I wasn’t a NYC’er, but I did move here four years ago from the East Coast, and I like Madison, a LOT. But there are some things that take getting used to!

Madison is mostly wonderful, and the people in it are mostly wonderful. It certainly isn’t “cow town”. People here are well-read and well-dressed. (Although there’s that whole guys-wearing-white-tube-socks-with-khakis-and-black-dress-shoes thing. Please, stop.)

I’ve discovered a few things: (1) Madisonians walk pretty slowly, especially when on State Street or at Farmer’s Market. (2) They’re kinda frugal. And by “frugal”, I mean, “cheap”. The current firestorm is the fact that Sundance 608 is charging extra fees at their theater. (You’d have thought they were asking people for spare kidneys by the hue and cry of some folks.) And (3), when you leave the city of Madison, it really is a bit scary out there - lots of advertising, chain stores and Wal-martopias.

As for pop culture, it’s like having a sweet tooth - sometimes you want something that’s sweet and tasty with no nutritional value. But a steady diet of it would get you out of shape…

I hope that Madison is treating you well. There are many things to do in Madison that don’t involve watching tv. As you mentioned sports is fairly big in Madison with all of the university teams, the Madison Mallards, as well as our beloved Packers and Brewers.
But there are many other things to do in Madison including going to the Farmer’s Market, Art Fair on the Square, or Taste of Madison, all downtown during the Summer. How about catching a movie at the new Sundance 608 or spending a night at the Overture Center seeing a wonderful play. Don’t forget that Madison’s roads don’t go straight east to west because of a couple reasons. They’re called Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. Great spots for fishing (ice fishing too!!!), or boating, or even watching the 4th of July fireworks from the water.
Madison has many things to offer it’s residents. Even if it doesn’t have all of that advertising.

Uneducated Americans …

But that’s beside the point; if you missed it so what? I don’t think knowledge of sport or celebrity gossip is fundamental to having good social skills. The fundamental thing is an interest in the person you are talking to and tact and sensitivity. There are bound to be other small talk topics that you have in common if celebrity gossip or TV is not one of them. I also agree with Working Girl - you don’t need to keep up with celebrity goss, just listen politely when others tell you.

If you enjoy reading People go for it but I don’t think it’s true that you need to read it to connect with the ‘common people’. In fact, I think good literature is actually more useful. Reading Tolstoy or Steinbeck or Joyce might not give you something in common with regular folk but it will help you connect with people since it will expand your understanding of the human experience.

My wife reads People for fun and work (she’s a VP in the fashion biz) so I just ask her for a heads up. BTW did you know that Elliot Yasmin (American Idol 3rd place) had $50,000 worth of free dental work so he could sing and look even better? Neither did I.

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Laurence - Info like the dental work. I really like that. Now I know that dental work is going mainstream. This, of course, makes me look at my own teeth more closely. But really, all good reading makes us see ourselves differently :)

Penelope

If you want to read People, read People…but don’t try to justify it by saying you’re keeping in touch with the common folk.

If you think People is junk, then you’re free to think that without trying to give yourself intellectual credentials for hating it.

Far, far, far more people have cable than read People, so if you want to connect with “average” people, you’re better off with cable. Services like On Demand take care of the “we don’t want TV to take over our lives” problem.

If you want to connect with the pop culture of people under 35, a print subscription is not the way to do it, BTW. MySpace and LiveJournal are better bets. A quick look at these every couple months is worth the couple minutes it takes to register and log in.

Now we can all have something to talk about!

“More social skills advice: Read People magazine to gain a deeper understanding of regular people.”

I only hope that this is at least a little bit tongue-in-cheek, or that this is another quirky cultural divide like using race as a criteria in choosing your destination (foreign concept to me in Canada), or that you’re sorta playing devil’s advocate to drive traffic to a celeb-named post.

Perhaps the reason most people’s priorities are so messed up is because they actually believe that the lives represented in People are real, desireable and attainable on some level. If only they could work a little harder, and make a little more money, maybe they could look (and live) a bit more like the beautiful “people” in People. And then they could also purchase more of the products the celebs are shilling in the ads of the same magazine!

Garbage in, garbage out. If your mental space is loaded up with People, it will be reflected in who you are becoming, who you want to be attractive to (presumeably others who share that interest) and how you project yourself. Also, every minute spent immersing yourself in the vapid details of Brad and Angelina is a minute you can’t spend on making your own life more meaningful. That might seem pretentious, but look at the stats on watching TV (link is killing my comment, unfortunately) — that extra 28 hours a week could come in handy if you have some meaningful projects in mind (relationships, work, creativity, learning, fun, whatever).

That reminds me of something I forgot to put in my first comment — if you really want to connect with people, spend your time on real experiences in your community. Get out there and do stuff. Those are the things that people actually care about and want to talk about — their weekend ski trip at the local hill, the great find they made at the farmer’s market down the street, the gallery opening that blew their mind, a hot new restaurant downtown, their masters swim class at the pool…real engagement in real lives.

I spent more than a decade as a journalist, and I had to get over my snobbery/preference for certain topics or news sources and immerse myself in EVERYTHING in order to be effective at my job. Now that I have left journalism and am job-hunting in different fields, I’ve found that it helps to continually expose myself to the news and people who make up our culture. I’m working temporarily in a CPA firm, and while I know nothing about numbers, I have enough knowledge of the world to connect with my coworkers on other topics. Not to mention the clients who wait next to my desk for their appointments!

Bottom line: A well-rounded worker stays informed about all aspects of the world around her.