I knew he was a barbell boy, but I didn't know he was a boor...

On Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, bored in the early afternoon while my wife Valerie was out showing real estate, I decided to go for a walk.

Took the Metro to Foggy Bottom and started hoofing it around the corner from 23rd Street to M Street in Georgetown. On the way, who do I encounter walking along the sidewalk but…Arnold Schwarzenegger? That is correct. Governor of California and Hollywood movie joke Arnold Schwarzenegger, scarf around neck, was walking (dashing is more like it) along M Street. I don’t know what he was doing in Washington, but evidently he was shopping in Georgetown, which is what anyone would be doing there on the day after Thanksgiving.

We were going in opposite directions. I stopped and did a double-take. He’s not as tall as one might think. He saw me recognize him and winced, with a bit of a smile. But when I said, “Aren’t you Governor Schwarzenegger?” his bodyguard immediately dashed up and interposed himself between me and Ah-nold, telling me in no uncertain terms that I was to “respect” the governor’s “privacy.” Hey, celebrities who want “privacy” shouldn’t be roaming Georgetown in the middle of the afternoon on the day after Thanksgiving.

Nonplussed (as this gorilla grasped my arm) I simply said, “Hey, I’m from California. I just thought I’d say ‘hello.’” By this time Arnold was half a block away, still charging in the general direction of K Street. “Hey!” I shouted after the gov. “Brett Davis is a friend of mine! He knows you!” “Yes, he does!” Arnold yelled over his shoulder, not slowing his pace one bit. End of encounter.

When I got home I wrote him such a nasty letter. Imagine a politician pulling this Greta Garbo routine, and with a constituent, no less. So another marketing-based illusion is shot to hell. Arnold Schwazenegger, whose web site calls him "the people's governor," and who makes such a big show of being a populist, an anti-politician, and despite a slew of regrettable movies displaying the acting talent of a garage door opener, a regular guy, turns out to be no different from any other obnoxious celebrity who goes out in public with a bodyguard nearby to ward off autograph-seekers.

And I didn't even want his autograph. I just wanted to say a friendly "hello" to the governor of my home state.

I'd like to think the photo above was taken in a crowded Georgetown boutique at the very moment some unlucky shopper decided to challenge Ah-nold for the last scarf on the bargain table. Now there would be a picture of a regular guy.