I've been seeing this article being passed around quite a bit the last few days:
Isn't Sinead O’Connor Overdue A Massive, Groveling Apology From Absolutely Everybody? It raises some excellent points, none of which I want to get into here. Mostly, it just made me think of watching that episode of SNL when it happened, and how completely clueless I was about popular culture at the time. I became media aware fairly at a fairly late age, being the typical reclusive geek all my life. SNL was one of the shows I consciously watched not so much because I liked it, but because I knew I needed to start understanding references better. I wasn't even really paying attention when she ripped up the photo, since the music guests usually bored me. I mostly remember being a bit confused about why Sandra Day O'Connor was singing on SNL. Yes, I confused the singer for the supreme court justice. I didn't even recognize the photo at the time, I didn't realize what had happened until news stories about it the next couple of days. As an obnoxiously militant little atheist, I mostly just thought it was all pretty cool. I didn't even pay attention to the why she had done it -- I think I thought it was some Ireland Protestant/Catholic thing.
So, yeah, I guess my main response boils down to: I used to be a real dork.