Pausched On

Randy Pausch, the doomed Carnegie Mellon professor who actually got Oprah Winfrey to shut up for 10 minutes, has died of pancreatic cancer at 47. Pausch delivered his famed “Last Lecture” in 2007, soon after learning he had 6 months to live, and then kept delivering it everywhere, including a shortened and uninterrupted version on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Like most lectures, this one didn’t tell anyone anything they didn’t already know – in this case, that you’re going to die, so you might want to do something with your life before you do, thus imparting that hoary, weepy life lesson about accomplishment that has everyone pledging to be better people, to play catch with their dad, to fish with their grandfather and go to Rome to learn Italian and paint sunsets, until they get home, flop on the couch and see that a Roseanne marathon is on Nickelodeon. The shame is that Pausch was a gifted computer programmer and professor and was a pioneer in virtual reality work, but will be instead be confused with the dead guy from Tuesdays with Morrie. At least he scored an invite to Steelers’ training camp and a Star Trek cameo out of the deal.