Friday, November 18, 2011

I Must Be Getting Old

From the August 24th Chicago Tribune.

This year's incoming freshman class in college (we don't even want to think of the incoming high school freshmen) were mostly born around 1993. And there are many so-called cultural touchstones that they would not be old enough to remember. Every year, Wisconsin's Beloit College releases their Mindset List.

Here are some of the items on this year's list:

** Andre the Giant, River Phoenix, Frank Zappa and Arthur Ashe have always been dead.

** Ferris Bueller and Sloane Peterson could be their parents.

** There have always been at least two women on the US Supreme Court, and women have always commanded US Navy ships.

** "Don't touch that dial!"...What dial?

** Refer to LBJ and they might think you're talking about LeBron James.

** O.J. Simpson has always been looking for the killers of Nicole Simpson and Ronald Goldman.

** John Wayne Bobbitt has always slept with one eye open.

** McDonald's coffee has always had a warning not to spill it in your lap.

** "PC" has come to mean personal computer, not political correctness.

For full list go to chicagotribune.com/mindset.

We're Not Too Old, They're Too Young. --Cooter

2 comments:

Empoprises said...

Finally got around to subscribing to your history blog. I can add a few:

Other "always been dead" people: Lyle Alzado, Sam Kinison, Roger Miller, Robert Reed, Mary Wells.

There is no such thing as a "Communist bloc" or an "Iron Curtain" or a "Berlin Wall." Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have always been independent.

There have always been at least four over-the-air commercial television networks, and sometimes as many as six. Anyone who refers to "three networks" obviously can't count.

Yasser Arafat has always been a moderate, opposing violent hard-line groups.

Countries from the past: Czechoslovakia, Rhodesia, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, and (for college seniors) Zaire.

Will Smith has always been an actor, although he occasionally releases records as a solo singer. "Fresh Prince" is the name of a TV sitcom character, not of one member of a rapping duo.

Jesse Ventura has always been a politician or conspiracy theorist. Oh, and he was an announcer for some sport or another.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have never played in a World Series.

John Elway has won every Super Bowl in which he has played.

RoadDog said...

It always amazes me when I'm in a bar and read one of those signs saying you can't order alcohol unless you were born before that day's date. They now read 1990!!

I was already 39 back then and still not holding. Shoot, these kids could "almost" be my grandchildren.

You gave some more interesting stuff. Thanks.