Editor’s Note: Thirty years ago, Bill Powell, now a correspondent for Time Magazine based in Shanghai, had a close friend with big hair and even bigger political aspirations. But neither Bill nor his other friends can believe their conservative-leaning pal Rod Blagojevich would go on to become a liberal Democrat, let along get caught up in a scandal that calls to mind Blago’s long-ago hero: Richard Nixon. Bill’s perceptions shed light on one of the most bizarre and comical political controversies in years.

I used to go yo-hoing with the most disgraced politician in America. After a night carousing in Chicago, when we were both undergrads at Northwestern University in the late 1970s, a group of us would occasionally end up at a 24-hour diner called the Gold Coin, where we’d have a very early breakfast. And once or twice, just for hoots, we would “yo-ho.” That was our term for running out before paying the bill, thus stiffing some poor waitress working the overnight shift out of a five- or ten-dollar tip. In our youthful, drunken stupor, we thought this was hilarious.

God, we could be such assholes. To this day, 30 years down the road, it makes me shudder just thinking about it.

He’s “Blago” to you by now, the heretofore little-known politician with the unpronounceable last name and the funny head of hair. His hair, we’ve been told for the last several months, is ridiculous. To me it’s the same hair he had in college. I didn’t think it was particularly weird then, and I don’t think it is now. But that’s the thing about this American freak show that I’ve watched unfold from afar: The plethora of Blago hair jokes is the least of my confusion.

For the rest of Powell’s trip down memory lane, head on over to Men’s Journal!