A List Of Things Thrown Five Minutes Ago

THE SIMPSONS HAVE LITERALLY BEEN ON THE AIR THEIR ENTIRE LIVES: Today, Beloit College released its annual "mindset list" for its incoming freshman class, its annual attempt to make us feel really, really old by explaining what it means to have been born in 1987:

• Andy Warhol, Liberace, Jackie Gleason, and Lee Marvin have always been dead.
• Ferdinand Marcos has never been in charge of the Philippines.
• Bill Gates has always been worth at least a billion dollars.
• Pixar has always existed.
• They never saw the shuttle Challenger fly.

And while the folks at Baseball Primer have been working on their baseball-related list ("Neither Kansas City nor Milwaukee has made the playoffs in their lifetime", "They never had to wait till Sunday to read the batting averages for all the league's players", "No one has any reason to doubt that Japanese players can succeed in the majors," etc.), I figured we ought to expand on the pop cultural aspects of the list. To wit, for these freshmen born in 1987:

• George Michael and Annie Lennox have always been solo artists.
• America's Most Wanted and Cops have been on television their whole lives, and Law and Order has been on the air since they were toilet trained.
• Bruce Willis has only appeared in movies.
• Bob Barker has always had grey hair.
• Some edition of Star Trek always has been airing new episodes on television (until this May).

I suspect you'll be able to add to this list.