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

[reid at mejac.palo-alto.ca.us (Brian Reid)]

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.