There's a rather interesting brouhaha going on in this part of the territory about two commencement speeches given by Fareed Zakaria, of Newsweek, Time Magazine and now CNN fame. He gave a speech at Duke and then, 11 days later, at Harvard. They were essentially the same speech and he defended himself saying he wanted to give the best advice he could, and he'd told Harvard's president that he'd already been asked by Duke, so he'd expect the speeches to be similar, and Drew Faust said they still wanted him. I don't see any problem with similar speeches...if he wrote a great speech - and he clearly did - why should he give a different one that may not be as good at another college? But obviously, others disagree. Temple Grandin, for one, as the article notes, always gives different speeches.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/06/08/speeches_strike_a_similar_tone/ But what I'm really posting here is a lovely anecdote that Zakaria included about the always adorable Art Buchwald (I so miss him!) who gave an exquisitely brief commencement speech (my googling shows that Zakaria also included that anecdote the year before at the Johns Hopkins commencement...well, I guess if ya got a good story, then go with it): "My favorite one is Art Buchwald. Buchwald gave a very short Commencement speech. He said, “As you can clearly see, we’re leaving you a pretty perfect world. Don’t screw it up." Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=18269 or send a blank email to leave-18269-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
