Last weekend, Columbia alum flocked from far and near to attend annual reunion events put on by the Columbia Alumni Association. His interest piqued by talk of free food and free conversation, Bwog’s resident Alumni Anthropologist Ace Bijan Samareh decided to stop by the Dean’s Day Continental Breakfast, hosted by Deantini, and ask the attendees a few questions…

Aside from 1. The pride of having graduated from what I believe to be the best university in the world, 2. The security of having journeyed intellectually with a group of lifelong friends, and 3. The profound knowledge of my place in the world, the thing I look forward to most about being an alum is the promise of brunches. Man, do they know how to eat. For Saturday morning’s “Dean’s Day Continental Breakfast”— just one of the events comprising last weekend’s Alumni reunion— Roone was filled with tables elegantly draped with white cloth and breakfast foods. Each platter foresaw my desire for palate cleansing and was decked out with fruit presented as if Wes Anderson worked for Edible Arrangements. In the center of the table stood a three-tier muffin stand to complement carafes of coffee.

I arrived at Lerner at a staggeringly painful 8:30 a.m. last Saturday to cover alumni weekend. As I was waiting to be let into the brunch, a box on the registration table grabbed my attention. It was simply labeled “1952” and contained registration packets for alumni to fill out before coming in. I so badly wanted to wait by the box for someone to pick up their packet so I could bombard them with questions. What translation of Iliad did you use? How did the war affect your perception of college? Was Bridge over River Kwai a big deal when it came out? I spent a good time pondering this, until I looked at the day’s schedule of events and saw it contained a “Class of 1942 Luncheon.” My head almost exploded. I have no shame admitting that I’m one of those obnoxious members of our generation who thinks that something is automatically cooler if it’s older (or European).

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