yesterday i found out there's only two degrees of separation between me and napoleon dynamite - check out this excerpt from an email i got from my old animation teacher tom beatty:

Also, sorry to hear about your love of Napoleon Dynamite although I have not seen it...I'm not sure I could stomach it. You see, Jon Heder (the star of the movie) and his twin brother were both students of mine at BYU. They took Character Design and Life Drawing for Animation from me during the year I was there. This was of course before the movie. He and his brother are animation students...not acting students (did it show). The personality you see in the movie isn't as funny when it is the personality of one of your students. So, I suppose...if you wanted bragging rights....you could say your Animation Professor taught the star of Napoleon Dynamite.

bragging rights, indeed! i expect this will only make me more in demand and conceited than i already am.