“..In new book, Bill Geerhart’s grade schooler alter ego gets advice from celebrities of all stripes..
Over the years, “Little Billy” learned much from the country’s top minds.
Secretaries of state, touched by the 10-year-old’s handwritten letters on grade-school notepaper, wrote back advising him how to settle a treehouse dispute with his sister.
Supreme Court justices weighed in on their favorite junk food.
A publisher of racy magazines, asked whether there was a version for kids, told him to read the Sears catalog instead and “you’ll be 18 before you know it.”
Billy also turned to twisted minds for their counsel.
He wrote to notorious criminals asking whether he should stay in school.
Son of Sam told him not to waste his life, like he did; ..
.. the Unabomber merely wished him luck.
It was all a big setup.
Little Billy was actually grown-up Bill Geerhart, punking the famous and infamous by writing letters to them asking questions out of the mouths of babes.
Their correspondence back — humorous, head-scratching, poignant — are compiled in a book, “Little Billy’s Letters,” out this week.
Geerhart, who admits to a history of making crank phone calls and other mischief in his youth, collected the letters over 15 years, starting in the mid-1990s while he was killing time as an unemployed writer in Los Angeles.
Most of the letters in the book go back to a time before e-mails took over written communication.
But some are recent.
In 2008, Sarah Palin’s dad, Chuck Heath — handling the deluge of mail for his daughter, the Alaska governor and Republican vice presidential candidate —
.. declined to take Billy hunting wolves by air.
“No wolf hunting from helicopters here,” scribbles Heath.
For career advice, Billy — who was leaning toward convenience store clerk because he would have access to video games on the job —
– polls those in other fields, including assisted-suicide figure Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
From his prison cell, Kevorkian responds, “sometimes I wish I was a 7-11 clerk!”
go to source/story>>Author assumes guise of 10-year-old to punk famous – All Salon – Salon.com
