The One About Old People in Dallas
You may get a wrong impression about this post from the title, but I’m sticking with it.
Today I went to the Tate Lecture. It was for the DC and featured the U.S. ambassador to China. It wasn’t anything particularly unusual.
But as I was waiting for the lecture to begin, I started thinking about who comes to these lectures and why.
Of course, SMU faculty, students, and staff attend. So do those people who support the university. But what about the others?
Usually when you go to any given lecture at SMU, it’s faculty and grad students.
So what made all these people (middle aged and up there) come tonight?
Was the Tate Lecture series a part of good Dallas society–the watering hole for those upper crust elites who take part in the artistic culture of Dallas? Was it for those who wanted to remain in good social standing?
Or is it simply that Dallas has a lot of people who are intellectually curious?
I don’t know. What I do know is that you won’t find Carthage citizens attending a lecture on a Tuesday night just for the heck of it.
P.S.–Brad Cheves has some mad skills. At precisely 9:15, he took an opportunity to interrupt Mr. Randt’s long-winded answer in the Q&A to inform everyone that it was time to go. Way to keep to a schedule.
Here’s how it went: Randt was talking… talking… pause for breathINSERT Cheves in a swift, effortless motion. Clean cut. No mess.
Like I said, mad skills.
