02.20.09
Barack Obama: More Popular Than the Beatles
When I was in high school, I used to poll my classmates by questionnaire. I think some of it even got into our school paper, but it was usually just for my own curiosity, as I have long been a quantifier and list-maker. It was also an excuse to use the mimeograph machine, the smells of which are among any well-bred schoolboy’s fondest honest highs.
The topics were usually about “Favorite Songs” or “Favorite Albums” (I don’t recall having to explain to anyone what an album was, but maybe). Lots of Journey and Michael Jackson and Duran Duran, let’s say? Good times.
But as I saw this survey of heroes a while ago, I remembered that I had once asked many dozens of my schoolmates who they thought were the “greatest villains of all time” or somesuch. They were mostly thoughtful, as I recall, and returned to me their best assessments. In retrospect, I don’t know how useful such a survey was, but when I read that the President is now bigger than Jesus, the teenaged quality of the sentiment reminded me of those old polls.
And I guffawed in my mouth a little.
