goodbye to the gekko

Today was the last day of classes for my first semester at USC. (Tomorrow is technically the last day of classes for those of you keeping tabs on absolute accuracy.) Amazing how it's blown by.

It was also the last day of class with The Gekko. Oh how I'll miss his spiffy suits. He didn't wear one today, either, which was sort of disappointing. He is the most likeable conservative on the planet, I'm convinced. He's completely self-aware and plays it to his class. He also teaches for free (donates his salary to charity). He also said something today that made me feel like we were kindred spirits (ironically, though the connection isn't). In telling some story about something I can't recall, he said that coming from the east coast he'd thought of the ultimate oxymoron as the L.A. bookstore (i.e. people in L.A. don't read and therefore don't need bookstores). My sentiments exactly! The number of bookstores I know of can be counted on one hand. Which is why, in some ways, it's quite ironic that Borders is the big anchor for the Sunset/Vine shopping complex.