Beloit College has published their annual list, ostensibly to clue aging professors into the mindsets of their incoming freshman but, in reality, as Slublog notes, to make us all feel old.
What’s particularly striking about this year’s list is how incredibly lame it is. Indeed, some of the items could have appeared on a list ten years older. Johnny Carson? Or even Jack Nicholson’s Joker, which was a golden oldie by the time these kids were old enough to watch the movies.
These, I suppose, are mildly interesting:
- Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.
- Rap music has always been mainstream.
- Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
- High definition television has always been available.
Some that I’ve been using awhile but that don’t appear on the list:
- They have no idea that there was once another “President Bush.”
- The phrase “Good night, John Boy” has no meaning to them.
These don’t quite fit the format but are nonetheless in the spirit of the list:
- Desert Storm is further in the past now than Vietnam was when we were in school.
- The show “Happy Days” is further in the past now than the 1950s, which it portrayed nostalgically, were then.
