Actor Henry Winkler Delivered the Commencement Address to Emerson College Graduates in Boston on May 10, 2026

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Henry Winkler graduated from Boston’s Emerson College in 1967. On May 10, 2026 he delivered a nine-minute commencement address there. The YouTube video is titled Henry Winkler Delivers Commencement Address to Emerson College 2026 Graduates.

 

At 4:16 he said that:

 

“I live by two words: tenacity and gratitude. Tenacity will get you where you want to go, and gratitude will make you enjoy the journey, no matter how bumpy.”

 

And at 7:10 he concluded:

 

“It was said in Washington not too long ago, America. The problem with America, we have too much empathy. Well, you can live a life, you can accomplish, you can accumulate a lot of stuff. You can fill your house and then fill your garage and fill your basement. But you cannot live a rich life if you don’t have empathy.

 

I will end with this. Every one of you is powerful. Some of you know your power. Some of you are scared of your power. Some of you haven’t touched it yet. You’re not aware it’s even there yet. And I want to tell you, you are powerful and in you is a great gift. And your job is to figure out what your gift is, because the world needs every single one of you, and your job is to find that gift and give it to the world. It doesn’t matter what it is, we need it. Go!”  

 

There is an article by Scott Stump at TODAY on May 19, 2026 titled The 2 Words Henry Winkler Lives By, According to the Heartfelt Commencement Speech He Just Gave.

 

A 2024 image came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Why did Donald Trump rename Lake Ontario, whose area is the smallest of the five Great Lakes, to Lake America?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yesterday President Donald J. Trump issued an Executive Order titled Honoring the American History of the Great Lakes and Renaming Lake Ontario as Lake America. Section 2 says (paragraph breaks added by me):

 

“Sec. 2.  Lake America.  (a)  The body of water currently known as Lake Ontario is a tremendous asset to the United States and part of our Nation’s heritage.  With the deepest parts of the Lake’s waters lying within United States territory, the United States claims most of the Lake’s volume.  

 

The Lake has long been an integral asset to American exploration, settlement, commerce, and defense.  From the colonial period through the early republic, the Lake served as a critical artery for American trade, commerce, and military logistics, including the establishment in Oswego of a historic fort and the first United States port of call from the St. Lawrence Seaway, shipbuilding and naval operations during the War of 1812 at Sackets Harbor and other New York posts, and the movement of goods, settlers, and later industrial cargoes that linked the interior of the United States to eastern markets and the Atlantic.  

 

Maritime commerce on the broader Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Seaway system — of which the Lake is the easternmost and gateway segment — continues to generate substantial economic activity for the United States, supporting hundreds of thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars in annual economic output, cargo value, and related business revenue, with our  ports, carriers, and States deriving a significant share of the system’s benefits in iron ore, limestone, coal, agricultural products, and other bulk commodities.  

 

Water from the Lake is used to supply nuclear, natural gas, and oil-fired power plants and to supply municipal drinking water to nearby communities.  United States domestic and cross-border shipping activity on the Great Lakes system has historically underpinned regional manufacturing, steel production, agriculture, and energy supply chains in several States, reflecting the strategic and economic importance of these waters to the United States that continues to this day.  The Lake will continue to play a pivotal role in shaping America’s future and the global economy.  

 

In recognition of this flourishing economic resource and its critical importance to our Nation’s economy and its people, I am directing that the Lake officially be renamed as Lake America.”

 

There an article by Deepa Shivaram at npr on August 27, 2026 titled Trump directs federal government to rename Lake Ontario to Lake America. Another article by Louis Casiano at Fox News on August 27, 2026 is titled Trump renames Lake Ontario ‘Lake America’ amid intensifying US-Canada trade dispute. Still another article by Madison E. Goldberg at People on August 27, 2026 is titled New York Governor Slams Trump’s ‘Lake America’ Stunt, Noting Great Lakes Acronym Went From ‘HOMES’ to ‘SHAME.’

 

And there is a three-minute YouTube video at the New York Post on August 27, 2026 titled ‘It’s official’: Trump signs order renaming Lake Ontario ‘Lake of America’[sic]. When he was asked what message are you sending, he bizarrely answered ‘no message.’ He should have just briefly quoted from Section 2 of his Executive Order.

 

There is a Wikipedia page titled List of lakes by area with the following information showing Lake Ontario is the smallest and least impressive (as also can be seen above in a satellite view):

 

Areas for the Great Lakes (in square miles)

Lake Superior   31,700

Lake Huron       23,000

Lake Michigan  22,300

Lake Erie             9,910

Lake Ontario       7,340

 

And there is another Wikipedia page titled List of Lakes by volume:

 

Volumes for the Great Lakes (in cubic miles)

Lake Superior   2,900

Lake Michigan  1,180

Lake Huron          840

Lake Ontario        391

Lake Erie              117

 

There is a third Wikipedia page titled List of Lakes by depth with a table of Lakes ranked by maximum depth (maximums above 1300 feet) that only shows Lake Superior as 1,332 feet and #39 in the world. Another table with Lakes ranked by mean depth only shows Lake Superior as 482 feet and #66 in the world.

