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My Kid And My Money Go To Monty Python
John Cleese Appointed Cornell Provost's Visiting Professor for Three-Year Term

"We have been fortunate to have John Cleese as an A.D. White Professor for eight years -- two years longer than the normal term," said Cornell President Hunter Rawlings. "He has been so popular we've now made him Provost's Visiting Professor in response to requests from students and faculty."

Cleese holds an M.A. in law from the University of Cambridge and an honorary LL.D. from St. Andrews University, where he was rector for several years.

Throughout his career, Cleese has used humor as a teaching tool. Along with his Monty Python cohorts, Cleese has presented relatively advanced concepts in philosophy, science, history, religion, politics, human relations and physics to general audiences.

Appointed an A.D. White Professor in 1999, Cleese used his role to introduce other notable visitors to campus whose knowledge, expertise and enthusiasms were in concert with his own, including Hollywood screenwriter William Goldman, wildlife preservationist Simon Hicks and W.C. Fields biographer James Curtis.

Cleese became known on campus for presenting eclectic rounds of public talks on topics ranging from human development and animal welfare to the works of W. Somerset Maugham. He delivered a sermon at Sage Chapel on his experience with religion, gave public readings and screenings of Python blockbusters and generally seemed to relish his role as "professor-at-large."

Adapted from Cornell University Chronicle

Happiness Is...

... for idiots.

-- Charles de Gaulle

... And We Shouldn't Call It "Child Rearing," Either

"Even if [the dad] drops the kid and he cracks his head, at least he'll be heterosexual. A small price to pay."

-- Research psychologist Joseph Nicolosi encouraging his followers to engage in manly activities with their male children.