Dude, can you read this Xbox manual?

All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.

- Sean O'Casey

In case you wondered ...

A recent assessment of college graduates shows what it calls an "appalling" drop in literacy.

They can read, the study says, they just don't understand what they've read.

Things are so bad that a rapidly rising number of college kids not only get confused over complicated books, they don't understand product content charts or routine warning labels.

The Washington Post reported that all this was part of a federally funded study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics.

It found only 41 percent of graduate students tested in 2003 could be classified as "proficient" in reading and understanding - down 10 percentage points from 1992.

The colleges have taken the high road - they blame the high schools.

Me?

I think it explains why today's young scholars can be Einsteins when they play with all their multimedia computer gizmos but stumble when they try to understand the instruction manual.

That means a lot of things - I think - mostly job security for those of us who still know how to read stuff.

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THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The only thing that wakes you up faster than coffee is spilled coffee.

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TODAY'S JOKE: Six hunters got a pilot to fly them to Maine to hunt moose.

They bagged six altogether.

As they started loading the plane for the return trip home, the pilot tells them the plane can take only four moose.

Bubba and Earl objected strongly.

"Last year we shot six and the pilot let us put them all on board; he had the same type of plane as yours."

Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six were loaded.

Unfortunately, even on full power, the little plane couldn't handle the load and went down a few moments after takeoff.

Climbing out of the wreck, Bubba asked Earl, "Any idea where we are?"

"Yeah," Earl replied slowly, "I think we's pretty close to where we crashed last year."