In his op-ed in the D today Alex Howe directs our attention to an amusing and intruiging factoid of the Internet: that Google has algorithmically crowned Dartmouth as the college non plus ultra. However, I take issue with Howe's unabashed revelry in that bankrupt cultural phenomenon known as irony, and his equivocating analysis of the adjectival use of the word "college."
As anyone with a sense of proportion and history knows, the Age of Irony started feeling its death-throes years ago, and the re-election of George W. Bush officially sounded its funereal knell. As a result, some profound shifts have occurred in our culture, especially as it its manifested in livery and language. For example: T-shirts supporting Haliburton in '04 could once be conceived to be funny. No longer -- they reflect (perpetuate?) reality just a little too painfully. In the same vain:
Two levels of hackneyed, bad irony don't make good irony. And three or more levels only makes for worse.
Using "college" as an adjective is never cool in any way.
The donning of (and, for that matter, failure ever to doff) trucker hats is likewise never cool in any way, and is acceptable only if the wearer can prove residence in a county with a population under 10,000. This is the undisputable rule.
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