It is absolutely amazing to me how many people I encounter who do not know HOW TO LOOK STUFF UP. Reference works are a mystery to them. I have lost count of how many magazine articles and books, both fiction and non-fictional, have contained simply correctable factual errors.

Movies and comic books have added to the mess. Apparently if something is supposed to be "merely entertainment", then it has no part in informing the audience, despite the fact that modern movie makers and comic book manufacturers are very well aware of just how much attention their words and images receive from the fans and the non-fans alike. In some cases people have modelled their entire mythos, ethos, porthos and Aramis on movies or trilogies of same. The music, the set decorations, the clothing, even the way people speak and hold themselves, all of these have influenced folks who you would really expect to be intelligent enough to make their own choices. Yet, maybe they have been.

Okay, rebellion and just plain boredom can lead to picking a style or a lifestyle that goes against the grain of normality, but anyone with a modicum of street smarts should have enough sense to do a little fact-checking.

"You analyze things too much!", "You think too much!", and "Why can't you just enjoy it for what it is?" are all things that have been said to me over and over. I am very easily overwhelmed by images and patterns and data. I have had to learn to focus and to sharpen my choices over the years and that means a lot of dross has had to be tossed from my brain. It also means that there is a lot of what is considered to be "useless data" or "trivia" floating around in my brain that people find irritating unless they really want to know something and I happen to remember it.

I know it's possible for other people to feel overwhelmed by the things that I am comfortable with. I can accept that. What I can't accept is stupidity in the guise of erudition and ignorance in the face of reality. When a grown person can't pick up a dictionary or an encyclopedia or access a search engine in order to make the viewer's or the listener's life easier, then I wonder what else in their life they are ignoring and how many other parts of their brain they are refusing to use.