# Help me compile the ultimate refresher course for my good friend Steve
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [April 9, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733 "2014-04-09T17:07:44Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/21 "2014-04-10T06:44:40Z")
Oh man. I think you’re going to have to give up on the idea that Steve is ever going to be fully caught up to the modern world, unless he has years to devote to the project. Best bet would be to get some of those 20th century retrospective works that were produced around the turn of the century and get him started on those.
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/22 "2014-04-10T07:05:05Z")
I’ve been alive exactly 3 months longer than Steve, but not (totally) frozen.
Steve, chill. Nothing important has happened. Except:
The Cold War
The Beatles
Viet Nam
The moon landings
Martin Luthor King and Barack Obama
Women’s and Gay Liberation
AIDS
Collapse of the Soviet Union
Digital music and movies
Computers
9/11
Other than these things, you can pretty much go back to sleep.
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### Author:  [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/23 "2014-04-10T07:29:04Z")
Chances are he hasn’t had pizza. So get him a pie, delivered.
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### Author:  [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/24 "2014-04-10T11:24:23Z")
I think he would find a copy of Alex Comfort’s [The Joy of Sex](http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Sex-Ultimate-Revised/dp/0307587789/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397128739&sr=8-1&keywords=the+joy+of+sex) instructive, and useful, on several levels.
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### Author:  [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/25 "2014-04-10T12:28:14Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#):
>
> Are there porn versions of these series?
>
> I think we need to show him a series programs to demonstrate the progressively greater freedoms artists have enjoyed over the last century. Lenny Bruce to George Carlin to … what would be the, er, um, seminal demonstration film for 21st century porn?
Just send him to YouPorn dot com. _"Here Steve, anything you want, from the amateur to the professional, catering to a wide variety of tastes, is available instantly, for free, in the privacy of your own home. But don’t click those_ **WANT TO FUCK TONIGHT??!** _pop-up ads. They’re a scam."_
It would be the equivalent of freezing him in ice for another 70 years. He’d never leave his room.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/26 "2014-04-10T14:49:31Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#):
>
> I think he would find a copy of Alex Comfort’s [The Joy of Sex](http://www.amazon.com/The-Joy-Sex-Ultimate-Revised/dp/0307587789/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397128739&sr=8-1&keywords=the+joy+of+sex) instructive, and useful, on several levels.
Pretty sure they had sex before 1945.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/27 "2014-04-10T14:51:08Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> I’ve been alive exactly 3 months longer than Steve, but not (totally) frozen.
>
> Steve, chill. Nothing important has happened. Except:
>
> The Cold War
> The Beatles
> Viet Nam
> The moon landings
> Martin Luthor King and Barack Obama
> Women’s and Gay Liberation
> AIDS
> Collapse of the Soviet Union
> Digital music and movies
> Computers
> 9/11
>
> Other than these things, you can pretty much go back to sleep.
You forgot the entire history of television.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/28 "2014-04-10T14:53:41Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Chances are he hasn’t had pizza. So get him a pie, delivered.
He has, however, had fondue and schawarma.
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/29 "2014-04-10T15:46:21Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Pretty sure they had sex before 1945.
Pretty sure Steve hasn’t.
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### Author:  [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/30 "2014-04-10T16:19:54Z")
Play Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire.”
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### Author:  [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/31 "2014-04-10T19:59:46Z")
Ooh ooh ooh!
National Geographic mags.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/32 "2014-04-10T21:13:59Z")
> [@silenus](#):
>
> Pretty sure Steve hasn’t.
I strongly suspect that Steve was more than just a little friendly with at least some of those long-legged USO dancers during his stint as a publicity focus.
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### Author:  [@ThisUsernameIsForbidden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThisUsernameIsForbidden)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/33 "2014-04-10T22:29:05Z")
Oh wait!
How about a library card?
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### Author:  [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/34 "2014-04-10T22:35:24Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Pretty sure they had sex before 1945.
My parents did . . . twice.
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### Author:  [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)
#### Post date: [April 10, 2014, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/35 "2014-04-10T22:45:36Z")
> [@Miller](#):
>
> Interesting detail: before he joined the military, Steve was in art school, learning illustration and earning money on the side writing and drawing for comic books. So, normally I’d say “Get that guy some Jack Kirby!” Except that raises some troubling existential questions for Cap. _Sandman_ comics should be safe enough - they’re from DC, after all.
