Outside Counsel

To the funeral of a well-respected lawyer yesterday, one of A's partners. There was quite a bit to comment on, but I will limit myself to this: the lawyer who is dead obtained his undergraduate degree from a local Jesuit college, and was, I gather, enough of an active Catholic to have been pals with the monsignor who said the Mass and delivered the homily. The shaman gave, I thought, a homily that was theologically rigorous, to the extent that such a thing is possible, and I think that would have pleased Harry, but at one point he wandered off and related an anecdote about a student he had advised years ago (in some Catholic school in Batavia, because it's always Batavia in my life at the moment). She was planning on attending St. Mary's College in Indiana, the women's college across the street from Notre Dame. As it happened, Notre Dame is the alma matter of the shaman, and the point of the story was that the student was planning on attending St. Mary's because she was, in his words, "A bit of a golddigger" who wanted to meet and marry a man from Notre Dame.

Because the dead lawyer-- who, I must emphasize, had no connection to Notre Dame whatsoever--was a well respected lawyer, a Federal Court judge had been asked to deliver a eulogy after communion. The judge started in by thanking the shaman for his thoughtful homily, and then went on to note that he was likewise a graduate of Notre Dame, and that his wife had attended St. Mary's, and that she would like a private word with the shaman after Mass about the word "golddigger".

From this I think we can conclude that there is, apparently, a rule that requires all Notre Dame graduates to mention their affiliation with the university whenever possible, no matter what the occasion. It is sort of the opposite of Skull & Bones, I guess.