jonesin' for brain candy?

"You can lead a whore to Vassar, but you can't make her think."
-Frederick B. Artz, noted medieval historian

For some inexplicable reason, we went back to Poughkeepsie, New York to celebrate the Vassar Class of 1996 10-year reunion. Thankfully, there was a lot of drinking. You can look at the pictures.

It struck me that ten years is somehow both a very long and a very short amount of time. And I'm not the only person who had profound thoughts. In one of the bathroom stalls in Josselyn dorm, one of my classmates scrawled in black Sharpie marker: "I love Vassar, but my girlfriend won't." Ah, the coed college bathrooms of my youth. Being back at Vassar, I realized it was probably the only place where Chris, Mindy, Erik, and I could all pee standing/sitting alongside each other. Ah, co-education is a beautiful thing, despite what one of the women from the (female only) class of 1946 exclaimed loudly at my classmates. Little did she know that by far the most popular party during my time at Vassar was the annual Homo Hop.

The other Vassar 10th reunion take-away I will share is that those tiny twin-sized dorm beds with plastic matresses are completely uncomfortable and I have no idea how we ever slept in them. Nevermind, with more than one person in a bed. Which reminds me...

"If all the girls at Vassar were laid end to end...
I wouldn't be at all surprised."
- Dorothy Parker

As I said, you can look at the pictures. Nothing too risque this time. The five-year reunion was a bit more lively. Does this mean we're *gasp* getting old?

Have you been ever been to your high school or college reunion? If so what did you think?

ABC News NOW Yahoo! Buzz commentary
Originally uploaded by popvulture.

I think I've mentioned the weekly radio interviews I've been doing for the Yahoo! Buzz team to discuss what's popular based on the searches people are conducting on Yahoo!. The interviews are usually pretty fun. Some of my favorite radio shows of the past 2 weeks are The John Carney Show on KMOX-AM in St. Louis and The Morning Buzz on WHEB-FM in Manchester. We talk about everything from Florence Henderson to 3-armed babies. It's a blast, except sometimes waking up at 4 or 5 a.m. is a bit rough.

And now we've added video to the repertoire. Heather and I worked with the awesome folks at ABC News NOW to pitch a weekly online video interview about the top Yahoo! searches. It's happening every Friday, and it's cool stuff. You should check it out.

As if that wasn't enough, last Monday I ended up on MSNBC's "The Most" being interviewed by Alison Stewart about the summer's hottest concert tours as decided by the searches being condcted on Yahoo!.

They had a professional at the station to put on my make-up.

"How do you like to have your make-up done?" she asked me.

"I don't know. What do people usually ask for?" I said, perplexed. My idea of applying make-up is a tube of bright red lipstick, and I realize that might be a bit too dramatic and high contrast for an on-camera interview about internet searches.

"They usally say anything from 'natural' to 'glamorous.'"

"Hmmm. Can I stay more to the natural side..." I said. "but maybe slightly glamorous?" I figured I might as well see what magic she could work. I was trying to watch what she was doing so I could learn some make-up tricks.

"You look like an actress, but I can't think of her name."

"Who?" No one's ever told me I look like anyone.

"I'll think of it..... Marcia Cross from 'Desperate Housewives.' She has such great skin."

"Hmmm." I said, wondering if this meant I also had great skin, but thinking it was probably just the red hair.

Fifteen minutes later she was finished. The faux eyelashes were very glam, but I kept worrying they'd fall off when I blinked.

Being interviewed for TV from a remote studio is pretty weird. You have an ear piece in your ear, and a microphone clipped to your shirt, and you usually don't see the host/journalist who is interviewing you. Instead of seeing their face, you hear their voice in your ear and you look into a big TV camera as if you are talking to another person. You smile, but it's hard to know if the other person is smiling back. The camera lens is dark and blank. I sometimes wonder if I'm keeping my shoulders back and my hair out of my eyes or if I have something caught in my teeth.

Talking to the radio DJs I can wear my pajamas and sprawl out with my laptop on the couch or the floor. It's nice not to hafta worry about the faux eyelashes or if I look weird when I'm laughing.

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