I bet Graves's lecture involved his idiosyncratic takes on mythology. A colleague knew a chemistry professor who was seated beside Clint Eastwood at an award dinner and asked what he did. Eastwood said "I mostly direct films" and the prof replied "sorry, but that doesn't sound very interesting."

I sat next to Dave Attell at funeral in the 1990s and I think I was patronizing about his cute goal of being a comedian