Every time I went for a photo-op with some detestable conservative, some hack whose mindless screeds have caused me to take time out my busy day to repudiate, I still managed to keep up the jovial banter.

Laura Ingraham would be the exception. Maybe I was tired, because it was the end of day two, but really, I was just stunned.

"Hi, Ms. Ingraham, I'm Niral Shah, from Dartmouth College. Could I get my picture with you really quickly?"

 "Oh man, from Dartmouth? Wah hoo wah, way to go man." 

"Wah hoo wah" is a cherished (only by borderline senile white, male alumni, and the Dartmouth Review staffers whose otherwise unread publication is funded by them) cheer, that harkens back to the days of the Dartmouth Injun being the school's unofficial, never-sanctioned though since banned (three decades ago) mascot. The cheer is often accompanied by a rowdy cry of "scalp 'em."

Maybe she assumed I was a review staffer, in which case, an odd mix of racism and false nostalgia (the Indian mascot was discontinued before the Review was even founded) is a totally appropirate way to greet someone. Maybe she's just clinging to that one time she offended enough people to pretend she was part of a meaningful opposition to anything (just like that time in the 80s that she published a list of gay students from a private support-group meeting).

Maybe she tapped into my larger annoyance with her successors on campus, (but they'd have to be somewhat relevant for me to actually be annoyed), maybe she was too much of a joke to indulge myself in conversation (on the other hand, I chatted up Michelle Malkin.) Who knows. Regardless, I just walked away this time.