Mike Allen's Birthday Reunion

The "Politico Playbook" from Mike Allen is usually filled with insider information that Washington has grown to love. Birthdays, "Facts of Life," behind-the-scenes political strategy and various other words of wisdom find their way into our inbox each day. However, on Saturday, Mikey might have been dealing with a slow news day. He gave us a few legit news stories on immigration, but then it took a sharp turn into Bro-ville. He eased us into a story about an "epic" birthday party that his fraternity brothers threw him. Mike describes it this way: "25 Sigma Phil Epsilon brothers and wives converged on Sequoia, on the Georgetown waterfront, from Dallas, Columbus, Indianapolis, Birmingham, Syracuse, N.Y.C., Philly, Princeton, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Suffolk, Newport News, Richmond, Old Town, etc. The guys spanned five class years, and most hadn't seen each other in 25 to 30 years." Allen, who can seem robotic at times, really cut loose and spilled some details on the bash, including old fraternity nicknames. Oh, this is going to be really good. Mike starts rattling off all his buddies who attended the party and wrote that they reverted back to nicknames they used to use for each other back in college. Names like "Woodhead, Brickhead, Sneakers, Buzz, Speedy, Rebel, Dude, Pretzel, Country, Z, Nutty, Zany, Hammer." PLEASE tell me that Mike Allen's nickname in college was "Woodhead" because that would be priceless. I remember all my buddies from back in the day: Scooter and Booger. (I grew up in the wilds of South Carolina, where every third person is nicknamed either Scooter or Booger.) The whole story takes on a very sweet tone. They swapped stories of former Halloween costumes, kitchen disasters, and hookups. HOOKUPS! From Politico's Mike Allen? The anecdotes make him sound positively human. What is the world coming to?! All of this made me wistful to catch up with my college friends, but they're all dead or in jail, so I won't have the opportunity. I will say that this is a new side to Allen. Sure, he's quirky, weird and robotic. But, situations like these humanize him and I kinda like it. (Shoutout to the talented Austin Price for the Photoshopped skills.)

Fishbowl

Mike Allen's Birthday Reunion

Peter Ogburn

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Peter Ogburn