When President Clinton came to Chicago to speak at the show, I got an invitation from a Comdex representative who said this was an important technology address by the president. I have a lot of reverence for the office and was excited by the idea of seeing the most powerful man on earth, albeit I didn't vote for him.

But in an interesting twist, the experience taught me something about respect. I think.

Figuring I'd hit the show floor for a while before setting off to see the president, I arrived at Comdex before 11 a.m.-Clinton was to appear between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. But I wandered through McCormick Place for nearly a half hour looking for the press room. It's located just about as far as you can get from the Arie Crown Theater, where the speech was to be held.

So when I asked when I should leave the exhibits and get my ticket, which was at that far-distant theater, the lady said, "right now." Then when I trekked over and finally got my ticket, another lady told me Clinton was on the show floor. By that time it was too late for me to head back to the exhibits on the other side of McCormick Place, so I stayed put, figuring Clinton would show up on time.

As I hung around the theater, I recalled that it was the same one I took my sons to when they were much younger. At that time we were among the chosen few who had tickets to see the Ninja Turtles Live! In Concert show. Tickets were hard to get, and the anticipation in our house was great. The reverence my sons had for them was clear after the youngest ordered a book, a parody of the Turtles. When it arrived, he learned what parody meant, and the tiny pieces of the book soon filled his trash can.

After going through tight security, I was reminded that the Secret Service is more powerful than the Turtles. I had left my ticket envelope on the security table, and went back for it 20 minutes later. Inside was my business card. Since I registered for the show by fax, and didn't bring business cards along because they had an old address, I'm still wondering how they got hold of the one I found in the envelope.

I had two hours to think about that puzzle, since Clinton didn't show until after 1:30 p.m. The $0.00 value on my ticket described the interest level the crowd had in this address.

By the time Clinton hit the stage, it was hard for me to stay awake. From my personalized, special press section seat in the fourth-to-last row, he could just as easily have been Donatello or Leonardo, sans mask and green shell.

But there he was, a man who has dominated the world's agenda for eight years. They had to hawk free tickets to the event. And on the following day, Chicago newspapers gave him less space than the Ninja Turtle review so many years ago. Maybe that's because the Turtles sold out, for more than $0.00 per ticket. Still, the president deserves more respect.