Over the last couple of days, the old school has been holding a little shindig for its alumni. Man, when they do it, they do it right. The function was held at the breathtaking Çırağan Palace, an old Ottoman beauty hewn from marble that has stunning Bosphorus views. The Prime Minister made an appearance, and when I asked him a question, he looked me right in the eye as he was eloquently not answering it.

The quality of people I met there was top-notch. Too often, one meets BSers and "empty suits", as a colleague used to term them. Here, the people were "real" - from captains of industry, down to the undergrads who are not averse to a cocktail or two. Solid.

Then, last night, somehow my buddy Sal inviegled his way into a party which was held poolside at a mansion on a hill overlooking the Bosphorus. Double Barrel and I roll up, and an attendant shows us to a crowd of people by the pool, dancing. We casually stroll in, grab some cocktails, and immediately start chatting up some young Turkish ladies, when the DJ takes it upon himself to introduce Dre and Tupac into the mix. I mean, this scene could have been on the Sunset Strip. Again, solid.