(The title of this blog post, as many of you will recognize, is adapted from the popular NPR car repair show, “Click and Clack The Tappet Brothers,” hosted by Tom and Ray Magliozzi.)
In the movie version of Pride and Prejudice featuring Keira
Knightley, one of my favorite actors, Donald Sutherland, gives a lovely cameo
performance as Mr. Bennett. In almost the last scene, after he has in short
order married off two of his five daughters, he sits alone in his study and
says somewhat bemusedly (I am quoting inaccurately from memory), “If
there are any other young men out there seeking a wife, send them in, I am
quite at my leisure.”
I find myself somewhat in Mr. Bennett’s condition. I have no
teaching commitments until the spring semester and I am, as he says, quite at
my leisure, so if there are those who would like a campus visit from an elderly
professor with a ready store of amusing stories and philosophical observations,
send them in for I am quite at my leisure.
9 comments:
This isn’t quite the same as what you’re soliciting, but I’d be very interested to know if you’ve ever read Paolo Freire’s _Pedagogy of the Oppressed_, and if so what you thought about it.
I have an urge to organize a philosophy club at the local community college just to have an excuse to invite you out to California.
Ok - any comments on this interview with Cornel West?
"Cornel West on why the left needs Jesus"
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/08/cornel-west-jesus-progressives/619741/
A little trivia about Donald Sutherland.
In 2004, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) ran a series to determine who is considered to be the greatest Canadian of all time, according to those who watched and participated in the program. The winner was Tommy Douglas, considered to be the father of Canada's Medicare. (Remember that when Americans tell you that Canadians hate their health care system, yet here they are voting Tommy Douglas as the greatest Canadian.)
In 1930, Douglas married Irma Dempsey, a music student at Brandon College. They had one daughter, actress Shirley Douglas, and they later adopted a second daughter, Joan, who became a nurse. Actor Kiefer Sutherland, son of daughter Shirley and actor Donald Sutherland, is his grandson.
sources:
The Greatest Canadian
Tommy Douglas
Professor Wolff --
Speaking of Donald Sutherland, have you (or any other readers on this Blog for that matter) seen the 1990 film "Bethune" about the life of Canadian physician Norman Bethune? For those who are unaware, Norman Bethune spent time in China during the revolution where he treated injured members of Mao's revolutionary forces. Before that he treated the Republican forces in Spain during the Spanish civil war. To this day, he is held as a national hero in China. I really like Sutherland's performance in the film, which also starred the great Helen Mirren and, believe it or not, the French actress Anouk Aimee.
One of my favorite scenes in the film -- which I will never forget -- is when Bethune returns home to Montreal from China and advocates support for the Chinese revolutionaries. During a press conference, a reporter angrily asks Bethune, "Dr. Bethune, are you a Red?" A broad smile breaks out on Sutherland's face as he steadfastly responds, "Yes I am!"
A friend of mine sent me this link to a speech which Steve Jobs gave at a graduation ceremony (the institution is not identified).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuw8hxrFBH8&list=RDLVTuw8hxrFBH8&start_radio=1
In the speech, he offers advice about there topics, drawn from his own life. To my surprise, he offers some very good advice, particularly about the last topic, death. It is very apropos given Prof. Wolff’s determination to keep on teaching.
“Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. … Death very likely is the best invention of Life. … Your life is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. … Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
A little internet searching disclosed that Steve Jobs gave the commencement speech at Stanford University in 2005,
Re-watching the video, I realized, idiot, he tells you he's at Stanford during the first of the three stories.
Post a Comment