Thursday, May 18, 2006

not over yet

The article in USA Today is huge. It fills most of page 1C and most of page 2C. Why am I so excited? Almost two months after the jubilation over the Final Four has died down, Erik Brady's cover story is all about George Mason basketball. In case you forgot, George Mason University is my alma mater. A few selections from the article got my attention. Let's start with this one:
The madness of March has given way to mid-May, but Final Four glory still simmers on a front burner here. When the Class of 2006 settles into their seats at Patriot Center for Saturday's commencement, GMU president Alan G. Merten plans to tell graduates they have lived through the most exciting year in school history.
And then this one:
[Coach Jim] Larranaga says he has long wanted to break into the speaking circuit.

"So every year I would call the Washington Speakers Bureau to see if there was any interest. They always politely said no." But this time, during March madness, "they called me."
Naturally I wondered if Coach L would get the gig as this year's GMU commencement speaker. Nope. According to the Mason Gazette, this year's speaker is Tulane University president Scott Cowen. I guess you can't argue with that choice. At least the School of Public Policy booked the coach to speak at their convocation ceremony tomorrow evening.

While browsing the Mason Gazette site, I saw that the latest "Picture This" featured photo was about the special "Mason Station" postal cancellation created for Patriot Pride. The photo shows Coach L and President Merten receiving a plaque from the Fairfax postmaster. My sister lives in Northern Virginia and sent me an envelope with the special cancellation on it:



A few years back, I got a call from the GMU Office of Alumni Affairs. President Merten was coming to Southern California and would be hosting a dinner for GMU alumni in the area. My wife and I were invited to attend. They told me that the dinner would be held at the Queen Mary in Los Angeles. Being a nitpicker, I had to ask if they were absolutely positive about the location. I asked, "Do you mean the Queen Mary in Los Angeles or the Queen Mary in Long Beach?" I think I might have even emailed them the websites for both Queen Mary locations. It turns out that the dinner was aboard the historic ship in Long Beach. At the time, there was also a bar called The Queen Mary in the Studio City section of Los Angeles. It was home to the most famous drag show in town. President Merten feigned disappointment when I told him about it over dinner.
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1 Comments:

Blogger Frank Strovel III said...

I think if Abby Hamm visited George Mason University your head would explode.

5/19/2006  

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