Featured Drone: Baratunde Thurston '99

Photo by Mindy

Warning: this is a post all about me.

I graduated to the sound of a theme song written specifically for my class by the dangerously sexy artist known as Prince. Philosophy degree in tow, a penchant for writing, performing and fixing computers naturally led me to to the fulfilling career path which begins at the gates of fulfillment known as strategy consulting.

There was a logic to this move: I had no money and lots of loans, and here I found people willing to pay me to meddle in the business affairs of others. Plus, I was at least concentrating on industries about which I cared -- communications, media, Internet things -- rather than diapers or toothpaste or village-eviscerating munitions.

Thanks to the love and respect of a good woman, I found my way back to my passion and began using my corporate plunder to finance a revolution within my soul. It began with standup comedy classes in Boston, the addition of prolific political blogging and through the magic of equal parts talent, luck and timing a job in New York City as web and politics editor of The Onion. Oh, and there was lots of failure and hard work in there.

Along the way, Discovery's Science Channel handed me a television show, my wife handed me a divorce, and today I'm still at The Onion, still doing standup, still blogging and revving up my creative juices to pen my first book published with someone else's money, a satirical race manual titled "How To Be Black."

As my friends often remind me, I have won at life. I'm sure I can trace most of this happiness and success back to lunches at The Signet.

Baratunde Thurston lives in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. He is professionally hilarious with words whether in print, on stage or on screen. You can find him everywhere on the Internet under the name Baratunde.