<p>My kid is going on to med school. How did you folks enjoy the picnic? The food was good - great chowder! I was a bit surprised at how crowded it was and how hot it was initially.</p>
<p>I really canāt take the heat anymore - hopefully its cooler tomorrow. Anybody getting tired hearing the thinly veiled comments about Adam Wheeler in the student speeches?</p>
<p>You got it, DocT, weather wise. Much cooler today.</p>
<p>My D is a 2010 Harvard student, just say āHi,ā to all of you. hopefully I will learn sth from you all.</p>
<p>Congratulations to Twinmom, Gadad, DocT, their seniors & other graduating senior families! Hope the Commencement was wonderful and move-out is smooth. Have been getting reports from DD who is working graduation events that all seems very festive.</p>
<p>Thanks Fauve, festive indeed - a little on the lengthy side - but festive and very colorful!</p>
<p>The highlights of the main Commencement ceremony (other than your own student graduating), we thought, were the cameo appearances by the Sheriff of Middlesex County, as described earlier by Coureur. The Sheriffās role, as my kids noted, is to play the consummate badass, and he plays it to perfection. According to the program, the historical precedent for his appearance is due to the fact that in the 18th century, towns didnāt hold festivals or sponsor many social gatherings for their citizens, but Cambridge had this one big celebration by its college each spring with all the food - and drink - that went with it. Accordingly, many of the local citizens would attend and sometimes get out of hand. It eventually became necessary for the Sheriff and his men to always be in attendance.</p>
<p>These days, the Sheriff comes sans riot gear but in top hat and cane to sit on the stage. The Harvard President opens Commencement by calling out āMr. Sheriff, pray come and bring order to these proceedings.ā The Sheriff struts up and smacks the stage floor three times with his cane and bellows (and I mean BELLOWS) āHear ye - hear ye - hear ye. As Sheriff of Middlesex County, I declare these proceedings to be (pause . . .) IN-N-N-N-N OR-R-R-R-DER-R-R-R-R!!!ā - the last two words delivered in a 120-decibel basso profundo growl with potential seismic consequences. At the pronunciation of the last two words, the staid and well-dressed attendees burst into cheering, whooping, and fist-pumping of the kind that in my corner of the country is usually reserved for the monster truck that crushes cars at the truck show. At the end of the Commencement, he repeats his role, replacing the last two words with the word "AD-D-D-D-D-JOURNED-D-D-D-D-D. D2 says she wants to hire the man to be at her wedding to pronounce them husband and wife. </p>
<p>We enjoyed the picnic and the chowder, DocT. Iād have also enjoyed being able to find you and say hi in person given that we were both there, but the crowd was enormous and Iām sure that finding anyone for whom you were looking was unlikely. We sweltered for two days, loved the perfect day on Thursday, then nearly froze walking back to the T on Thursday night. And yes, some of the student speeches were clearly derivative of Conan OāBrienās epic 2000 Class Day address; I guess that since Adam Wheeler was the topic of the moment, he was also the prime target for satire.</p>
<p>I didnāt get to see Souter in the afternoon because I had to get the car to come back and pick up my daughterās stuff. My wife said he was less than inspiring. Also it wasnāt as crowded as in the morning.</p>
<p>Souter was an odd choice. First of all, heās dull as dishwater. Second of all, he spoke about the role of the Supreme Court in light of allegations regarding activist judges inventing the law; whether he noticed that there was a university Commencement going on around him was unclear. And third - Iād been certain that Souter was surely a fallback for a more interesting speaker who may have had to cancel. Then I saw on Thursday that Meryl Streep was sitting right beside him. They were both there getting honorary degrees, but he was the speaker while she just sat and waved.</p>
<p>That said, I think I may have been one of the few in the crowd who really enjoyed listening to him. Iām interested in the debate over the appropriate role of a Supreme Court justice, and Souter very deftly rebutted the claim that justices overstep their bounds when they go farther than just weighing X vs. Y and siding with one or the other. His calm, bland delivery - sort of what youād expect had MisterRogers been appointed to the Court - served to emphasize the pure logic and compelling reason behind his viewpoints without any histrionics to compete with them. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the graduation of Harvard students, but Iām glad I heard him and Iāll probably quote some of his points in the future when discussing the Court.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all of the parents with new graduates!</p>
<p>We had a great three days. We watched the students parade to the Baccalaureate service and listened to it outside. That evening we went to the family dinner/party which was quite nice. The picnic on Wednesday was nice except that it was sooooo hot and they ran out of water all too quickly. We were lined up at the gate by 6:10 on a refreshingly cool Thursday morning and got excellent seats. It was fun seeing Merryl Streep on stage again - we had just seen her at Vassarās graduation a few days prior to this one!
I thought the Alumni Exercises were a bust. Souter had a good speech but was monotone and did not ever even congratulate the graduates. I thought that his speech had totally no relevance to graduation festivities.
The House luncheon and diploma ceremony were great ā¦ itās hard to believe that Iām the parent of two new college grads!</p>
<p>Great descriptions, gadad! And so useful to hear one should be at the gate so early for good seats, twinmom. Again, congrats!</p>
<p>I found the percentage of graduates going into finance a bit disturbing. Also several of us commented on all the applause that Meryl Streep got when you had others who had Nobel prizes etc. with nowheres near the same reaction. I guess it shows what we value in society.</p>
<p>DocT: We also commented about how much applause Meryl received compared to the other honored guests. There were indeed many students going into finance, but I felt that many were going into public service too.</p>
<p>Did anyone catch a glimpse of Caroline Kennedy? Alas, I did not.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all the graduating seniors and their parents. I am a parent of a rising junior and was wondering about how many days should we take off for our childās graduation and should we already start making hotel reservations at this point or is it too early?</p>
<p>The Charles Hotel starts taking reservations for the 3 day 2011 Commencement package on June 1 at 8:00 am. The rate is more than double the usual- around $800.+ a night, and a three day minimum. You can put your name on a list for 2012 commencement at the Inn at Harvard and Harvard Square Hotel- they start taking names years ahead.</p>
<p>The standard graduation gala is three days- Tuesday (Baccalaureate, Senior Class Dinner), Wednesday (Class Day Exercises, picnic, Masterās Receptions in Houses), and Thursday (Commencement).</p>
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<p>How was the Latin speech? Those are sometimes pretty humorous.</p>
<p>^^It was a great speech and very impressive!</p>
<p>Yes, the Latin speech was incredible. I also loved the graduate English studentās speech - very witty!</p>
<p>We booked the Hyatt Regency Cambridge one year in advance. They offered a shuttle over to the Yard on the morning of commencement, and on the other days we took cabs for about $10.00. </p>
<p>We paid about $250/night which included a breakfast buffet; it was priced way less than every other hotel we called.</p>
<p>The hotel is on Memorial Drive in Cambridge, pyramid shaped (noting that as you may have passed it) and very beautiful.</p>
<p>Fauve and Twinmom, Thank you for mentioning hotel reservations in your posts. I am going to make them today for next yearās graduation. I have not seen anyone describe the move-out āexperienceā. How did that go for all of you? And, again, congratulations to the parents of the students who just graduated.</p>
<p>MSMDad: Everyone seemed to be moving out at different times. Some moved the bulk of their stuff out before the events began, some during, and some had not started to move out when we left. </p>
<p>I will also note that Tuesday and Wednesday are very informal. I thought that Class Day would be on the dressier side; it was not. Perhaps it was because it was so hot, but many of the fathers were wearing shorts; my husband regretted that he had not done the same.</p>