Mike Leghorn responds to me:

>>What strikes me as new, however, is that these days, most people have no
>>embarrassment at all about their own ignorance.
>
>I confess, I don't know Richard Wilbur, Robert Hayden, Jane Kenyon, ...
>
>I'm not embarrassed about this, and I don't consider my lack of familiarity
>with this to be ignorance.

Of course it's ignorance, and of course you're not embarrassed by it.
But then neither is anyone else.  But there was a time, a few decades
ago when people would have been embarrassed and would have done something
to find out.

>There is more culture available than any one person can appreciate.
>It's not every individual's duty to appreciate every work of genius
>in every medium and field.

I disagree.  Everything I don't know is my lack.  Also, I happen to enjoy
"hard stuff."  I don't listen entirely out of duty.  Furthermore, there's
*less* culture out there.  The commercial culture plows everything else
under.  I'm not saying all commercial culture is crap, but it *is*
limited.

>However, while I'm on this planet, I'm going to try to absorb and
>appreciate all that I can (it's so much fun!).

Exactly.

>Ok Steve, here's a challenge to you: Do you enjoy watching "The Simpsons"?

Yes, and Family Guy and The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius and
Futurama reruns.  I just saw The Incredibles.  Two opposable thumbs up.

Steve Schwartz