Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 5/20/17
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Saturday, May 20, 2017
Why caps and gowns at graduation? Let’s go back 900 years. - The Washington Post
Why caps and gowns at graduation? Let’s go back 900 years. - The Washington Post:
Why caps and gowns at graduation? Let’s go back 900 years.
Why caps and gowns at graduation? Let’s go back 900 years.
Actor Matt Damon, in cap and gown, gestures during his address at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s 2016 commencement in Cambridge, Mass. (Charles Krupa/Associated Press)
It’s pretty clear why preschoolers and kindergartners wear caps and gowns at their “graduation” ceremonies.
Adults think it is cute to see little kids parade around like grown-ups and don’t mind spending the money to buy one of the various sets available at one of the companies that sell them. You can, for example, get the “shiny basic set” offered by Rhymeuniversity.comfor $14.95, which includes the shiny gap and gown and tassel, or the “matte deluxe package” for $25.95, which includes a cloth matte cap and gown, tassel, graduate sash, ring, diploma with matching invitation and program cover.
But why, at American high school and college graduations, are the grown-ups — the students, faculty, honorary degree recipients — wearing caps and gowns during the ceremony, often in an outside venue under a withering sun or in a stifling auditorium jammed with guests?
And why are students, many of whom have forked out many tens of thousands of dollars to get a college degree, asked to spend more to rent or purchase a cap and gown for their graduation ceremony? The cost is significant; caps and gowns for rent can cost around $100 and much more to buy. The University of Texas at Arlington, for example, has an order form online for students that includes this section:
Doctoral attire, custom-made for purchase, can cost close to $1,000. Take George Washington University, for example:
| Doctoral Gown, Tam & Hood — Rental | $145.00 |
| Doctoral Gown — Custom Purchase | $557.60 |
| Doctoral Hood — Custom Purchase | $157.00 |
| Doctoral Tam — Custom Purchase | $108.88 |
Some schools require graduating students to Why caps and gowns at graduation? Let’s go back 900 years. - The Washington Post:
When decency and kindness is a radical concept. My bed is made. | Fred Klonsky
When decency and kindness is a radical concept. My bed is made. | Fred Klonsky:
When decency and kindness is a radical concept. My bed is made.
When decency and kindness is a radical concept. My bed is made.
Even though this is a dreary, rainy Chicago day I’m in a good mood. Yesterday morning we did a great Hitting Left with our friend Jerry Harris. And then last night we had dinner and good conversation with old friends.
In a few weeks this blog will hit the 4 million page views mark. Our podcast numbers are increasing each week. A lot of people like what we say.
But inevitably the small – I want to emphasize small – number of trolls need to send nasty and mean spirited comments. It’s not that they disagree. I’m good with that. It is that they are mean and anonymous and know that their comments will never see the light of day on this blog.
They just get off on sending them.
I mentioned on the radio show yesterday that it seems that a political party with a program of decency and kindness would seem radical in today’s climate.
Okay.
To show you what I mean I will make a rare exception. This morning this appeared in my in-box:
Fred,
One can get tired of listening to the bitching from people that freely chose a path in life for reasons that had little or nothing to do with money and then at the end they decide to count the chips, they find out there are not as many as they thought.So you bitch, piss and moan out of jealously and a perceived lack of fairness in the world, then try to figure out ways to get some for yourself based on the mistaken belief that you some how “deserve” it.After all you did work hard and are good people, and contributed a lot more to society than the assholes that got it all.To you I say KISS MY ASS!!!!Or as grandma would so eloquently put it “you made your bed…………..”
As I said, I’m in a really good mood this morning and so I’m going to respond to this When decency and kindness is a radical concept. My bed is made. | Fred Klonsky: