Worst Graduation Gift: Nina Totenberg as Your Commencement Speaker

We’re nearing the end of graduation season. Sadly, we received hardly any responses to our request for examples of odious graduation gifts. This was the best one:

Worst graduation gift ever: My dad asking me why I only came second in my class and not first. And then no gifts!

If that’s not a recipe for several years of therapy, we don’t know what is.
Due to the lack of submissions, we have picked out our own worst graduation gift: Nina Totenberg as your graduation speaker.
Because Nina Totenberg, the distinguished legal affairs reporter for NPR, is one of the country’s most celebrated journalists, one would expect graduates — especially law school graduates — to appreciate her as a speaker. But La Totenberg didn’t win many fans with her recent Georgetown commencement address.
Here’s a less-than-favorable review of her speech, from a 2007 graduate of Georgetown University Law Center:

I worked very hard, for an extended period of time, to graduate from law school. For better or worse, it represents one of the great achievements I will have in life. And her speech seemed as if she wrote it on the cab ride over from NPR.

I’m disappointed that Totenberg chose to be so lighthearted during what I feel is, for lack of a better word, a “solemn” occasion. It was so lighthearted that it wasn’t even cogent! Ask me how I really feel, right?

I have heard nothing but negative reviews from [my classmates]….

(If you’d like to check it out for yourself, click here to access a webcast. Enjoy.)
Update: This commenter makes a good point. We’ve heard a number of tales about Nina Totenberg’s diva-licious behavior — and we’d love to hear more. Please send them to us by email, and perhaps we’ll do a more detailed write-up on her. Thanks.
2007 Georgetown Law Center Commencement Ceremony [Georgetown University Law Center (webcast)]
Nina Totenberg bio [National Public Radio]
Earlier: Worst Graduation Gifts: Submissions, Please

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