MILESTONES

It occurred to me today that this year marks the fifty-fifth anniversary of my earning a doctorate in philosophy at Harvard.  Since I did not do anything to acknowledge the fiftieth, and my recent quasi near death experience has reminded me that I may not live to see the sixtieth [though I have every intention of trying], it seems to me that perhaps I ought to have a little private ceremony of commemoration [returning for the annual Harvard reunion is totally out of the question, for all sorts of reasons.]

But what would be an appropriate rite of passage?  Should I try to contact the other folks who received their Philosophy doctorates that same year?  I have a vague recollection that there were twelve of us in the Philosophy Department at Harvard in 1957.  I am pretty sure Dudley Shapere and Joe Ullian were among the dozen, and I thought I remembered that Nicholas Wolterstorff was as well.  Wikipedia says Nick received his degree in '56, but the Yale Philosophy Department page on which he is listed as Professor Emeritus, after repeating this date, goes on to say, rather inconsistently, that he received his degree in 1957.  [These two statements are separated by only several paragraphs, and although in the old days the Yale Department was not known for strength in Logic, it does seem to me that they ought by now to have mastered the Law of Contradiction.]

An unusually good bottle of wine?  Some chocolate truffles from the local upscale gourmet food shop?  Perhaps I should memorialize the occasion on my blog -- but then, I seem to be doing that.

Oh well, it was a long time ago.  Maybe I will just wait until the sixtieth rolls around.  Meanwhile, on a more serious note, I need to get started planning for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary that Susie and I will celebrate in August.  Now that is something to make a fuss about.