I can share some more tidbits from today’s luncheon. For instance, if you’re wondering what bold-face biz names were there, I’ll tell you:
Norm Brinker and Ray Hunt (both past TAB award winners), Gerald Ford, Ross Perot Jr., St. Mark’s Headmaster Arnie Holtberg, and my St. Mark’s history teacher, art history teacher, and junior year advisor Tom Adams. Rep. Dan Branch was there too. The general theme to the luncheon was “SMU is awesome — in particular the business school” and “SMU is looking to raise money,” as interated and reiterated by B-School Dean Al Niemi, Jr., SMU Pres. Gerald Turner, and the luncheon honoree himself Carl Sewell. Full disclosure: I’m an alum. Fuller disclosure: My dad taught at the b-school for more than 25 years. Food disclosure: salad starter, beef something entree with potato something and green beans sides, a chocolate Ding Dong-type dessert. But perhpas the most eyebrow-raising moment was during the invocation by SMU Coach June Jones. During it, he mentioned that at this moment “all is not right with America,” and added that we needed His moral and spiritual guidance. Appetites waned.
One final note: I really, really, really hoped that the end of Sewell’s speech would have him telling us to look under our chairs, where we grateful guests would find car keys. “That’s right,” Sewell would say. “You win a car! And you win a car! And you win a car!” We’d clutch those keys to our chests as we pogo-jumped in the crowd, tears of joy and not one thought of luxury tax. Indeed, at the end of the luncheon, we were told to look under our chairs. But we were only looking for a ribbon. Whoever had one got to take home the centerpiece. Boo.
