Cultural Literacy

This morning, I happened upon a list of Billboard’s top ten albums for this week. When I saw recordings by Akon, Daughtry, Joss Stone, etc., I asked myself who are these people, and what happened to the Kingston Trio?

Sometimes, I couldn’t tell right off which was the performer and which was the name of the recording (e.g Good Charlotte connected with Good Morning Revival). It was only when I saw that old stand-by Elton John with his album Rocket Man: Number Ones that I found a sure guide to the listings.

On another front, I understand there has been buzz recently about something called American Idol, a television show of some sort. Does anyone actually watch this program? Then, I visited Entertainment Weekly and couldn't find a familar face. Doesn't that up-and-coming young actor Harrison Ford make movies anymore?

Across the Internet’s digital waves, I hear you saying this guy needs to get out more. So, what if most of my favorite movies came out more than 40 years ago? I also freely admit to not listening to much popular music after 1972— the Eagles are a new group, aren’t they?

What I am leading up to here is that we all need to brush up on our knowledge of culture. To remedy the gaps in our educations, I recommend daily visits to the

New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, where one should begin to commit the contents to memory-- I know memorization is considered passe’. Readers will thus be enlightened about such terms as positivism, tabula rasa, cytoplasm, and the domino theory. I'll give you a hint--the last one has nothing to do with pizza.

As for Justin Timberlake, just Google him if you must.