Not long ago The Washington Post held a contest that was pretty simple, yet, profound. Take a famous line from literature and re-write it in a way someone from LA and under 40 would understand.
I think it explains a lot about America today. (I won't mention Palin or Bush or the people who think "I'd like to have a beer with him/her" is a criterion for choosing a person to be the leader of the "free" world.)
John Donne: "Never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."
LA under 40: "Ding dong. It's for you."
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Jane Austen: "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."?
LA under 40: "Everybody knows that a rich single dude wants to be married. Not."
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Psalm 52: "Thy tongue devised mischief's; like a sharp razor, working deceitfully. Thou loves evil more than good; and lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah. Thou loves all devouring words, O thou deceitful tongue."?
LA under 40: "Liar, liar, pants on fire!"
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Edgar Allan Poe: "A feeling, for which I have no name, has taken possession of my soul — a sensation which will admit of no analysis, to which lessons of by-gone times are inadequate and for which I fear futurity itself will offer me no key.
LA under 40: "I am soooo wasted."
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William Shakespeare: "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears."
LA under 40: "Hey, YO! Up here."
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Shakespeare: "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more."
LA under 40: "Life sucks and then you die."
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Shakespeare: "Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate."
LA under 40: "You're hotter than Miss July!"
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