Life, the Universe, and Everything

Sorry for the non-blogging this week. It was the last week of finals. No, I didn’t actually have to take any. Yes, I had to proctor them. With a 8:30 am to 10 pm schedule, it really was grueling. I almost would have preferred to take 3 exams rather than to watch people suffer through 10.

Last Saturday was my godmother’s fundraising brunch for culinary scholarships. An extraordinary collection of chefs put together a fine feast – the hungry room barely made a dent in the buffet. See the spread yourself! I’m so glad that so many people have received her love over the years, and that they return that love to her.

Last Sunday was the CAPA Festival at Union Square. Our friend from Meniscus Zine was selling out for Mickey D’s at their huge blowup tent, complete with Asian Ronald. Koreans out in force with the best give-aways. And I won a ImaginAsian T-shirt!

NYU is having their 175th anniversary celebrations this week with alumni weekend. The alumni awards dinner was Friday. A couple of not-exactly-striking graduate TAs had a mini-flyer handout outside of the hotel, but were not really effective; they had thrown their remaining stack of flyers in the garbage when we left. One line acceptance speeches: Stateswoman Carol Bellamy (“learn to take the risk of failing”); the Tuskegee Airmen (“just ordinary people doing their best”); songwriter Carole Bayer Sager (“if you get caught between the Moon and New York City/the best that you can do/the best that you can do is fall in love”); real estate developers H. Dale Hemmerdinger (we can rebuild Camelot) and Daniel J. Brodsky (NYU is the family business) and mathematician Peter Lax (“they trust me as an expert in Hungarian literature”). NYU President John Sexton takes the pulpit as usual, and during the tribute to the Tuskegee Airmen, he reveals that the number 42 in a circle that he has emblazoned on his academic gown is a tribute to Jackie Robinson, and not the answer to life, the universe, and everything.