Max Power

@Endall I think I understand where you are coming from, but for me, the issue isn’t that people don’t “know” things, but rather that they know a ton about things like pop culture and sports to the exclusion of other knowledge. I found some of this puzzle somewhat difficult because I’m not American, have never watched a lot of tv or movies, don’t listen to pop music, and don’t follow sports (US or otherwise). A co-worker of mine easily solved those clues, because he is a walking encyclopedia of pop culture are US sports knowledge, whereas he couldn’t name the primary belligerents in WW2. He can’t point to Spain on an unmarked map. He knows nothing about music recorded prior to about 1998, let alone basic music theory. Has never read a single book, let alone anything that could be classified as literature or a “classic”. Can recite the menu of every fast food chain in the US or Canada, drinks a six pack of soda per day, but otherwise knows nothing about food or cuisine. In the context of playing a game like a crossword puzzle, all knowledge has equal weight. But for societies, having an incredible depth of knowledge about pop culture at the expense of other types of knowledge is problematic.

@HeathieJ I agree with that completely, and that was even something I tried to convey in my post. I have no issue with pop culture, and I am no kind of elitist. I knew the Seinfeld reference as well, can also quote most of the Princess Bride, and most of the first 10 seasons of the Simpsons to boot (I’m a gen Xer). I wouldn’t be able to function very well socially if I didn’t have some baseline knowledge of pop culture. For better or worse, it binds us like shared experiences and shapes our collective consciousness. My specific argument was that having a deep knowledge of pop culture and nothing else is an issue. I would even argue that if a person was utterly ignorant of other forms of knowledge (for instance, history or science), they would be better to have no knowledge of pop culture at all, as they would lack the framework to parse that flood of unfiltered content. Pop culture doesn’t demand any great degree of critical thinking from us, only that we consume it - which is absolutely fine when it’s consumed as a diversion. Pop culture is to society as junk food is to nutrition. The exception I took with the OP’s post was his implication that crosswords should be above pop culture knowledge. But I do agree with his view that the glorification of pop culture is detrimental to our society. Our memories and time both being in limited supply means that for most of us, the more of that kind of knowledge we retain, the less of everything else there will be.