 

When we look at web pages for the individual Great Lakes we can find the following:

 

Maximum Depths for the Great Lakes (in feet)

Lake Superior   1333

Lake Michigan    923

Lake Ontario       802

Lake Huron         750    

Lake Erie             210

 

Average Depths for the Great Lakes (in feet)

Lake Superior    483

Lake Ontario      283

Lake Michigan   279

Lake Huron        195

Lake Erie             63

 

Lake Ontario doesn’t come in first based on Area, Volume, Maximum Depth, or Average Depth. Lake Superior comes first in all four of those rankings! It is what we rather should have chosen to call Lake America.

 

The only reason for choosing to rename Lake Ontario is to antagonize Canada by eliminating the lake with the same name as one of their provinces. (We already have Lake Michigan which has the same name as a U.S. state).

 

 

Marlee Matlin gave the 2026 commencement address at the University of Oregon in sign language - with simultaneous translation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On June 15, 2026 the deaf actress Marlee Matlin gave the commencement address at the University of Oregon in sign language - with simultaneous translation. There is a sixteen-minute YouTube video from the University of Oregon on June 30, 2026 titled Marlee Matlin’s 2026 Commencement Address at the University of Oregon.

 

And there is an article by Annie Aguiar at Lookout Eugene Springfield on June 15, 2026 titled Actress Marlee Matlin urged UO grads (including her daughter) to ‘be yourself’ which has a full transcript.

 

At 8:45 she says:

 

“Courage plus dreams equals success. It’s not certainty plus dreams. It’s not perfection plus dreams, it’s courage plus dreams. It is true that dreams are great, but they don’t mean much if you’re too afraid to go after them, and adding some courage is what gets you to take the chance. Courage is applying for the job you’re not sure you’re going to get. Courage is starting over when something isn’t working anymore. Courage is asking for help. Courage is accepting that sometimes you are wrong, and courage is getting back up after you fail, or when life knocks you down.”

 

And at 14:20 she says:

 

“So, as you leave here today, I hope you can remember a few things. One, be yourself when it’s hard. Two, don’t let the world tell your story for you. And three, as I said before make your bed and make sure to pay your taxes.”

 

The PBS American Masters TV series has a documentary about her titled Marlee Matlin: Not Alone Anymore. It includes a minute and a half section you can watch on YouTube titled Marlee Matlin and Henry Winkler reminisce about their long friendship. Another six-minute video at Page Six on June 19, 2025 is titled Marlee Matlin reveals the famous TV star who let her live with his family for two years.  

 

Her portrait was retouched from this 2025 one at Wikimedia Commons.  

 

 

Little Pieces of Hope is a 2021 book about happy-making things in a difficult world

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Todd Doughty’s joyous book from 2021 is titled Little Pieces of Hope: Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World. There is a preview at Google Books. Most of his one-page lists are of Happy-Making Things in a Difficult World.

 

One on page 7 (with links added) is:

 

“Happy-making things in a difficult world:

 

Making friends with strangers while waiting in a long line. Dolly Parton in general, but specifically her bluegrass version of ‘I Get a Kick Out of You.’ A very small bouquet of lilies-of-the-valley. The grace of Simone Biles. Your favorite old T-shirt. Le Creuset. The Meryl Streep parts of the film Julie & Julia. A really good mixtape (or playlist, for you young ones) made for you by someone else. Vintage photos of 1940s NYC.

 

Driving north on the Pacific Coast Highway on a cloudless day when the view is astounding. The smell of a cut lemon. The entire score of Guys and Dolls. That day when you realize you’re finally over someone who dumped you. Grandmothers. Plaid shirts on a crisp fall day. Red velvet cake. Adriana Trigiani’s novel Lucia, Lucia. Someone who says, ‘You were great!’ Someone who says, ‘You look great!’ Someone who says, ‘Don’t do it!’

 

A vividly bright yellow parakeet. The Chrysler Building on a rainy night. David Sedaris’s audio recording of Santaland Diaries. A good run, physically or metaphorically, Leaving a party at precisely the moment when you are having the most fun. Inge Morath’s 1957 photo of that llama in a cab (Google it), A Llama in Times Square. 

