Sean's conversation-stopper--"what do you think about Harvard women?"--was a running joke by the time we hit Baltimore. He had a whole tongue-in-cheek spiel to go with it:

"All they care about is sex," he mock whined. "I want to find someone who will love me for my personality, not my body. I mean, they are so shallow."

It was good for a smile, and it led us into other stories as the car briefly transformed into a soul-baring Gen Ed 105 section while we sped down Interstate 95 towards Washington. We talked about our love lives and/or the lack thereof, Dunster formals, and Ted Rose, author of the notorious Artifical Turf Headline: "Key to the Game: The Grass (Not That Grass)."

"Who's this Ted guy?" Sean asked amidst the laughter.

Sean talked about how he had interviewed Elvira: "So I interviewed her for the school paper--it was a reunion, and I asked her if she had implants."

"You just asked?"

"Well, she was talking about how you had to be so glamorous in Hollywood, and the question seemed natural...she said 'Yes, of course.'" He paused. "Kathy Ireland didn't come back for the reunion, though."

While ruminating on the spiritual ramifications of interviewing Kathy Ireland, Sean almost got us killed when he missed a turn and tried to get to an expressway on-ramp from the left lane of a four-lane road, nearly taking us through the sign on the shoulder. That set us talking about Clinton's new health plan.

Two years ago, Amanda's predecessor in the photo department told her never to go on a road trip with the sports staff. "They're all geeks, they play stupid music and they never know where they're going," she was told.

Yet in the end, Amanda was the one who pitched this piece to the magazine.

"It's about relationships," she explained.

[Editor's note: All four people mentioned in this story categorically deny any of these conversations took place.]