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Fordham has higher academic standards than Iona

iramets May 17 2007 05:57 AM

Willie's commencement address at Fordham should be a pisser (I'll try to parse its subtext for yuz) but at least they're restraining themselves from falling all over him like the Ionians are doing for Bernie [url=http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/yankees/2007/05/17/2007-05-17_pomp_for_bernie__willie.html] Williams[/url] I'm waiting for the day some academic institution awards an honorary doctorate to Elmo, or Eddie (the Jack Russell terrier on FRAZIER). They won't be sinking much below their current standard when they do.

metirish May 17 2007 06:38 AM

I'm thinking that your are just taking the piss,but you probably are not. Wilie's daughter is graduating Forham.

MFS62 May 17 2007 06:53 AM Re: Fordham has higher academic standards than Iona

iramets wrote: I'm waiting for the day some academic institution awards an honorary doctorate to Elmo, or Eddie (the Jack Russell terrier on FRAZIER). They won't be sinking much below their current standard when they do. When my daughter graduated from there, Jane Goodall gave a speech at Western Connecticut State U. She gave parts of the speech in "ape language". Thet's getting pretty close. Later

iramets May 17 2007 07:05 AM

metirish wrote: I'm thinking that your are just taking the piss,but you probably are not. Wilie's daughter is graduating Forham. Yes, I read the article. I've sat through a load of silly commencement speakers in my time. Willie's no more bumbling, mumbling, unqualified, comical/tragical than other inarticulate, airheaded speakers I have heard, often at jaw-dropping length, as they expose every side of their vacuous peabrains. The early money, BTW, is on Willie's favorite meme, "I understand what winning's all about, my life is dedicated to winning, I'm a winner, etc." I wish he'd learn that it's pronounced "whining" already. What's the over/under on appearances of "win," "winner," "winning" in the commencement speech? I'll start the bidding at six. Who'll take the under?

metirish May 17 2007 07:11 AM

iramets wrote: What's the over/under on appearances of "win," "winner," "winning" in the commencement speech? I'll start the bidding at six. Who'll take the under? I'd say six is low,I'll go with eleven or more ,hard work,never giving up will be part of the theme,but they always are,aren't they?

iramets May 17 2007 07:15 AM Re: Fordham has higher academic standards than Iona

MFS62 wrote: She gave parts of the speech in "ape language". Thet's getting pretty close. Goodall's a witty, intelligent lady, what I've heard of her. Now it would be great if Willie would give parts of the commencement yak in "locker-room dialect," his native tongue.

soupcan May 17 2007 07:16 AM

Pearl Bailey was my commencement speaker. Top that.

Benjamin Grimm May 17 2007 07:16 AM

I think he should give the speech in Street Spanish.

iramets May 17 2007 07:21 AM

Seriously, now, I think Willie could give an interestng commencement speech, if he were a completely different person, that would humbly speak to the issue of lifelong learning, how little he knew about managing in 2005, how slowly he's getting up to speed--that would be inspiring, and a valuable lesson to college grads, who often think (quite falsely) that now that they've got a diploma in their hands, they're fully grown up and fully prepared for a professional career. As most of us here know, you make a lot of dumb mistakes in your first decade or two post-college, and these constitute our real educations. But the idea of Willie making a talk that acknowledges his ongoing learning process, rather than his achievements and the lessons he has to pass on to young people from his lifetime of unparalleled successes, doesn't quite compute. Irish takes the over on Winner, Winning, etc. Who's got the under?

metirish May 17 2007 07:22 AM

Willie should just do the speech in jive talk.

Benjamin Grimm May 17 2007 07:23 AM

soupcan wrote: Pearl Bailey was my commencement speaker. Mine was Mario Cuomo. NYU, 1985.

soupcan May 17 2007 07:29 AM

Cuomo spoke at commencement my junior year. During his speech, a heckler started going off on him and all-American linebacker Tim Green walked over to the heckler, picked him up, threw him over his shoulders and carried him out of the stadium. It was pretty funny.

Johnny Dickshot May 17 2007 07:34 AM

I heard Ira has a copy of WWSB's speech and is going to keystroke it here so as to compare it with the actual speech later.

iramets May 17 2007 07:37 AM

No, there is no copy. There's no actual speech. He's just going to wing it, is what I understand.

metirish May 17 2007 07:42 AM

iramets wrote: No, there is no copy. There's no actual speech. He's just going to wing it, is what I understand. Just gonna go with his gut,kinda get a feel for the crowd first,Willie is a feel type of guy. Does Omar do grad speeches?

Kid Carsey May 17 2007 07:54 AM

I guess my first thought here is that if commencement speeches are filled with a bunch of bbbyyy, why should Willie be made fun of here for giving one (and probably succeeding at doing what 98% of other speech makers do, put a sweating audience to sleep) on the day that his lovely daughter is grad- uating college? Unnecessary, mean spirited, waste of time.

