Mike Peters is the award-winning (Pulitzer and others) gent who draws the Mother Goose & Grimm newspaper strip along with many brilliant editorial cartoons. He's also one of the funniest, most charming people I've ever met…and I've met a lot of funny, charming people.
Mike graduated from Washington University in St. Louis in '65 and they've just asked him back to speak at the commencement ceremony they'll be having there in May. There's some sort of grumbling going on because some of the students haven't heard of him or were maybe hoping for someone more famous or something. Let me say two things about this…
1. If anyone really is disappointed that Mike Peters is going to be their commencement speaker, it's only because they don't know the guy. He's brilliant and they're going to love whatever he says up there.
2. This is a non-story. A speaker is announced. A few kids express disappointment. That probably happens every time any institution of higher learning announces a speaker who doesn't have his own hit TV show or record deal. But in this case, someone decides to treat it like a news story about something unusual. I guess it's the era of YouTube. If someone lassos Stephen Colbert to speak, the ceremony becomes a much-seen video. But that's not the norm for commencement speakers. The norm is someone who may not be very famous but who might at least deliver a decent speech.
Mike will be great. I hope someone makes a video of it and puts it up on YouTube.