talking^2

Some medical students had no idea who Henry Kissinger was. Nor had they heard of Lou Gossett Jr. Another didn't recognize the abbreviation WS in an IMing context about baseball. An engineer wasn't familiar with the concept of "sampling" in reference to music, even when they proclaimed to be a hip hop and RnB fan.

Maybe it's the way I use language, assuming that everyone else is on a similar wavelength - able to understand analogies, or at least able to pretend. I'm afraid of blank stares. They make me self conscious. Did I say something stupid? Do I have a boogie? Am I that weird?

Am I focusing on the trivial? recognize bits of superficial information because that's the way my brain works. I remember a lot of things that I should not and very little of the things that I should. This doesn't make me a better person, or even more "well-rounded." It just gives me shit to bs about. Furthermore, not knowing these things shouldn't detract from someone's character or their personal enjoyment of the world. My doctor needs to know about thoracic surgery, not how to sustain rural development in the Sahara. My accountant doesn't need to know which Mariah song sampled the Talking Heads.

I didn't mean to single out specific peoples or professions. Is there a point to knowing useless facts? Few of us will aspire to compete on Jeopardy, but doesn't it feel good to be "in" on the knowledge, or at least part of the conversation? Beyond Trivial Pursuit skills, maybe these factoids are solely fodder for the talking heads. Social memes as currency for pleasant exchanges of nothingness among acquaintances. Shooting the proverbial shit.

wednesday banality

-Found this article fascinating. Some Ivy profs studied NBA data and determined there are racial disparities in when refs dish out fouls. It must be the economic veins, because I don't even like basketball.

-A "The Simpsons" themed ride is being built to replace the "Back to the Future" ride at Universal Studios. Is BttF not current anymore? Has a younger generation replaced our childhood love for Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and Lea Thompson? Are these actors irrelevant in today's Hollywood? Maybe so. Similarly, do you remember when TV-Land only showed The Andy Griffith Show, Golden Girls and other old-timey howdy-doody shows? Well, I found myself watching White Men Can't Jump on the Dish Network Channel 106 and realized...shit maybe I am old. I also have a taste for bad movies.

-Your mother's an astronaut.

*edit, one more link: if we could all serve our country like these men.