The cultural legacy of The Dance is in fact more around death, but the death of a loved one rather than any American president or civil rights icon. I actually find it hard to listen to because I so strongly associate it with funerals.

The Dance is an all time great but has this corny music video about the "alternative interpretation" of the song being about dying for a dream, with footage of MLK and the crew of the Challenger and JFK. Which, ok, it was the nineties, but then there's also John Wayne? And a bull rider??

But the lesser known "The Night I Called the Old Man Out" tells the story of an abusive father earning the respect of his young son with the line "The blood came from my mouth and nose, but the tears came from his eyes" - uh??

And things get unhinged in other ways. Everyone remembers That Summer and may have raised an eyebrow when they first paid attention to the lyrics ("I watched her hands of leather turn to velvet in a touch" is certainly a memorable line).

Incredible pop sensibility of course, even on tracks that weren't hits. But #90scountry could really lay the melodrama on thick. Multiple variations on the theme of "woman loses her mind after she finds her husband died/cheated on her/etc" #garthbrooks

I expected you to say pedigree was becoming even less important, and I would've believed it. I don't claim to know either way, but the ex-big tech wariness has always been real, and the vibes seem to have shifted away from the name brand schools, but so much is probably context dependent.

Imagine finding definitive proof of intelligent life only to know there's no way to send a message and get a response in fewer than 240 years.

Referencing alternative history PhD thesis, "Votes, Vinegar, and Validity: A Sociolegal Analysis of German Potato Salad as Electoral Credential"