So I was trying to rest a few days ago and reading the small-town newspaper from cover to cover because it was handy. There was an insert with an article interviewing various minor celebrities and asking them what their favorite romantic book was. One woman said "Elizabeth Barrett Browning's poems." Fine selection, and better than the drivel everyone else had selected, except then she went on to say, "I don't know whether she ever met the guy or what, but they're just so romantic blah blah blah."

OK, I realize some people slept through that part of English Lit and don't know that Elizabeth Barrett wrote those poems to Robert Browning and they eloped and lived happily ever after. But really, I would think someone with a modicum of interest in the writing might, say, read the flyleaf and find out the back story. Do people have no curiosity anymore? What good is the information age if people have no interest in the information?

Or maybe it's the overload of information itself that destroys all curiosity. I certainly feel more curious about life when I'm cut off from the internet than after an hour of surfing. So time to go develop my curiosity. Maybe with a nice nap.