Previous month:
April 2022
Next month:
June 2022

Mom’s Wisdom

Since a robust construct of my mom lives on inside my head, a decade after she’s gone (and the construct will be there until the day I die), I’ve decided to write down some of the things she whispers to me now and then.

“Profanity is the last resort of the feeble mind.” This from a woman who didn’t use the word fuck until her 40s. Apparently, my mind went feeble when I flew off to MIT, as I joined a crowd at The Tech that swore like sailors.

To be fair, once mom picked up the habitual use of “Fuck,” she made up for lost time, deriving visible pleasure from its application, when appropriate.


Tom Rush Quotes

Who knew Tom Rush could be a source of great quotes?
“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it.”
 - Moses Hadas
“I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here.”
- Stephen Bishop
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts... for support rather than illumination.”
- Andrew Lang


More MIT in Fiction

Robert Malchman notes:

“Kristen Wiig's character in the Ghostbusters reboot went to MIT and is even shown wearing a Brass Rat (not to mention an MIT sweatshirt).

I loved the scene in Good Will Hunting where Skarsgard goes to Physical Plant to find out the name of the janitor in "Building 2," which of course is where the Math Department (Course XVIII to you) is located. Little touches like that just make a movie for me.”

Beth Karpf added: “The only MIT woman I can think of off the top of my head is Brianna Fraser (Outlander). I can't recall if she graduated before she traveled through the “stones” to the 18th century, but if she did, she would have been Class of 1971.

“MacGyver attended MIT for two years but didn't get a degree.”