Live Long and Prosper

I continue to contemplate my stranglehold on the youth market. Things are even dicier than I expected. In today's class, I discovered that one half of my undergraduates HAVE NEVER SEEN AN EPISODE OF STAR TREK. (I include the guy who has seen exactly one episode thanks to his "Star Trek friend." As was probably inevitable, the episode he did see was the one in which Spock has to hurry back to his home planet for saucy purposes.) It was a relief, then, when one student made a reference to the Kubrick version of THE SHINING and everyone got it. More heartening still: one undergrad - mere hours earlier - had been watching THE SHINING with his morning coffee. A bracing way to start the day! And to conclude with the best news possible, my Wile E. Coyote reference was met with universal understanding and good cheer. I am slowly, slowly working my way up to Arnold Stang.