Fun Facts

Parents Unhappy about Classics??

Not every parent is happy about a child majoring in classics. This father wasn't but perhaps should have been, considering the success his son is now.

"I am appalled, even horrified, that you have adopted Classics as a Major. As a matter of fact, I almost puked on the way home today. . . . I suppose everybody has to be a snob of some sort, and I suppose you will feel that you are distinguishing yourself from the herd by becoming a Classical snob. ... I think you are rapidly becoming a jackass, and the sooner you get out of that filthy atmosphere, the better it will suit me."

Ed Turner to his son Ted Turner, c. 1958, when the latter was a student at Brown University.

List of Famous Classics Majors

• Jerry Brown, Mayor of Oakland (former Governor of CA)
• William Cohen, Secretary of Defense during Clinton administration
• Lynn Sherr, correspondent, ABC-TV's "20-20"
• James Baker, former Secretary of State
• Ted Turner, founder of CNN, Turner Broadcasting, etc.
• Robert Graves, poet
• Willa Cather, teacher, journalist, critic, and author
• Rita Mae Brown, animal enthusiast and author
• W.E.B. DuBois, sociologist, co-founder of NAACP, and author
• Toni Morrison, author and winner of Nobel Prize for Literature-1993
• Gerda Lerner, pioneer in teaching women's history and author
• Chuck Geschke, former CEO and co-founder of Adobe Systems
• Sigmund Freud, pioneer in psychoanalysis and author
• Jane Addams, social worker, founder of Hull House, winner of Nobel Peace Prize-1931
• Betty Friedan, found of NOW and author
• Anne Carson, Canadian poet and scholar
  
• Nancy Vickers, president of Bryn Mawr College
• Friedrich W. Nietzsche, philosopher and author
• Teller of Penn and Teller, Magicians
• J. K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter novels
• Ruth Padel, poet and non-fiction author
• Martha Lane Fox, British entrepreneur and technology advocate
  
• Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media
  
• Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse novels

That Old Party Trick?

Which U.S. President could write Greek with one hand and Latin with the other at the same time?? (Oh, that old party trick?)  Two could, in fact. Garfield and Jefferson.

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