lurker1965
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CLICK HERE to Register for a free account and login for a smoother ad-free experience. It's easy, and only takes a few moments.Ali G spoke at Harvard.
Id actually want to hear what Manning had to say.
Ali G did speak at Harvard. But he wasn't the Commencement speaker -- he was the Class Day speaker (invited by the Senior Class, not the President). You may not want to hear what he has to say, but for my money it's the best speech at Commencement ever.
(If you want to put down Harvard, ask why they invited Oprah ...)
They could invite Bruno and Borat for future engagements.
Its too bad the 3 Stooges arent still alive.
One of the first things I learned in B-school (and when I bought my first condo) is that a market is a matter of how much someone will pay for specific goods or services. 60 minutes of Peyton's time is worth $100k because someone was willing to pay that amount for that time. So, "it is what it is."
I'll never forget from back in my newspaper reporting days, I covered a speaking engagement by Chicago Bears fullback Matt Suhey to a group of high school athletes at an awards dinner. We all know how it's customary to open these monologues with a joke to loosen everyone up. Well, Matt had an incredible brain-fart of a moment where he took the podium and proceeded to tell this long, X-rated joke involving a hooker. When he delivered the punchline you could've heard a pin drop. And he was just beginning. This was an audience of teen-age kids and their parents. One of the most embarrassing public displays I've ever seen.
However, I always find wealthy celebrities going to PUBLIC universities/colleges and taking large speaking fees to be distasteful.
Being able to go and speak to a graduating class is a privilege of station, or should be, and not just a wa y to make a little more money. Does everything always have to be about money?
Exactly. We don't disagree. That's how markets function. Peyton has done a very good job of branding and positioning himself with "middle america," especially, but not solely, in what are usually referred to as "Red States." He is not going to be as marketable in New England, where the fans' preferences have been conditioned by years of a Brady-Manning rivalry and where their politics tend to be more "Massachusetts" than "Missibama" and would lessen the appeal of a "good old boy" from down-home. I doubt Papa John's or Buick would devote a dollar of their New England regional advertising budgets to Peyton Manning commercials and only reluctantly send them into the region when they have to for national broadcasts. On the other hand, he probably plays really well in the "fly over" states.This is a perfect time for me, Joe "Whinestein" Kerr, to reveal MY theory of relativity....Peytie's time is relative...in Porkchop Pass, Missazippyki-a he's worth 100 grand an hour...in southern New England, he has to PAY millions of dollars and hour just for the privilege of talking to US, anywhere at any time.
It's all relative
...
(If you want to put down Harvard, ask why they invited Oprah ...)
In the 2nd most beauty obsessed profession in a beauty obsessed country, where race is still often made an issue, a fat black woman found a way to make it to the pinnacle of the television field, and beyond.
I'm not an Oprah fan, but that sort of journey is impressive, and it certainly makes sense, to me, that she'd be a person in demand for such speeches.
In the 2nd most beauty obsessed profession in a beauty obsessed country, where race is still often made an issue, a fat black woman found a way to make it to the pinnacle of the television field, and beyond.
I'm not an Oprah fan, but that sort of journey is impressive, and it certainly makes sense, to me, that she'd be a person in demand for such speeches.
I'd hope that a Harvard Commencement Speaker would have something to contribute to celebrating intellectual values, which is what universities are supposed to be about -- not just material career success (however unlikely Oprah might have been to have such success). Ali G, on the other hand, satirized Harvard's excessive self-regard. Good for him -- and good for them for inviting him to do it!
Is it that you don't understand what these speeches are about, or it is that you've historically ignored who speaks at prestigious universities all over the world (including Oxford, for example)?
I'm not sure about back then, but Panama City today is a toilet. Better off going to Lauderdale.I got accepted to Brown...BUT...they offered me zero student aid, even though I fit the criteria like a glove. Harvard dismissed my application with a terse thank you reply, while accepting a friend I grew up with, Teddy DeMars, on a full scholarship. He played football, I played tennis. I scored mid 700's on my verbal and math SAT's. Boston University accepted me to the School of Engineering on a full academic ride. Boston College also. I chose B.U.
I also applied to Princeton. Denied. Columbia did accept me, but offered minimal aid. I had the distinct impression that if I had attended Classical High School like Ted instead of a Catholic High School like La Salle, I would have been Ivy League bound. My girlfriend worked in development at Brown in 1970 and for the next thirty years. She told me Brown had a quota when it came to LaSalle students right up into the mid 80's when admissions suddenly underwent a quantum shift in policy.
What's it all mean TODAY? I'll tell you, from my ancient perspective, I SHOULD have gone to URI. Would have been free of charge, and I would have done what I so desired to do at that age, party like it's 1999 and take extended spring breaks to Panama City and Lauderdale.