Speaker promises not to be brief

Speakers often promise to keep their remarks brief, but this speaker warned the crowd he would go on for awhile. Eastern Virginia Medical School president Harry T. Lester opened a recent awards acceptance speech by noting that such speeches “generally come with some obligation to speak, and as many of you are aware, I am known for brevity. Not so this time.”

Why? The venue, the Economics Club of Hampton Roads, Va., “requires something with heft, what I call an adult speech,” Lester told the audience. “Not my style. But here I am, so to those who expected my usual, please get comfortable. And like the then-rector Dr. Clancy Holland told me when I first joined the EVMS Board of Visitors: ‘You might learn something.’”

That’s refreshingly old school, is it not?