Saturday was Berry College's December commencement. As with most other graduations, I rented the obligatory faculty graduation regalia. Having plunked down some $45 you'd think I would actually attend graduation. Well--don't tell the provost--I didn't go. Why not? Because I was up to me ears grading the overly-long final exams that I inflicted on my poor students (and myself!). (Ask one of them--I'm sure he'll agree.) But what about the graduation monkey suit? It's a SUNK COST; no matter how I chose to allocate my Saturday afternoon, I couldn't get back the $45. So when 2:00 Saturday rolled around I had to decide how to best allocate the next two hours of my life; to my students chagrin I chose to grade exams.

There is another economic dimension to this discussion--the rent buy/decision for the graduation regalia. Here, I deserve an F. Paying $45 two times a year to rent will cost me more, even after accounting for the time value of money, than forking over $400 or so to buy a get-up of my own.

Tip to student readers: The two paragraphs above would make nice test or hw problems next semester.

ADDENDUM: Here's Neal Boortz's commencement address; I suspect it will remain undelivered for quite awhile.