Department

History

Document Type

Presentation

Publication Date

2007

Abstract

I want to thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to do this today, but I also want to confess that if you take this assignment seriously–which I did–it is a most daunting task. Trying to present your “Last Lecture” while you’re out there munching on your lunches, it strikes me as most difficult not to present something that is either too pompous or too vacuous. One is almost tempted to plagiarize the closing lines from one of my favorite movies, Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life and tell you Eric Idle’s conclusion that “It’s not very much really, simply try to:

  • be nice to people
  • avoid eating fat
  • read a good book every now and then
  • get some walking in
  • try to live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations

...and sit down. But I’ll try to do a bit more.

Share

COinS