[1359] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Commencement Speakers
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Kris Grymonpre)
Mon Sep 30 20:31:14 2002
Date: Mon, 30 Sep 2002 19:55:17 -0400
From: Kris Grymonpre <krisg@MIT.EDU>
To: MIT-Talk@MIT.EDU
HEY!! It's time to nominate this year's commencement speakers!! I think
that the perfect candidate(s) is Penn & Teller. If you agree, please
support my effort by sending emails to those listed below. If enough
support is generated, they might have a good chance of being
picked. Here's my email, nominating them:
I nominate Penn Jillette and Teller, of Penn & Teller, to deliver the 2003
commencement address. MIT named Penn and Teller distinguished scholars,
and they come to MIT once in a while to lecture in the media lab.
Their show in Vegas concentrates on magic and humor, but every act in the
show has a higher meaning, with intelligence. One recently added bit
centered around burning a flag. They wrapped the flag in the bill of
rights and burnt it, with the symbolism being that even though the flag was
gone, the bill of rights still survived. They removed this patriotic bit
from their show promptly after September 11, 2001, not to seem
anti-America, but instead so as not to seem blindly patriotic. Indeed, the
political views of Penn and Teller are a little radical, and Penn
frequently writes columns for magazines, expressing his views.
As speakers at our commencement, Penn and Teller would be known to a
significant portion of the student body. They might speak about how
important it is to have a prominent voice about one's opinions. Of course,
tying the speech together would be the classic Penn and Teller
comedy. They are brilliant entertainers, but they each have an impressive,
unorthodox mind.
So send your nomination for Penn & Teller to:
nazemi@mit.edu, gsc-president@mit.edu, gayle@mit.edu, welg@ai.mit.edu
Thanks,
Kris Grymonpre
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