Nick Perovich wrote:

>Steve Schwartz, commenting on the ignorance regarding the arts of even
>those presumed to be well educated:
>
>>I've just had an argument with an old friend about whether 'twas ever
>>thus.  I tend to think so.  What strikes me as new, however, is that
>>these days, most people have no embarrassment at all about their own
>>ignorance.

I am reminded of some tapes I have of an old radio show..."It Pays to be
Ignorant."

>It would be interesting to see some research on this.  While it doesn't
>count as research, I can remember how amazed I was, when browsing through
>middlebrow magazines (e.g., TIME) from the 1950's: the amount of space
>devoted to covering classical music was astonishing.  ...

 From my reading, it wasn't just the coverage classical music got...
remember the issue of Life which featured a piece by Copland...but the
level of the writing.

Karl