Who's Speaking at YOUR Graduation?

Cheer up, John Brennan!
You're comin' to speak at Fordham!

The Fordham community received news recently that John Brennan, the Obama administration’s deputy national security adviser for counterterrorism and homeland security, will give the commencement speech at graduation this year. Apparently, this is especially awesome since he works with Obama. That, and he graduated from Fordham in 1977.

We like to keep it "in the family" over here.

Personally, I was routing for Alan Alda, also a Fordham grad, to speak, because he rocks. He gave an insightful and all-around beautiful speech to Connecticut College in 1980. And he starred in M*A*S*H, which I'm too young to appreciate, but still. Who wouldn't want this shining face delivering a commencement speech!?

Alan Alda is not speaking at Fordham's
graduation this year, but he's still happy!

We may have scored Brennan, but we haven't lost our bragging rights. Alas, what our commencement speaker lacks in awesomeness our baccalaureate mass celebrator makes up for tenfold. Because he's not just a priest. He's not even just a Bishop. He's a stinkin' CARDINAL.

CARDINAL Tim Dolan

And, like the rest of us, he's pretty darn excited about it.

All Night Long

I've had a slew of recent city experiences that I could write about here: tasty lox at a Jewish deli on the Upper East Side, the off-Broadway play Channeling Kevin Spacey at St. Luke's, mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral, a hilarious improv show at the Upright Citizens Brigade, oh, and the Literary Death Match tomorrow night in which MY PROFESSOR is competing!!! And that's not even including the on-campus stuff like the production of Next to Normal, a relaxing retreat with my dorm, or that time I met David Gibson.

This sucker kept us entertained until the wee hours of the morning.
Photo c/o googleimages 

But instead I'm going to write about my all-nighter with a fine English man. He goes by the name John Milton. (Perhaps you've read his poetry? He has quite a way with words, that Milton.) Indeed, last Monday, my Milton class, including Professor Frank Boyle, stayed up until 3:30 am reading Paradise Lost from beginning to end. We started at 6 pm....... and only took ONE break as a group.

Pictured in the middle: the man who said, "Thou shalt read Milton!"
And we did, for a long time. But it's cool, because he gave us tons of free
sandwiches, coffee, and brownies, and now he's our favorite professor.
Photo by Michael Dames

The truth is, any average Joe can eat lox and see shows and do fun NYC stuff anytime. But how many college students read Paradise Lost straight through and are actually excited about it? Nine students plus twelve books of poetry in ten hours equals one awesome class.

We are determined. We are steadfast. We are literary moguls. We are Fordham.

Crazy Coincidence?

The Mimes and Mummers, a theater group at Rose Hill, rocked Next to Normal tonight. It's a heavy show, but rather than focusing on plot, or characters, or the theme of mental illness, one interval had me trippin' for the entire show. That is, the F to D on "I was" from Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I, which PARALLELS the F# to D# interval on "I'll be" from Edwin McCain's I'll Be.

I know, I know, it just seems like a little coincidence. And it IS coincidental that the song in which the husband swears to stay with his wife even if she makes him crazy mimics a chord from McCain's popular love ballad. The coincidence makes the parallel between the nostalgia of the distraught husband's "I was" and the refrain-vow of "I'll be" ring a little too true.

Hear it for yourself!
Edwin McCain- I'll Be
Next to Normal Original Cast- Who's Crazy/My Psychopharmacologist and I

Do you think it was written with the parallel in mind?