Just got back from hearing Moseley speak... and he was darn good!

He opened with a wry 'Apparently some of you are amused I'm here,' and went solidly from there. Moseley is a skilled speaker; he worked the crowd, started with a few good anecdotes, and knew how to tell a story. My Moseley bingo card had more than a few hits, but only from the necessary 'gold medal' and 'olympics' type squares. He made the intelligent move to stay away from the huge themes that two hours worth of speakers had already hit on, and stuck with a low-key 'Work for yourself, not for acclaim or money,' theme. Best moment was probably when he demonstrated how to do his Dinner Roll move with his back on the floor.

Overall grade: A-

Of course, he may've gained from low expectations, as well as a succession of boring or flakey speakers. Berdahl was witty and professional on the stage, as was the Alumni chair, but that was about it. The 1952 Speaker went on for the longest time on the least ideas: she seemed amazed that Cal didn't go to sock hops and drink malts. As Sean wrote, 'I thought I'd be giving MY 50 year speech before she finished.'

The History Professor had a good schtick to start, but then decided to spend 5 minutes reading from an Internet list of bumper stickers and t-shirts. Five minutes of 'Don't make your parents' mistakes: use birth control,' and I was itching for something new.

The University Medalist rubbed me the wrong way with a throwaway 'Lets not forget the heinous deaths of 3500 on 9.11, and the even more heinous foreign policy behind it.' She also spent five minutes on injokes with her roommates and thank-yous. Please: a University Medalist is supposed to embody the spirit of the University, not the narcisstic spirit of the Oscars. She then got a round of applause for a minute speaking in a foreign language. I'm not entirely sure why. 'Hey, wow, good for her: she speaks non-English!

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