[Leica] OT, but joyful: saloon keeper's daughter graduates

[simon.apekop at gmail.com (simon jessurun)]

Congratulations Sensei,bet you'll keep smiling for a very log time,best
simon

On Mon, Jun 8, 2009 at 12:09 AM, Brian Reid <reid op 
mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>wrote:

> Day before yesterday I was part of an intimate little crowd of 11,000
> people who sat in plastic folding chairs under constant threat of rain next
> to the Charles River while about 2000 people were conferred with degrees at
> MIT. My youngest child, Elizabeth, who is a member of the LUG but has been
> too busy being a student to participate much this year, was awarded a
> Master's in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her cap was
> attached to her hair with so many bobby pins that she needed her sister's
> help to get it off her head afterwards. (Last year at her BS graduation, 
> the
> wind blew her cap off just as the official photographer snapped the 
> official
> picture).
>
> I only got to the ceremony 2 hours before it started, so I was seated so
> far back that I couldn't see the stage. I did manage to get off a 
> photograph
> of the Jumbotron video screen while it was showing a smiling Elizabeth, but
> I forgot that Jumbotrons are interlaced and set the shutter speed too high,
> so the picture is a little odd. But she showed me the diploma afterwards as
> proof that she really was up there when they called out her name.
>
> Elizabeth's sister (Vanessa) and I did some stopwatch work during the
> graduation ceremony, and we determined that they were reading the names of,
> and finding diplomas for, and sending across the stage, 32 graduates per
> minute. If you are not astonished by that number, why don't you find a list
> of 32 names from 20 countries and try reading them out loud and see how 
> long
> it takes you.  At least 2 of the test names must have more than 12
> syllables. You get no credit unless you pronounce them all correctly.
> Rehearsing is permitted.
>
> I didn't get any pictures because I didn't really want pictures of the
> backs of the heads of other students' parents, and I was there to jubilate
> and not to photograph. So I bought package C-7 from the official event
> photographer, which will include a TIFF with right to print for family use.
>
> She's not flying home with me today because she's got a wedding to shoot
> next weekend here in Boston; then she'll fly home, soon to start an actual
> job in Cupertino, California.
>
> Thanks for listening. I'll probably stop smiling in a few weeks, but next
> year Elizabeth's sister will graduate from law school and I get to do it
> again.
>
>
>
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