31 Comments
Remember Miss Subway competitions? No, because they were discontinued after 1976 (save a one year revival in 2004). But we should all pretend to be nostalgic for them now that, with the help of a tipster, we have found a former Columbia student winner!
After extensive research (read: some Googling), we know nothing about the smart and seductive Helen Lee except what her Miss Subway sign tells us. She studied Chinese, trained in voice and liked interior decorating and football games when “escorted by her Yale beau.” Yale!? Okay, since your pastimes are as archetypal as you are beautiful, we’ll forgive you. The Miss Subways just held a reunion, so maybe Helen was there!
In completely unrelated alumna awesomeness, Megan McCain went on The View recently to praise her Alma Mater. “I was around all these, like, MENSA scholars,” she said of her Columbia classmates, adding, “There’s a really good school at Columbia that’s specifically for math and science.” The one downside is that she was comparing Columbia’s prowess to The View and its hosts. But still, intellectual compliments? SEAS love? Looks like another high-profile alumnus just got one-upped.
-DJB
Loading …
31 Comments
@Anonymous By the way, Megan was not talking about The View. It looks that way at first, but she’s talking about The Big Bang Theory, whose star is the guest. The clip is still very silly.
@ehhh I wonder, would Sherri Shepherd or Joy Behar qualify for that “special” school that is *specifically* for math and science? Could it be that math and science are indeed their true strengths, and that that is why their verbal skills are so lacking?
@ehhh Well, Megan was being very nice, and I therefore feel guilty about not responding with niceties in turn, but she finds a conversation with the ladies of the View to be an intellectual challenge? Some of the uninformed viewers who get their views from that “View” must now think that Core classes are peopled with the intellectual equals of Joy Behar and Sherri Shepherd.
@AHH I can’t tell in these comments whether people are talking about Helen Lee or Megan McCain.
@hmm Alumnae who attended Barnard prior to Columbia becoming co-ed are allowed to refer to themselves as Columbia graduates and to list “Columbia” on their resume as if they had attended Columbia College. (At least I was told that by a Barnard pre-coed alumna.)
@Alum General Studies has always been co-ed. Ms. Lee could have studied there or, as others have noted, she could have been a grad student. It’s also possible that she just attended the summer session, or that she was never a degree candidate at all.
Not being in the alumni directory does not imply she was a Barnard student. Aside from the possibilities I have already mentioned, she may have opted out of the directory. It’s also possible that she has died since 1976, or that she is listed under a different name.
@wtf meghan what school at CU is specifically for math and science?
God what a dumbass, I can’t believe she went here.
@so... I don’t know the context of the quote but maybe she meant the magnet school Columbia is partnering with…that makes more sense than trying to claim it was a retarded attempt at referencing SEAS. She went here for 4 years, even if you don’t think she’s intelligent she probably heard people say “engineering school” a few times
@I heard this on WNYC. Well, Miss Subways in general.
http://www.wnyc.org/news/articles/129643
And the Cher song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6Xq5TQQuHY
(Ignore the freaky Cher faces in the youtube video)
@Angry Black Man HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
1) Exotic
2) SEAS Asian
3) Asian taking Chinese
4) Asian interior decor
Ah…stereotypes….
Also again, 2010 celebrate! AJ is no longer prez! 2010 CLEAR!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ
@she also could have been a graduate student
@earnest question dear barnard students, why do you insist on wearing columbia gear when the barnard store sells much cuter stuff that actually says your school name on it?
@columbia undergrad and here we devolve again into barnard bashing.
@and it clearly says “barnard.” whew.
@really? where?
@Also 1949. She had to have been at Barnard. Neither school was co-ed then.
@well she doesn’t show up in the columbia directory so i’m pretty sure it was barnard
@actually you are erased from the directory once you graduate
@#11 correction: i meant to say she doesn’t show up in the columbia ALUMNI directory (yes there is one, go to the alumni website) which shows alumni as late as 1954. so yeah, she went to barnard
@also barnard students show up in the columbia directory
@hmmm Well it says she “studied” Chinese, not that she majored in Chinese. Maybe she majored in some type of engineering with a minor in Chinese, and the Ms. Subway people thought that focusing on the Chinese minor would give her more appeal than portraying her as an engineer.
@No, It clearly says “At Columbia she majored in Chinese.”
@Anonymous I’m pretty sure by “majoring in Chinese” that Ms. Lee was not in SEAS.
@Are you calling Miss Subways 1949 Helen Lee a liar?? Bite your tongue.
I actually wouldn’t be surprised, given the borderline-racist “Exotic” label, if the people running this campaign back in the day just assumed she majored in Chinese.
@oh also it gets brought up far too often but BWOG, “Looks like another high-profile alumni just got one up-ed” is wrong.
@just gonna say that alumni is plural
@also also Female Alumnae – as opposed to another kind?
@actually SEAS went co-ed well before CC. I think the first woman to get a degree from SEAS was in the 50s (possibly a MS not BS though)
@It doesn't At this moment in history, Columbia seems to be cleaning up the mess Yale has made of America. And I mean more than just Bush-Obama.
Btw, the school wasn’t co-ed in 1976, and so I’m guessing Helen Lee was Barnard
@before anyone jumps on #2
SEAS went co-ed before CC (1976 vs. 1983).
@EAL I’m sure the “exotic” label next to Miss Lee’s name is sure to rile up a few feathers among certain members of the Columbia community. Interesting find, Bwog.
Why does Yale always seem to get the better of us?