What is Transition?

"Bechuanaland became Botswana. Bob Dylan went electric. Cape Canaveral became Cape Kennedy (and then, quickly, Cape Canaveral again). A young Maria Martinez Molina Baeza became "Charo." Dick Sargent replaced Dick York on Bewitched. Yes, the 1960s were a portentous time of upheaval and change. And trivia was in for a sea of change as well."

-One of the first things I ever remember specifically watching on television (besides my beloved children's programming) is a marathon on Nick-at-Nite pitting Bewitched against I Dream of Genie. I liked Bewitched better. So, understandably (or perhaps not), I was distressed to find out that there were two Darrin Stephens. This--the two actors who played Darrin--I think, was the first trivia fact I ever knew that I could readily identify as a trivia fact.

"Trying to talk wine with a Mormon is usually a conversational dead end. We're not much better on 'women' and 'song,' for that matter. And my 'Potent Potables' flash cards only covered mixed drinks."

This is at the end of a long passage along of the lines of what I was talking about earlier with specialization and my anachronistic position in the world:
"We live in an age of specialization, in which our educational and career choices force us into increasingly narrow niches. People ask me what I do in my day job as a software engineer, but their eyes glaze over if I actually try to answer. It's not just that it's a terribly nerdy, abstruse profession (though it is) or that I'm doing an especially boring job of explaining to them (though perhaps I am). It's just that they would need to take a handful of introductory college-level computer courses to grasp even the basic mechanics of what a programmer does all day. The same would be true if I tried to learn their jobs."

"It sounds Coke-jingle naive, but maybe if we shared more of the same general knowledge, the way we used to, then we wouldn't have so many of the communication breakdowns we see today--between individuals, between nations, between races or religions. If more of us enjoyed 'trivia'--that is, knowing a little bit about everything--we would know more about one another, and therefore might all get along better. That's one thing I'm starting to see about trivia. It's rewarding to know a lot of great facts, but that knowledge is almost pointless if those facts don't help you get to know a lot of great people as well."

-Awesome.