Thursday, May 11, 2017

The preppie outcast

Elderly former preppie Solondz.
Hearing about Todd Solondz going to prep school and then to Yale reminded of this.

I was working in an art gallery. A local guy who'd been living for years in California or somewhere came in wanting to show his work. He presented himself as some sort of genius. He gave us a copy of his bio. It said that he left the public school system for private school when he was a teenager then enrolled in college at a young age. He enrolled in "Lane College" and graduated when he was only sixteen, the youngest person ever to do so.

We showed the biography to someone who had known him in school. He said that the guy got expelled from high school and went to a special class for delinquents. There is no "Lane College". He meant Lane Community College where he took some free classes to prepare for the GED which he apparently passed when he was sixteen.

I thought his background as a juvenile delinquent was more compelling than the crap he made up. I'd rather see the work of a former troubled teen than that of a rich preppie.

So what should I think about Solondz? He told Marc Maron that his prep school was no good but it helped rich kids get into elite universities---it got him into Yale. He wasn't there on scholarship. His parents paid his way in. Doesn't this cast a pall over his whole career? Should I be impressed by a preppie just because the other preppies didn't like him?

Something Harvard Men tell each other

A Harvard Man and a Yalie were in a men's room. The Harvard guy starts to walk out.

"Hold on there, old chap!" cries the Yalie. "At Yale, they teach us to wash our hands after using the lavatory!"

"Really," the Harvard guy says. "At Harvard they teach us not to pee on our hands."

Something MIT boys tell each other 

How many Harvard students does it take to screw in a light bulb?

Just one---he holds it up and the world revolves around him.

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