Favorite Speaker You’ve Seen

My adolescent crush came to town last night as part of our Speaker series, Chrissie Evert.

She was soooo nice.

We had Liz Cheney a few months ago, not as nice as Ms. Every but very entertaining.

Probably best ever for me was Desmond Tutu during the South Africa divestment movement. 10,000 on our quad was amazing.

 

Kurt Vonnegut, back around 1990-92.

And Kenn Finkel's two-hour editing seminars were good newsroom entertainment.

 

Isabel Wilkerson, the author of The Warmth of Other Suns, an epic look at the Great Migration.

The first time I heard her was at a writing conference in Grapevine, Texas. She was the keynote on Sunday morning, the last day of the conference, and there weren't many folks in the room. I believe many might have had a few too many adult beverages the previous evening. But Wilkerson received two standing ovations while talking about her book.

Then the university where I work hosted her a few years ago, and the talk was equally lovely.

Warmth is my favorite book ever.

 

My mom got VIP tickets to see Dave Barry and meet him afterwords when he came to Pittsburgh. Have a picture of the two of us.

 

Dickie V spoke at our car dealers association convention in 2018 and he was awesome, baby.

 

Pat Croce. Just a dynamic guy all around.

 

He's on the roster for our speaker series in 2025! Looking forward to him.

 

Charles Kuralt during J-week many moons ago.

And Don Ranly every day in class.

 

Jim Murray to my high school journalism class.
He lived down the street from a guy in our class and his daughter was a senior at our school when I was a sophomore.

 

The Celestion T1088 speakers that were standard in the '60s Vox AC30, with the Eminence Screamin' Eagle that Blackstar put in the Kentucky Special version of its HT Club Mark II amp a close second.

And it's very close.

 

I saw Robert McNamara admit that he really fucked up the country's Vietnam policy and sent thousands of young Americans off to kill or be killed in pursuit of a futile endeavor. He did seem remorseful, as he certainly should have been.

 

If anybody read "The Quiet American", they wouldn't step a toe in Vietnam. The place was corrupt as the day is long.