A few days ago we discovered footage of Fareed Zakaria 1) name-dropping IvyGate 2) during a speech at Johns Hopkins University 3) for their 2011 Commencement 4) by quoting a comment 5) on a post entitled “Columbia In Open Revolt As Dr. Jack Shepherd Chosen As Class Day Speaker” 6) from five years ago. In 2007.

Zakaria is “the most influential foreign-policy adviser of his generation,” according to Esquire.

For the record, here is the comment Zakaria quoted from, in full:

Having a Yale Corp member just smacks of talking about your backpack on Show and Tell day because you forgot to bring in something interesting.

“Uh…it has a zipper…and…a bunch of pockets in the front…”

Just smacks! It was a more innocent, and articulate, time.

We soon obtained Mr. Zakaria’s super-secret, totally-not-public personal email address (thanks, Nick), to which we sent a fairly desperate request for comment, asking Zakaria if he had anything else to add, and, PS, if he still reads IvyGate. He emailed us an hour ago!

From: “Zakaria, Fareed (CNN)”
Date: 23 May 2012 20:51:54

Nothing more to add. I have to confess, I haven’t looked at it lately but it was a lively site the last time I saw it.

“Lively.” “I haven’t looked at it lately.” We appreciate the candor, Fareed. (You were AMAZING in Game Change, by the way.)

Before you ask, yes, we emailed him back, to ask whether “lately” meant 2007 or, like, 2011. And yes, we are that desperate for approval. (If 2011, though: whoever’s near Peter Finocchiaro should give him a pat on the back. And then Peter should give his co-editors a pat on the back, too, if he’s near them.)

Click thru for the the video: