Gee, you know what else is really quotable? That Casablanca!

Via JVL comes this little nugget from Ezra Klein. And no, I’m not talking about his health care analysis — we all know I could give a fig about health care reform* — but his shocking ignorance about movie history. I cannot believe he actually wrote this:

I sat down and watched “On the Waterfront” last night. I hadn’t realized that was where “I coulda been a contender” entered the cultural lexicon. It’s a great scene.

Dear sweet Jesus. I can imagine other great revelations tucked into his brand new Newsweek column:

“You know, I always thought that Scarlett that no one gave a damn about was Scarlett Johansson! Boy was I surprised to see it pop up in Gone With the Wind.”

“You mean to tell me that the word munchkin comes from The Wizard of Oz and not Dunkin’ Donuts? No way!”

“I always assumed my hipster friends were just being ironic when they’d tell me to ‘Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.’ They know I wouldn’t carry a dangerous firearm on D.C. streets!”

Sigh. Today’s youth. First they argue that Alfred Hitchcock is overrated, then they say that Sofia Coppola is better than Martin Scorsese, then they have the lack of self-awareness to admit to not knowing the provenance of one of the great quotes in movie history. It’s really quite distressing.

*Seriously: I thought we were done with this. Health care reform is so mind-numbingly dull — important, sure, but dull — that I just can’t get up for writing about it. It does nothing for me.