend. He didn’t have a stitch of acting experience, or a headshot, but he got the job. He spent a single day taping the commercial, and much to his dismay he had to eat about a dozen tuna sandwiches to get the take right. But it was worth it, because he made $40,000 for his day’s work and was able to pay off his student loans. Occasionally a small check will arrive in the mail because the commerical has run somewhere. The year I met him, the commercial ran a number of times on national television, part of some retro Trident campaign. People he met at parties would always look at him strangely, as if they couldn’t quite place him, and say, “I feel like I know you from somewhere.”