6 Degrees of Britney

Six degrees of separation refers to the idea that, if a person is one "step" away from each person he or she knows and two "steps" away from each person who is known by one of the people he or she knows, then everyone is no more than six "steps" away from each person on Earth. Several studies, such as Milgram's small world experiment, have been conducted to empirically measure this connectedness. While the exact number of links between people differs depending on the population measured, it is generally found to be relatively small. Hence, six degrees of separation is somewhat synonymous with the idea of the "small world" phenomenon. If this in fact true, than I am just 3 degrees from Britney Spears! Not sure if this is actually a good thing - but still something of note.


Matt and I took the girls to the grocery store this afternoon and at the end, the check out lady was more than SLOW! I got the girls each one of the free lollipops from the service desk to keep them happy and Matt and I started browsing magazine covers. Matt picked up the current copy of US Weekly and goes "Ohmigosh! Erin, do you know who this looks like?!" referring to the young coed on the cover - who was (sans clothes) in the pool with Britney Spears. "Um...it kinda looks like Gannon, I guess" I replied. (my girlfriend's husband, Sorry Jenny!) "NO!" Matt said, "I swear this is Matt Encinias!" We flipped open the pages, and turns out Matt was right! Encinias is a kid Matt coached at Newport a few years back. He was an excellent player and one of Matt's favorites. Apparently Encinias had a wild night with Britney and has sold his story to US Weekly. We of course had to buy a copy.

With the help of MTV and US Weekly lately, you'd think NHHS has become the new Hollywood connection. Maybe Matt's new job will make him famous (or in the case of these scenarios, infamous!)