My good friend Jude Dobson reminded me of a college in the US that, since 1998, annually releases a list of cultural landmarks that shape the lives and perspectives of students entering this small Wisconsin college.

It’s meant to be a reminder to the professors of what the 18-year- olds coming into Beloit College in Wisconsin will be aware of.

Most students entering college this autumn were born in 1992, the year Queen Elizabeth declared an “Annus Horribilis.”

These students:

• Have never heard of “Happy Days”, “Family Ties” or the "Fresh Prince of Bel Air.”
• Email is just too slow, it’s all text, Twitter or Facebook and they seldom, if ever, use snail mail.
• John McEnroe has never played professional tennis.
• Clint Eastwood is better known as a director than as “Dirty Harry.”
• Korean cars have always been a staple on American highways.
• Fergie is a pop singer, not a princess.
• They never twisted the coiled phone handset wire aimlessly around their wrists while chatting on the phone.  
• They have never seen a canister of Kodachrome slides.
• They’ve never recognized that pointing to their wrists was a request for the time of day. They have cell phones so why do they need a watch?
• Czechoslovakia has never existed.
• Once they got through security, going to the airport has always resembled going to the mall.
• American companies have always done business in Vietnam.
• Nirvana is on the classic oldies station.
• Toothpaste tubes have always stood up on their caps.
• J.R. Ewing has always been dead and gone. Hasn’t he? 
• A purple dinosaur called Barney has always been more popular than Fred Flintstone and Barney Fife. 
• Beethoven has always been a good name for a dog.
• Having hundreds of cable channels but nothing to watch has always been routine.