MFS62 May 17 2007 07:56 AM

One day David Wright will give a graduation speech. And we will be able to predict every word before he says it. Later

iramets May 17 2007 08:52 AM

Kid Carsey wrote: , why should Willie be made fun of here Mah nisch ta na ha laila hazeh?

Methead May 17 2007 09:00 AM

]Pearl Bailey was my commencement speaker Ed Koch was mine. He was good, but I do remember some sort of analogy about baking cookies.

MFS62 May 17 2007 09:01 AM

iramets wrote: ="Kid Carsey"], why should Willie be made fun of here Mah nisch ta na ha laila hazeh? LOL! Translation: "Why is this night different from all other nights?" (Asked at the Passover Seder) Later

Edgy DC May 17 2007 09:34 AM

Strangest part of Pearl Bailey's wikipedia entry: Bailey, a Republican, was appointed by President Nixon as America's "Ambassador of Love" in 1970. She attended several meetings of the United Nations, occasionally seeming disoriented.

iramets May 17 2007 10:42 AM

Kid Carsey wrote: why should Willie be made fun of here And if you want a serious answer, KC, I'll give ya one: because people who are not known as interesting thinkers or original observers or stuff, but just as celebs, have no business giving commencement speeches. (Most of the blame here goes to the Universities that are trendily offering such gigs to these brainless kasha-heads, but the BKHs themselves also get some of the blame for agreeing to talk about stuff they know very little about and don't really deserve, anyway.) Sometimes a sporting figure (like Bill Bradley or Phil Jackson) has some chops in a semi-academic setting, or an entertainer or politican, but generally these celebs are insulting and embarrassing making commencement speeches and most of all receiving honorary doctorates. If you sit through one of these talks, it's pretty much a wall-to-wall eye-rolling and internal "Omigawd! Did he just say that?" kind of affair.

Gwreck May 17 2007 10:53 AM

soupcan wrote: Pearl Bailey was my commencement speaker. Top that. Barack Obama?

soupcan May 17 2007 11:04 AM

Pearl Bailey - still in the lead.

seawolf17 May 17 2007 11:15 AM

Nobody's asking Willie to discuss particle physics; he's just giving a speech. Nobody listens to the commencement speech anyway, so I'd rather have someone like Willie Randolph up there, who will be mercifully short on a hot day, than some blowhard professor who thinks he's hot shit. Get over yourself, Sal.

iramets May 17 2007 11:31 AM

We've got Deirdre Imus this year, which should be interesting, far more interesting than when we arranged for her to speak at Commencement.

soupcan May 17 2007 11:33 AM

iramets wrote: We've got Deirdre Imus this year, which should be interesting, far more interesting than when we arranged for her to speak at Commencement. Oof. We have a new leader. At least Pearl had a successful career. What's Mrs. Imus ever done?

iramets May 17 2007 11:33 AM

seawolf17 wrote: Nobody's asking Willie to discuss particle physics; he's just giving a speech. Nobody listens to the commencement speech anyway, so I'd rather have someone like Willie Randolph up there, who will be mercifully short on a hot day, than some blowhard professor who thinks he's hot shit. Get over yourself, Sal. And so we enter the Red Light District. Or not. We'd sure be there if I were to respond in kind, but I'd rather let this thread remain in the main baseball forum. I'd sure love to hear Willlie on particle physics, though.

iramets May 17 2007 11:51 AM

What? Without me even having tossed out a few "troglodyte"s, "cretin"s and other choice insults?!

Edgy DC May 17 2007 11:52 AM

You know, if somebody slaps your back, you get stuck this way.

SteveJRogers May 17 2007 03:53 PM

We had Mark D. Gearan, the Director of the Peace Corps (at the time anyway) at Fairfield in 1999, Really have no recall of his message so I assume it was the same PC "blah blah" with a "give back to the community" edge to it. They did have Billy Joel one year back when Storm Front was hitting the charts. My sister went to BC, and in 1996 got Bill Cosby!

SteveJRogers May 17 2007 03:56 PM

This year Farfield got a former professor to come back Rev. Thomas J. Regan, S.J.,

seawolf17 May 17 2007 04:13 PM

See! My point exactly. I'd much rather have Billy Joel blather on about how moving it was to write "We Didn't Start The Fire," or have Bill Cosby stand there and eat jello, or listen to Kermit the Frog sing "It's Not Easy Being Green" than listen to some yahoo from the Peace Corps. (Yes, Kermit spoke at commencement at Southampton College about ten years ago.) I apologize for unintentionally directing this into the RLF. But since it's here... (comment deleted)

Edgy DC May 17 2007 06:10 PM

I didn't even pick up on your comment as being directed at an another person until it was pointed out, and I guessed it probably was. Even if it wasn't, this thread sucks and should be firewalled.