How Elite Are You?

A few days ago, Charles Murray of the Washington Post, who I have to assume is the definition of "elite," posted a boring old post about the out-of-touch elite, basically touching on every old, hackneyed cliche while doing so. But, because the internet is awesome, Claire Berniski made a quiz out of it, to which Kevin Drum responded, and hey, I'm game:

1. Can you talk about "Mad Men?" Yes.

2. Can you talk about the "The Sopranos?" Yes.

3. Do you know who replaced Bob Barker on "The Price Is Right?" Drew Carey, right?

4. Have you watched an Oprah show from beginning to end? Nope.

5. Can you hold forth animatedly about yoga? No.

6. How about pilates? No.

7. How about skiing? I guess yes - not sure what hold forth animatedly is - but I ski, and like it, so ...yes?

8. Mountain biking? No.

9. Do you know who Jimmie Johnson is? Yes. (This is a NASCAR driver, not the ex-coach, Survivor contestant...who I also know.)

10. Does the acronym MMA mean anything to you? Yes.

11. Can you talk about books endlessly? Yes.

12. Have you ever read a "Left Behind" novel? No.

13. How about a Harlequin romance? No.

14. Do you take interesting vacations? Yes. (Although, it must be said - before I had a kid.)

15. Do you know a great backpacking spot in the Sierra Nevada? No.

16. What about an exquisite B&B overlooking Boothbay Harbor? No. I don't even know where Boothbay Harbor is.

17. Would you be caught dead in an RV? Yes - in fact, my wife tells me we shall spend some retirement time in said RV.

18. Would you be caught dead on a cruise ship? Yes, but ideally only to Alaska. Otherwise, I'd prefer not to.

19. Have you ever heard of of Branson, Mo? Yes.

20. Have you ever attended a meeting of a Kiwanis Club? No.

21. How about the Rotary Club? No.

22. Have you lived for at least a year in a small town? Well, I grew up in a town of 6,000 - but I don't think that counts, and since it's a suburb of San Francisco, I doubt it counts so ... no.

23. Have you lived for a year in an urban neighborhood in which most of your neighbors did not have college degrees? I think so - Hyde Park in Chicago should count. But, how the hell do I know what my neighbors do?

24. Have you spent at least a year with a family income less than twice the poverty line? No.

25. Do you have a close friend who is an evangelical Christian? No.

26. Have you ever visited a factory floor? Yes.

27. Have you worked on one? No.

OK, so as Drum mentions, you have to know how to accurately score this. But, if I'm scoring correctly, my "elite" score is: 14/27, or 51.8%.

By the way, how great is the internet that there was already a picture out there of specifically this number?

I think that makes me only partially an elite, and one that feels that it's not quite fair to ding me for not reading Left Behind or Harlequin romances - that's not solely out of distaste for the subject matter, but such quibbling is going to peg me as even more hopelessly elite, I suspect.

So, how elite are YOU?