 

Four jigsaw puzzle pieces came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

The U. S. national debt now is forty trillion dollars. What does that really mean?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As shown above, we can express forty billion by different factors of a thousand, as multiples of a trillion, billion, million, or thousand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by John Towfighi at CNN Business on August 23, 2026 titled The national debt just hit $40 trillion. But just how big is $40 trillion. He answers that question by asking What is my share? Divide that number by the population of the U.S. The Joint Economic Committee at the United States Congress has a Debt Dashboard with lots of statistics. As shown above, one of them is that the total gross national debt amounts to $116,480 per person.

 

And if we look at a web page from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for Real Median Personal Income in the United States, we find that the latest number from 2024 was $45,140. So, the national debt per person is about 2.6 times the median income. Thus we are not able to quickly pay it off.

 

Back on August 17, 2011 I blogged about How to make a large number incomprehensible – or comprehensible. And on And on July 12, 2016 I blogged about How to make statistics understandable. More recently on December 23, 2024 I blogged about How should we present a huge number like the two billion dollars earned by the Taylor Swift Eras tour?

 

The cartoon bag of money came from OpenClipArt.

 

 

Mustaches to Ashes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Changing the wording of a well-known expression can be hilarious. There is a Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal comic by Zack Weinersmith on June 17, 2026 with captions saying the following:

 

Clergyman (at coffin): Earth to Earth, Mustaches to Ashes, Dust to Dust. The Lord Bless Him.

 

Man (thinking): Wait, did he just say…No, it couldn’t be.

 

And the description below says:

 

There are a lot more dares among the clergy than you would guess.

 

An article by Matthew Harrison at The Lutheran Witness on April 1, 2019 titled Ashes to ashes, dust to dust describes the usual wording for burial of the dead from The Book of Common Prayer:

 

“We now commit the body of our brother/sister to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust, in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly bodies so that they will be like His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subdue all things to Himself.”

 

The mustaches came from OpenClipArt and the ashes came from Wikimedia Commons.

 

 

On May 11, 2026 Harrison Ford gave the undergraduate commencement address at Arizona State University

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is an article by Mary Beth Faller at ASU News on May 11, 2026 titled Harrison Ford tells ASU’s class of 2026: ‘This is your time.’ You can watch his eleven-minute speech in a YouTube video titled Harrison Ford undergraduate commencement address: Arizona State University (ASU).

 

There is another article by Ingrid Vasquez at People on May 13, 2026 titled Harrison Ford encourages ASU graduates to ‘Go change the world’ in passionate commencement speech. Yet another article by Alix Martichoux at The Hill, also on May 13, 2026 is titled Harrison Ford’s rousing commencement speech goes viral: ‘The world my generation left you is a real mess.’  Her description is:

 

“In an inspiring speech to the class of 2026, actor Harrison Ford admitted to the mistakes of his generation, before calling on young people to change the world.

He kicked off his commencement address Monday at Arizona State University by admitting he didn’t always make the best choices when he was young. ‘I was squandering my life in riotous living,’ the 83-year-old said of his college years. He found himself in a drama class looking for an easy A grade, but fell in love with acting.

‘Hiding in character, costume and makeup, I had a freedom, a bravery I had never felt before – and I got an A!’ he joked. ‘I was, I realized, present for possibly the very first time in my life. My passion had led me to community.’

Ford pursued acting, he told the students, while working carpentry jobs to pay the bills and support his family. Even after the success [of] ‘Star Wars,’ when things got easier, something still wasn’t quite right.

 ‘The load lightened. I had freedom, opportunity, but something was still missing.’ He had found passion for acting, but not purpose in life.

 That changed in the 1980s, Ford said, when he discovered the nonprofit Conservation International. As he continued starring in episodes of ‘Star Wars,’ the ‘Indiana Jones’ series, ‘Blade Runner’ and more, he found his true purpose in activism on behalf of the environment.

 ‘Humanity is a part of nature, not above it,’ he continued, making a plea for environmental justice, social justice and protecting indigenous communities. ‘These communities have long understood that the trees, the mountain, water, soil are not commodities, they are relatives to be cherished.’

 ‘We can all play a role by embracing that wisdom in our day-to-day lives, by loving the planet, by honoring nature’s authority, her generosity, the bounty she affords us, the justice of her example,’ he said. ‘Because the world you’re stepping into, the world my generation left you is a real mess.’

‘Find a place for yourself,’ he continued. ‘Whatever talent or ambition you have, find some way to put it to work. Build something that didn’t exist yesterday. Stand up for someone who can’t stand up for themselves. Bring people together that weren’t talking before. That’s leadership. That’s what moves the needle.’

‘Your generation has far more power than you may realize. And if you harness that power, if you find your leadership, your issues, your voice, the world will not be able to ignore you.’

 He ended with a few more inspiring final words: ‘This is your time. Own it. Enjoy every second of it. Because what could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing that you haven’t fully lived it. Congratulations. Go change the world.’ ”

 A 2025 portrait of Harrison Ford was adapted from this one at Wikimedia Commons.