Vox on 'Pomp and Circumstance'

I opened last year's Bill Maher on commencements, past and future with both a reminiscence and a forecast.

A week ago today, I attended my college's Commencement ceremony, where I watched my students from the past few years get their degrees.  It was a wonderful experience, including the addresses by the student speaker and the former CEO of Garden Fresh.  I'll be back for next year's ceremony.

Commencement is today.  As promised, I'm going.  To celebrate, I'm sharing Vox's video Why every American graduation plays the same song.

We're all familiar with Pomp & Circumstance, the graduation song that's the official soundtrack of almost every commencement. But how did it get so big? In this episode of Vox's Almanac, Phil Edwards investigates and finds diamonds, war, and Dame Clara Butt.

Yes, I'll be hearing this march a lot today.  It's better than playing it, which I did for three years in high school.

I'll have something to say about the venue on Monday, as it will almost certainly be the last commencement held there.  In the meantime, stay tuned for "another alignment chart for another series nominated at the Saturn Awards on Sunday," as I wrote about in yesterday's 'Outlander' alignment chart.  Any guesses as to what the series might be?  Hint:  I posted about it this month but haven't posted an alignment chart for it before.  Write your answers in the comments!