Cultural Literacy

[Henry Musikar]

From: Neat New Stuff I Found This Week
http://marylaine.com/neatnew.html     
Copyright, Marylaine Block, 1999-2005. 

"Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, 3rd Edition" http://www.bartleby.com/59/
Over 6,900 common cultural allusions, explained and searchable. As E.D.
Hirsch pointed out, when readers don't understand the cultural allusions
writers use, the text becomes meaningless for them.  Would you understand an
article about politics if you had no idea what people mean by  "lame duck,"
"entitlements," "NIMBY," "pork-barrel," "split ticket," etc.?

Henry Mu