Comments | elfwreck: Cultural Literacy meme

elfwreck

Cultural Literacy meme

Nov 26, 2007 22:02

Fifty random items from the book, Cultural Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know, by E.D. Hirsch Jr. (Non-Americans may not need to know these things. They are welcome to play along, and to feel superior for knowing them anyway ( Read more... )

memes

Comments 23

firefly124 November 27 2007, 12:16:43 UTC

Fewer strikethroughs than I would have expected. Was 1066 supposed to be part of the list?

1. V-E Day
2. brinkmanship
3. pluralism
4. schizophrenia
5. nuclear energy
6. King Lear (title)
7. adrenal gland
8. continental shelf
9. Lot's wife
10. Revelation, The Book of
11. Fall of Rome
12. Asia
13. Young Turk
14. rob Peter to pay Paul
15. Library of Congress
16. Preamble to the Constitution
17. Alcott, Louisa May
18. pronoun
19. medium is the message., The
20. Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
21. cold-blooded
22. bishop
23. existentialism
24. movement, symphonic
25. rhetoric
26. Little Women (title)
27. Sturm und Drang
28. asteroid belt
29. Rembrandt van Rijn
30. nucleus (cellular)
31. colon (:)
32. mononucleosis
33. Hermes (Mercury)
34. equal protection of the laws
35. Norman Conquest
36. refraction
37. isomer
38. supernova
39. Rubicon, cross the
40. Volstead Act
41. Calder, Alexander
42. gay rights
43. sadism
44. Vienna
45. Lake Ontario
46. Magellan, Strait of
47. Navaho Indians
48. Descartes, Rene
49. MX Missile ( ... )

My parents would be ashamed by the lack of bold pjvj November 27 2007, 13:08:34 UTC

1. V-E Day
2. brinkmanship
3. pluralism
4. schizophrenia
5. nuclear energy
6. King Lear (title)
7. adrenal gland
8. continental shelf
9. Lot's wife
10. Revelation, The Book of
11. Fall of Rome
12. Asia
13. Young Turk
14. rob Peter to pay Paul
15. Library of Congress
16. Preamble to the Constitution
17. Alcott, Louisa May
18. pronoun
19. medium is the message., The
20. Lightning never strikes twice in the same place.
21. cold-blooded
22. bishop
23. existentialism
24. movement, symphonic
25. rhetoric
26. Little Women (title)
27. Sturm und Drang
28. asteroid belt
29. Rembrandt van Rijn
30. nucleus (cellular)
31. colon (:)
32. mononucleosis
33. Hermes (Mercury)
34. equal protection of the laws
35. Norman Conquest
36. refraction
37. isomer
38. supernova
39. Rubicon, cross the
40. Volstead Act
41. Calder, Alexander
42. gay rights
43. sadism
44. Vienna
45. Lake Ontario
46. Magellan, Strait of
47. Navaho Indians
48. Descartes, Rene
49. MX Missile
50. Natural Law

Re: My parents would be ashamed by the lack of bold elfwreck November 27 2007, 15:25:05 UTC

Rembrandt van Rijn, usually just called by his first name--famous for his paintings of nekkid wimmin pilgrims, or people who looked a lot like pilgrims to modern Americans.

Descartes was a philosopher, most known for his phrase, "Cogito Ergo Sum"--I think, therefore I am. (And, y'know, a bunch other philosopherese, but that's the one that made it into common knowledge, and the reason he's on the list (the big list, not the little excerpt I posted) and Kant and Hume aren't.)

Refraction is a way of bending light; "refractive tape" is the shiny rainbow stuff they make stickers out of. Which are usually done in little tiny fragments so you have rainbow-bits all over, instead of a single sheet where all the refractive lines are facing the same direction. (Apparently, many people think that's boring.) Instead, you get refractive stickers with little wedges, or grids, or wavy swirls. I have been in love with refraction for many, many years.

Am waiting for Droops to answer so he can tell me what the hell the Volstead Act is.

Re: My parents would be ashamed by the lack of bold pjvj November 27 2007, 15:41:27 UTC

I thought the Rembrandt one was a trick, not the painter, so I did a strikethrough since I couldn't google to see who (which?) Rembrandt it was. Of course, since I didn't know his full name I guess that deserves a strikethrough anyway.

Had I known Descartes was the "I think therefore I am" I could have bolded that one, all I knew was "a philosopher".

Refraction - that was an error. I know refraction in terms of vision and eyeglasses that correct it and I could do a *long* post on that.
=============

I thought it was an odd mix of a list - mononucleosis and asteroid belt and brinkmanship - I wonder what was his criterion?

Re: My parents would be ashamed by the lack of bold elfwreck November 27 2007, 17:19:42 UTC

I figured it was something like that. "Oh, that Rembrandt!" and "that philosopher." (I couldn't have given Rembrandt's full name, but I recognized it when I saw it.)

The full list is just under 5,000 items. Do you know how hard it is to take a "random" sampling from an alphabetical list of 5,000?

Thread 15

brock_tn November 27 2007, 17:03:41 UTC

pjvj November 27 2007, 17:28:19 UTC

(show off)

brock_tn November 27 2007, 17:54:48 UTC

I suspect that I've been at this rather longer than you have. That does make a difference.

pjvj November 27 2007, 18:05:55 UTC

LOL. And you are being too kind. I have forgotten a great deal that I was taught as most of the above I did learn in school. You've put greater effort at remembering along with your already good memory. Me, I remember the details of my A&P classes I took 20 odd years ago and other weird stuff.

Thread 7