In a classic question by my Dad while reading a section on Tribute bands in the USA Today Life section, “which one of these guys is Freddie Mercury?” “Freddie Mercury has been dead for 20 years.” “He has?” Now for me this seems like pretty general knowledge that the lead singer from one of the top 25 rock bands of all time died from Aids. How you could have been alive since 1991 and not have had this little tidbit come up is astounding. After thinking about it for a few more moments, I began to think that maybe to someone who has no interest in music this could slip by. If you quizzed me on whether random politicians were dead or alive, I’m sure I’d look like a fool. Ted Kennedy? Yassar Arafat? It’s the same type of perception deal that comes along with most things. Just because you think it’s obvious because you know, doesn’t mean that everyone knows. JC couldn’t give one iota about music. I used iota, which is a very small quantity, because we were playing golf and the word jiffy was used, which is a very short time. To me it’s just one of those things that one of your goals in life is to gather (and retain) as much information as possible. In a sense you could say this post was used to call out my dad, but in reality it’s to point out that we’re all human beings and know things we care about.
Leave a Reply