Andy on pop culture:

The old idea used to be that intellectuals didn’t know what was going on in the other society — popular culture. Those scenes in early rock-and-roll movies were so dated now, where old fogies would hear rock and roll for the first time and start tapping their feet and say, “That’s catchy. What did you say you called it? ‘Rock and…roll?’ ” When Thomas Hoving, the director of the Metropolitan, talked about an exhibit there that included three busts of ancient Egyptian princesses, he referred to them offhandedly as “The Supremes.” Everybody was part of the same culture now. Pop references let people know that they were part of what was happening, that they didn’t have to read a book to be part of culture — all they had to do was buy it (or a record or a TV set or a movie ticket).