The Cuddle Puddle of Stuyvesant High School

New York ^ | January 30, 2006 | Alex Morris

[presidio9]

I forgot that you Regis nerds don't have a football team to go with your pocket protectors.

[ARCADIA]

This article just made me feel 20 years older. The generation gap has turned into a chasm.

[Palladin]

Tell me about it. I have a cousin who is a Stuy grad (1950)...he's long retired now from his career in the public schools. Recently he sent me some long lib email stating it was quotes from Shakespeare. I had to write back and inform him about snopes.com and email hoaxes, etc. The letter was actually quotes from Barbra Streisand.

LOLOLOLOL! I had the last word.

(La Salle grad here).

[silverleaf]

ping later

[HitmanLV]

Well, you got me there! :-)

[presidio9]

I've met you, remember?

Don't remind me. I still can't get over how precious you looked in that uniform.

[presidio9]

BTW, I'm dying to know how a card-carrying member of the Jesuit community's best of the best became a Michael Savage fan. The man is an embarassment. He's our Mark Morford.

[wtc911]

You reveal too much of your inner child.

[HitmanLV]

Haha! Sounds like the 'best & brightest' of Stuy to me! :-)

Regis did have one curiosity when I was there - the student body was much, much more conservative than the faculty! That's weird, huh? Whether it was fruit-loopy, liberal arts types lay teachers or so called 'liberation theology' holy men, the average regis student was more conservative than the average regis faculty member.

LaSalle is a fine school, too - you really can't go wrong with the private schools in the nyc area. Fordham also is excellent. :-)

[presidio9]

And you reveal too much of the AARP neighbor I had growing up. I bet he still has all those frisbees that he kept because they landed on his property.

Did the military school experience have anything to do with your bitterness?

[Disambiguator]

It practically takes a diagram to plot all the various hookups and connections within the cuddle puddle. Elle’s kissed Jane and Jane’s kissed Alair and Alair’s kissed Elle. And then from time to time Elle hooks up with Nathan, but really only at parties, and only when Bethany isn’t around, because Nathan really likes Bethany, who doesn’t have a thing for girls but doesn’t have a problem with girls who do, either. Alair’s hooking up with Jason (who “kind of” went out with Jane once), even though she sort of also has a thing for Hector, who Jane likes, too—though Jane thinks it’s totally boring when people date people of the same gender. Ilia has a serious girlfriend, but girls were hooking up at his last party, which was awesome. Molly has kissed Alair, and Jane’s ex-girlfriend first decided she was bi while staying at Molly’s beach house on Fire Island. Sarah sometimes kisses Elle, although she has a boyfriend—he doesn’t care if she hooks up with other girls, since she’s straight anyway. And so on.

At least this is all documented so when the STDs start making the rounds the epidemiologist's job won't be as difficult.

[HitmanLV]

Savage is pure classic oldschool NYer. I love his delivery, his sense of humor, his speech pattern, and especially his stories.

Savage knows the stuff that they won't teach you in Stuy or Regis, or that you can't pick up reading a book. How to tell if a woman is a prostitute, for example. NYPD parking ticket quotas. Life lessons, filtered through his unique vision.

SAVAGE!!!!

[presidio9]

Now I am OFFICIALLY terrified.

One more thing: You chose Regis because of the FACILITIES? What was your next choice? A bus stop?

[Wallace T.]

It's hard to imagine that these young people will be able to compartmentalize rigorous discipline in hard science and mathematics from their dissipated personal lives. It may be that those who are most successful academically are the least likely to be sexually promiscuous, in other words, the classic nerds. Even in a magnet type school, there are some success stories and others who fall into a middling category. The poster who describes the alumni at the Jesuit high school where he graduated indicates that they are by and large dissatisfied with their careers.

[HitmanLV]

No, I just noted that Stuy didn't impress me because it was a very run down facility (building, etc). That and the students their turned me off.

I chose Regis over Xavier because it was a complete free ride and I knew it was a quality school. Xavier is a quality school also and would have happily gone there, too.

[presidio9]

Do I detect a subtle insult to the Bronx?

[HitmanLV]

These are exactly the type who grow up and are terrified of middle managers. While there are many exceptions, I know many Regis and Stuy graduates (the best of the best), and most tend to not be overachievers at all. Law and Medical professions are very overrepresented, and many (many) are scared of making waves or getting in trouble at work. Middle managers and administrative types do threaten their status quo: I worked at two major nyc law firms (again with many of the best and brightest) and the culture within them was astonishing: everybody so afraid of screwing up that nobody wants to do anything even remotely risky. These people tend to be fearful of HR people, i have to tell you.

Many are unhappy - in unhappy marriages and unhappy jobs but can't get out. It's sad, but it's really just the culmination of their life choices. Of course this isn't everyone - there are exceptions but the point is, attend as reunion and it's not the best & the brightest of the adult world, it is just the best & brightest 13 year olds all grown up.

Doing well in school does not necessarily mean the people have the skillset to excel in the career world. While many do develop that skillset, and most aren't particularly hurting, they aren't the worldbeaters that most figured they would be in their teens.

The people who do best in school don't necessarily do the best in life. That much was obvious to me in my young teens, though many, many people (especially those that talk highly about the values of meritocracy) can't deal with.

[HitmanLV]

Not at all. Stuy wasn't in the Bronx. It was at an ancient building on E 15th street in Manhattan.

What made you think I was taking a shot at the Bronx.

[presidio9]

Ahem, there are other fine Jesuit institutions outside of Manhattan.

[HitmanLV]

On of course, and in fact I mentioned them specifically as a wonderful school in a prior post. Fantastic school, no doubt about it. No insult was intended - I was a downtown manhattan guy so my biases are downtown manhattan (Xavier).

Once I got the Regis deal, I went uptown. No insult to Fordham intended at all - excellent place!