While serving with fellow alumni as “Marshall” yesterday (September 1, 2014), I met some of the Harvard freshmen students who now live in Wigglesworth, the dormitory where I once lived. In particular, I talked with the four residents of A-11, the very spot of my living with three other first-years.
Category Archives: Blog
Roger
“Life Itself” is the title of a fabulous new film. I saw it on July Fourth of 2014 in an audience deeply caught up in its story.
This documentary centers on Roger Ebert, the critic who covered movies for the Chicago Sun-Times, television stations, and other media.
The film covers the whole range of Roger’s life, starting from his early years and finishing with his death in 2013. It gives much attention, of course, to his views of the movies.
Sad Wake
The saddest wake I can remember came recently. It wasn’t seeing my friend Joe in his coffin but it was the absence of a member of his family. That person was his oldest daughter whom I had known long ago.
Garrison
Garrison Keillor, for me, ranks high among American masters of spoken language. I put him up there with Mark Twain though not, of course, as a writer. Keillor’s command of the story and the anecdote strikes me as superb, so much so that I love to listen to at lest parts of his radio show.
Five Minute Talk
This week I delivered a five-minute talk. I spoke in front of some seventy-five members of the Cambridge Club. Most in the audience were civic friends of mine, and could be relied upon to welcome what I say.
In preparing this talk I was mindful of Blaise Pascal, the great French savant, who is credited with saying: “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.”
JFK at BC
As the fiftieth anniversary of President Kennedy’s death approaches, I am mindful of the speech he gave at Boston College in the spring of 1963. I was sitting in the large crowd gathered to hear him help celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the college’s founding.
Pope
Harvey, a close friend, reports with continuing excitement his meeting with the pope last week.
He had received an invitation to a public audience where he was invited to a seat on a stage where some thirty other people had assembled. After an hour, he was brought to the pope who spoke with him in Spanish and English.