The Change, It Had to Come, We Knew It All Along

After about twenty years, I think I might be done with this book learnin'.

Well, at least the book learnin' where you have to pay people instead of getting paid yourself.

Oh yeah, there's also that little thing they like to call "the bar". I'm sure that will be as quick and painless as an impromptu speech from Mike Tyson. At least after the bar, though, both of my ears will still be intact.

I think.

I Won't Pretend to Understand the Movement of the Wind

For your perusal and enjoyment, the following people were nominated (but not necessarily chosen) to speak at graduation by the Baylor Law class graduating in May 2009:

• Former President George H.W. Bush

• Former President George W. Bush

• Stephen Colbert

• Senator John Cornyn

• Prof. Counseller

• Prof. Fuselier

• Former Senator Phil Gramm

• Prof. Guinn

• Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison

• Assoc. Dean Jackson

• Chief Justice Wallace B. Jefferson (Texas Supreme Court)

• Judge Ed Kinkeade

• Judge Jeff Manske

• Willie Nelson

• Justice Harriet O’Neill (Texas Supreme Court)

• Prof. Osler

• Prof. Powell

• Prof. Rogers

• Gov. Mitt Romney

• Prof. Zollie Steakley

• Prof. Jim Underwood

• Prof. Wren

My money would have been on Willie, but since Baylor is a religiously-oriented institution, I'm not sure that his choice of "refreshments" at the reception would have been approved by the powers that be.

Let's Get Together Before We Get Much Older

Ladies and gentlemen, readers of all ages, I have returned from the blogging abyss to ensure that you, my loyal readership, do not waste away for another day in a world without hope, a world without color, a world without your daily dose of Running Down a Dream.

Since it is commencement season for many around this great nation, including my very own sister, this editorial from P.J. O'Rourke in last Saturday's Los Angeles Times seems timely, if not entirely appropriate:

First you have to listen to a commencement speech.

Don't moan. I'm not going to "pass the wisdom of one generation down to the next." I'm a member of the 1960s generation. We didn't have any wisdom.

We were the moron generation. We were the generation that believed we could stop the Vietnam War by growing our hair long and dressing like circus clowns. We believed drugs would change everything -- which they did, for John Belushi. We believed in free love. Yes, the love was free, but we paid a high price for the sex.

My generation spoiled everything for you. It has always been the special prerogative of young people to look and act weird and shock grown-ups. But my generation exhausted the Earth's resources of the weird. Weird clothes -- we wore them. Weird beards -- we grew them. Weird words and phrases -- we said them. So, when it came your turn to be original and look and act weird, all you had left was to tattoo your faces and pierce your tongues. Ouch. That must have hurt. I apologize.

So now, it's my job to give you advice. But I'm thinking: You're finishing 16 years of education, and you've heard all the conventional good advice you can stand.

"Fairness, Idealism, and Other Atrocities" by P.J. O'Rourke in the L.A. Times.

Note: Many thanks to Mr. Mason Orr for the O'Rourke-editorial heads up.