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

[imagist3 at mac.com (George Lottermoser)]

Kudos! and congratulations to Elizabeth and family.

Wonderful story, well told, the verbal picture works well to put us  
all there with you.
Thank you for sharing your moment with us.

Regards,
George Lottermoser
george at imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com
http://www.imagist.com/blog
http://www.linkedin.com/in/imagist

On Jun 7, 2009, at 2:39 PM, Brian Reid 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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