Selfies

There was an interesting piece in the NY Times Sunday about Selfies. Back in college, the NYT could do no wrong. In my 30s, I began to have trouble...mostly with restaurant reviews. Today, I'm pretty sure most reporters have come from a nine month stint on the Today Show. Anyway, I think the Time's piece on Selfies missed a lot.

And while this yearbook photo from my senior year in college isn't a Selfie, it's largely about Selfies. Sure, it's vain and when I look at it, I see the lips that vanished in my 40s. I also see a shit eating grin together with a confidence that knew, for a fact, that it wouldn't be long before I was working on the Today Show.

I also see the suede jacket I bought at the Ft Bragg PX in 1980. I would ask a Georgetown bartender for a large plastic garbage bag, cut out a hole for my head and wear it while running to my car in a late night rain storm. It worked.

The Campbell tartan Gant shirt with too long sleeves (my sleeves were always too long) and a navy blue knit tie probably came from a haberdasher on St. George Street. Either the crazy lady who missed her lips with her lipstick or the tailor in the Marine Reserves I shot the shit with while we both smoked and drank coffee -- He sewed and I told lies about the 82nd.

What you can't see, but I do remember, are the jeans and topsiders off camera. All in all, it was a pretty hip rig. I'm very proud of it. Who knows what folks will remember 20 years later from their Selfies. I like to think, if for nothing else, it'll conjure up a memory of bits and pieces forgotten...even themselves.