"We're going to be OK." That's awesome.

This story brings to mind David Brenner, who some years ago, came up with a description for what he called "New York's unique state of normalcy".

His description, involves two pictures.

In the frame, you see a man, a woman and a baby in a stroller, at a bus stop. The man is bending over the front of the stroller, apparently trying to make the baby smile... and the guy's got this weird look on his face, and going:

"GoogoooooooGoooooooooGoogoooooooGoogooooooo..."

And in the next frame we see the woman, the baby and the stoller are gone, and it's getting dark outside, suggesting that many hours have passed... but the guy is still slightly bent over, standing in exactly the same spot, still with the weird look on his face, and still going:

"GoogoooooooGoooooooooGoogoooooooGoogooooooo..."

You gotta love this too:

"Lets talk about the real world for a moment. We had been discussing it earlier, and I…I wanted to bring this up to you earlier about the real world, and this is I guess as good a time as any. I don’t really know to put this, so I’ll be blunt. We broke it.

Please don’t be mad. I know we were supposed to bequeath to the next generation a world better than the one we were handed. So, sorry.

I don’t know if you’ve been following the news lately, but it just kinda got away from us. Somewhere between the gold rush of easy internet profits and an arrogant sense of endless empire, we heard kind of a pinging noise, and uh, then the damn thing just died on us. So I apologize.

But here’s the good news. You fix this thing, you’re the next greatest generation, people. You do this—and I believe you can—you win this war on terror, and Tom Brokaw’s kissing your ass from here to Tikrit, let me tell ya. And even if you don’t, you’re not gonna have much trouble surpassing my generation. If you end up getting your picture taken next to a naked guy pile of enemy prisoners and don’t give the thumbs up you’ve outdid us.

We declared war on terror. We declared war on terror—it’s not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I’m sure we’ll take on that bastard ennui."

What Jon Stewart didn't know was that after receiving his honorary PhD, the Comedy Channel cut his salary to $45,000 a year, transferred him out of New York City to a small rural town in Pennsylvania, and forced him to grade 150 essays on "how a bill becomes a law."

As a fellow alumnus, I have to agree with Jon Stewart that his appearance at commencement in Williamsburg makes it look like the College is going downhill.

I blame budget cuts in Richmond.

(Jon Stewart singing:)

"I'm just a Bill, here on Capital Hill..."

Remember his first bit after 9/11?

"They said to get back to work. There were no jobs available for a man in the fetal position under his desk crying, which I would have gladly taken. So I came back here."

Will Farrell's Harvard commencement speech is another classic:

http://www.purecontent.blogspot.com/2003_06_22_purecontent_archive.html

I rather liked my alma mater's graduation ceremony policies--no honory doctorates, the president of the university gives a SHORT uplifting commencement address.

Don't forget Joseph Brodsky's fantastic commencement address at University of Michigan. Couldn't find an online version, but it's in his volume "On Grief and Reason."

"The world you are about to enter and exist in doesn't have a good reputation. It's been better geographically than historically; it's still far more attractive visually than socially. It's not a nice place, as you are soon to find out, and I rather doubt that it will get much nicer by the time you leave it. Still, it's the only world available: no alternative exists, and if one did, there is no guarantee that it would be much better than this one."