Flashback to the middle aughts — I emerged from New York City’s Penn Station with a group of friends to an amazing surprise.  It was none other than U2 being hauled past the transportation hub on the back of a flatbed truck, playing music.

Then, the other day, after maybe 18 years or so, my girlfriend sends me the video for a song she likes — U2’s “All Because of You.”  (It’s from their 2004 album, “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.”)  There’s the flatbed truck with the band performing all over the city.

So that’s what that was all about.  A mystery nearly two decades old at lasts stands revealed.

Of course I scoured every frame of the video hoping that there was a one-in-a-million chance I’d see myself in the background.  No such luck.

Anyway, my four other brushes with famous people are as follows:

1. Madonna.  (I saw her for two seconds entering a building in Manhattan.)
2. Linda Ronstadt.  (I gave her a tour at a historic site.)
3. Marissa Tormei.  (I saw her in a restaurant in Brooklyn.)
4. Ralph Macchio.  (I checked him out at a video store.)
5. Henry Kissinger.  (I saw him at a fundraising event and helped his Secret Service detail get situated.  Seriously, you can not make this stuff up.)