Today was a beautifully, crisp, sunny day in Cambridge. As I turned the car towards town and music lessons this morning, I sang the first line of “Oh what a beautiful morning” from Oklahoma. Without blinking, the kids (aged 12 and 14) joined in and sang the entire thing, word- and pitch-perfect. And the strange thing is that 1950s musicals are not part of their culture — they’re into Coldplay and U2 and James Blunt and Jimi Hendrix and Eric Clapton. So how does a popular song from an old musical get embedded in the collective unconscious? Deep waters, Holmes.

Thanks to AA for pointing out embarrassing spelling error!