it's about that honorary degree...

[gh]

... that Arizona State wouldn't give the prez.

Jon Stewart's bit on the whole thing is, to me, priceless:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episod ... eId=227320

you'll note the slider bar has two interrupts; those represent commercials. The ASU thing starts right after the first of the two bars. You know, ASU, Cambridge in the desert :-)

[Friar]

A dumb inexplicable decision. It will cost ASU big $$$.

[Marlow]

SNL did a funny bit on Weekend Update about it.

[tandfman]

I happened to catch an interesting piece on NPR yesterday about the debate going on at Notre Dame, where Obama was invited as a commencement speaker. There were those who felt that his pro-choice position on you-know-what made him an inappropriate ihonoree at a Catholic institution. Others disagreed.

[gm]

I'm just tired of blowhards of all types getting honorary degrees. You want a degree, do it the old-fashioned way...buy it off the internet.

[Pego]

I'm just tired of blowhards of all types getting honorary degrees. You want a degree, do it the old-fashioned way...buy it off the internet.

Doctor Honoris Causa is an old tradition of universities honoring their esteemed guests. Nobody pretends it to be a real degree like the one you buy off the Internet.

[gh]

Of course, Primo Nebiolo used to collect those degrees like stamps and preferred to be called "Doctor."

[Pego]

Of course, Primo Nebiolo used to collect those degrees like stamps and preferred to be called "Doctor."

Wasn't he a doctor of jurisprudence? It is a custom in many European countries to address a lawyer as doctor.

[lonewolf]

In my experience, not only lawyers but apparently anyone with a university degree is/was addressed as Doctor in Germany.
When I was stationed with Northern Command Corp of Engineers in Frankfort/Main post WWII, my German associates, mostly engineers and architects, formally addressed and introduced me as Doctor Lonewolf, even after I explained that I only had a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology/Petroleum Engineering.. or maybe they thought BS stood for Male Bovine Excrement...

[ndamix]

In my experience, not only lawyers but apparently anyone with a university degree is/was addressed as Doctor in Germany.
When I was stationed with Northern Command Corp of Engineers in Frankfort/Main post WWII, my German associates, mostly engineers and architects, formally addressed and introduced me as Doctor Lonewolf, even after I explained that I only had a Bachelor of Science degree in Geology/Petroleum Engineering.. or maybe they thought BS stood for Male Bovine Excrement...

The fact you survived the rigors of Geology/Petroleum Engineering (in addition to understanding it) is enough to call anyone with that type of background "doctor".