I’ve had more brushes with fame during my summer jobs on Nantucket than anywhere else.

In the summer of, oh, it must have been 1985, a friend and I were working in a gift shop close to Main Street when Billy Joel walked by with his then wife, Christie Brinkley. Of course, we had already gotten word they were coming down the street from friends who worked at other shops and gave us advance notice. We were just waiting for them to make their appearance.

They didn’t walk in the store, but the doorway was open, and when Billy and Christie walked by, my friend yelled to them, “Hey look everybody, it’s Paul Anka and Brooke Shields!”

They turned around and laughed.

Okay, David Cook has a great voice, but I noticed the judges didn’t realize last week that his performance was a cover of a cover (Chris Cornell’s version of Michael Jackson’s version of Billy Jean). They called it brilliant or something like that.

It completely slipped by them that it wasn’t his own (even though Ryan Seacrest introduced his performance by saying it was a Chris Cornell cover).

I’m glad the cat’s out of the bag, especially with articles like this giving Chris Cornell the credit he’s due. But without reading these articles, most of America will probably continue to think it’s Cook’s genius, and I hope he doesn’t win based on that.

Anyway, I’m rooting for David Archuleta!

Nantucket, circa 1984, I was working in a small gift shop where customers could choose from an array of brass, ivory and scrimshaw belt buckles, which we’d place on handmade belts that we measured and cut to size for each person.

In walked Mr. Rogers (who had a house on the island for a long time), and he was exactly like the personality on TV: curious about everything, softspoken, friendly and gentle.

And the funniest thing was, after I finished making his belt for him, he said, “Isn’t that special!” And he was completely serious.