When Beloit College started its Mindset List in 1998, its creators could not have imagined how it would catch on.
It all started as a "witty way of saying to faculty colleagues 'watch your references,' " as the Mindset website notes. Yes, the list has its own site and the lofty, trademarked title: "The official home of the Mindset Lists of American History."
The site boasts more than a million hits a year, myriad requests and reprints in print and digital publications. There's even a book, by Mindset's Ron Nief and Tom McBride, that rounds up the wisdom of the last decade-plus in Mindset Lists.
GALLERY: Mindset List 2016
Here are some highlights from that first list published in 1998 that caught the public's imagination, addressing children born in 1980. They graduated from college in 2002:
-- They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
-- Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
--They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
Now, take a look at a gallery from the list published today, highlighting the top 10 from Mindset List 2016. And, below, here are a few more from the 2016 roundup to make you think:
-- Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
-- Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
-- There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.
--They were too young to enjoy the 1994 World Series, but then no one else got to enjoy it either.
ALSO:
Diana Nyad ends fourth try at 103-mile ocean swim
The best and worst party schools, as per Princeton Review
We're going to Mars again? InSight on Mars beats out a trip to Titan
It all started as a "witty way of saying to faculty colleagues 'watch your references,' " as the Mindset website notes. Yes, the list has its own site and the lofty, trademarked title: "The official home of the Mindset Lists of American History."
The site boasts more than a million hits a year, myriad requests and reprints in print and digital publications. There's even a book, by Mindset's Ron Nief and Tom McBride, that rounds up the wisdom of the last decade-plus in Mindset Lists.
GALLERY: Mindset List 2016
Here are some highlights from that first list published in 1998 that caught the public's imagination, addressing children born in 1980. They graduated from college in 2002:
-- They have no meaningful recollection of the Reagan era, and did not know he had ever been shot.
-- Black Monday 1987 is as significant to them as the Great Depression.
--They never had a polio shot, and likely, do not know what it is.
Now, take a look at a gallery from the list published today, highlighting the top 10 from Mindset List 2016. And, below, here are a few more from the 2016 roundup to make you think:
-- Exposed bra straps have always been a fashion statement, not a wardrobe malfunction to be corrected quietly by well-meaning friends.
-- Women have always piloted war planes and space shuttles.
-- There have always been blue M&Ms, but no tan ones.
--They were too young to enjoy the 1994 World Series, but then no one else got to enjoy it either.
ALSO:
Diana Nyad ends fourth try at 103-mile ocean swim
The best and worst party schools, as per Princeton Review
We're going to Mars again? InSight on Mars beats out a trip to Titan