More examples of how speakers and writers presume background knowledge on the part of their audience.
1) In a recent New York Time Op-Ed column, Gail Collins wrote “If the Obama brain trust seems relatively serene compared with its seething base, it’s because they live in the Electoral College world, where the presidential race only takes place in a third of the country. They don’t care about national polls – a concept as quaint as measuring one’s wealth by caribou pelts.” What is the Electoral College? Explain why would “living in an Electoral College world” make Obama unconcerned with national polls?
2) “Catch a look at next year’s spring men’s wear and you might find yourself saying, ‘What the Dickens?’” wrote fashion writer Patrick Huguenin in the New York Daily News. In a review of Fashion Week in New York, he described “roguish ensembles that call to mind the scrappy urchins of a Charles Dickens novel” and labeled the new look “Oliver Twisted.” Explain the reference.
3) Supporters of Barack Obama have been wearing this button:
Why do you think the creator of this button thought this would be an effective message? Justify your answer based on what you know about the personal histories of the presidential candidates, their running mates, and their political parties.
My mother says she had second thoughts about not sending me to Sunday school when, well into my teens, she made a comment about Pontius Pilate washing his hands, and I asked “Who was Pontius Pilate?”
If you think the wording in your question #3 is “open,” look again!
Jesus of Nazareth was a carpenter. The button is asinine.
Everyone likes to talk about religion and politics.
I find it more entertaining that #2 is almost definitely based on recognition of the depiction of those “urchins” in movies, rather than a description in a novel.