You send him to read Jack Kirby _Sandman_? Really? I suspect even Jack Kirby fans forget about that one!
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### Author:  [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/36 "2014-04-11T01:25:30Z")
You know, Steve’s workmates include a Russian, a transdimentional alien, and an introverted scientist who never leaves his lab except when he’s hiding in the Amazon jungle. Who exactly is making all these pop culture references that Steve doesn’t get, and how are they not used to working with people who don’t know American pop culture by now? I’ve worked with people from other countries before, and never felt frustration that they hadn’t seen the same tv shows growing up that I had.
Realistically, the frustration should go the other way. Steve should be baffled that otherwise intelligent people who apparently graduated high school somehow don’t recognize common references to Shakespeare or the Bible. To say nothing of the blank stares he keeps getting when he looks Nick square in the eye and intones, “You’re a ha-a-a-ard man, McGee!”
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### Author:  [@Disgruntled\_Penguin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disgruntled_Penguin)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/37 "2014-04-11T02:02:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#):
>
> Okay, first of all, you shouldn’t hit him with too much all at once. Get him some DVDs to watch that kind of _ease_ him up toward the twenty-first century. Maybe some of the light-hearted musical-action-adventures of the lovely Dale Evans and her husband, Roy the Singing Cowboy. I’m sure he’ll get a laugh out of their bumbling sidekick Andy, as he drives Nellybell around the ranch, trying to keep up with them.
>
> A little sociological updating might be in order, so I’m sure he’ll enjoy watching a few episodes of Pastor Fred, as he gently explains to the children of this great nation that they are likeable for their intrinsic worth as human beings.
>
> Take him out for an evening of country rock and roastered chicken.
>
> For some straight-up ghost-hunting fun, you could introduce him to Scooby, Shaggy, and the whole gang of meddlin’ kids.
>
> I strongly recommend _against_ letting him waste his time with comic books.
Absolutely. Then after he is nice and relaxed you break out the Breaking Bad CD’s.
He can work out step 2 on his own.
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### Author:  [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/38 "2014-04-11T04:20:18Z")
“Steve” doesn’t just need the facts of all the history he’s missed, and all the technology he’s leapfrogged into. He needs to understand the attitudes of the 2010s, and be able to live with them.
"Steve’ needs to learn how to behave and work around people that were not considered fully human by many 1940s folks: women, minorities, different religious groups, immigrants, gays, handicapped, and people he would consider mentally ill (folks on meds for depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc.). Maybe “Steve” is a super-polite guy who can deal with all the diversity that the 21st Century workplace has and the 1940s workplace didn’t. “Steve” may have a problem with, for example, homosexuals, but he can learn that one does not express such opinions in 2014 if one wants to stay employed.
It can be done - some people are more enlightened than others. One of my high schools teachers was a retired Navy CPO and a WWII veteran. He called every male “Sir” and every female “Miss” or “Ma’am”. He wanted to be polite and respectful to everyone. It’s a great attitude, and a habit I’ve adopted myself. OTOH, he fought in the Pacific and kept using the term “Japs”, so nobody’s perfect.
I would suggest that, in addition to books and movies and magazine articles on the various rights movements since WWII, Steve have semi-private, but supervised, discussions with selected minority individuals to hear their life stories. Something like Una Persson’s SDMB thread on her journey transitioning from male to female. I can’t help but be sympathetic when I read her thread, and I hope “Steve” would see it the same way.
I’d be concerned that “Steve” has had more that a few complaints sent up to HR. His supervisor “Nick” must be furious.
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### Author:  [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 9:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/39 "2014-04-11T09:40:56Z")
“Ok, if this is really 2014, show me a picture of the US president in 2014…”
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### Author:  [@Superhal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superhal)
#### Post date: [April 11, 2014, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-compile-the-ultimate-refresher-course-for-my-good-friend-steve/685733/40 "2014-04-11T10:01:00Z")
If we’re talking simply events, wikipedia has articles for major events for years and decades, and this is further subdivided by category, e.g. the 70’s in the NFL, China in the 1980’s, etc.
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