The Peril makes his first contribution to Wikipedia

Hey, somebody else started it -- some dude dropped into the "salutatorian" article on Wikipedia the smug statement that, "Princeton University chooses a 'Latin salutatorian' based on the ability to write and deliver a speech to the audience in that language; thus, the speaker is typically a Classics major." Now, my feeling is, if you're going to tell a story, you have to tell the whole story.

And now the whole story has been told (drop down to the new "Latin salutatorian at Princeton University" section). Considering that I think the whole Latin salutatorian sham is the perfect summing up of the essence of Princeton University -- both the boundless pretension, and the vacuity behind the pretentious facade -- I thought I managed to tell the story with commendable good humor and even a reasonably positive spin, don't you agree, Gentle Reader?

P.S. I liked many of my fellow Princeton Students; after all, my best man Kevin was a fellow Princeton '89-er, and I still look back with a certain amount of regret on my failure to investigate relational possibilities with Eleni or Adrianne or Tina (despite the near-certainty of rejection), and I wouldn't trade my year in the Princeton Gospel Ensemble for anything. But the fatuous self-importance of the University culture itself...[finds self at a loss for family-friendly words]...