Charles Cameron (Hipbone), the fellow who provided much of the information we read about the Glass Bead Game, is a member of Brainstorms (affectionately called "BS" by its participants), a virtual community founded by Howard Rheingold. I am also privileged to be counted among this august assemblage, an honor I earned just by writing Howard (he's on a first name basis with pretty much everyone after one exchange of correspondence) and telling him how I thought I'd contribute to the group.

Anyway, Paul's "challenge" from way back when, how do we get from the Sistine Chapel to Sept. 11, reminded me of one of the conferences in Brainstorms, "Culture word association," where November 17-19 saw this progression (having nothing to do with Paul's thing, it just reminded me...):

Chauncy Gardner
Erle Stanley Gardner
The Canadian Gardener
The Victory Garden
The Secret Garden
Loose lips sink ships
Rosie the Riveter
Josephine the Plumber
plumb line
plum wine
Boone's Farm
Apple or Strawberry?
Fudge Ripple
coffee Heathbar crunch
Wuthering Heights

Each of these items was posted individually, with all previous items visible to the poster, and with only two or three people posting more than once in that span.

While people don't HAVE to explain or justify their associations/connections, everyone is accessible by email, and if one's curiosity is piqued (as mine has been on several occasions by seemingly random links), one can always query a poster about their rationale. Given that BS is a very diverse, international community, I've learned quite a lot and been turned on to many interesting (and time wasting) items of cultural interest to SOMEONE.

I will be happy to add links to information about one or more of those items in the list if anyone's interested. Alternatively, you could just do a Google search for the term and go hunting yourself.