St. Olaf's has a supreme reputation, especially for choral achievement.

What was disturbing--and sad--to me in my student's comment was all the 'good' music had 'cuss words.' It was disturbing that for this one boy, in the entire, rich world of popular music with all its various form of garbs, that for him (at least for him) he could not look forward to a music celebration because he could take no good music to school. And I began to wonder why in this child's experience all of the pop artists he knew and admired used profanity? Think about it. Suppose someone here wanted to get permission from Anu--all of us--to put together a book for high school students, say about communication over the Internet--and then decided to scrap the project because all the good threads had profanity in them.

Maybe this student is drawn to popular music that has 'cuss words' because something in his make-up is drawn to what is forbidden. Maybe. But perhaps the problem is profanity is part and parcel of pop music. Since I don't follow pop music [well, I am a Dixie Chicks fan and their music is sometimes controversial]--the music parties are where I get my brief exposure--I do wonder. About the state of language in that world.

An aside: My father's favorite hummingbird is back. Boss Hog. He's the hummingbird that fights off all the rest from the feeders on the farm. Oh, I realize it's a different Boss Hog every year, but we like to pretend it's the same aggressive male. Anyway, yesterday I dropped by Barnes and Noble and bought Seals & Crofts from 1972--"Summer Breeze"--just for the "Hummingbird" cut. Hadn't heard it in years. Still exciting and good to hear. I don't think it had any profanity, but.