One of the benefits of having significantly older siblings is knowing music that no one else my age does. One of the first 45s I owned (those are records for those in the younger crowd) was "See Me, Feel Me" by The Who. There's no way in hell my parents would have taken to me to a concert, so I was a lucky kid to have older siblings who would. My first "real" concert was U2 at the St. Paul Civic Center on the Joshua Tree tour.

I loved U2 long before that, so it's been amazing to see them go from a critically acclaimed band with a small, but devoted, fanbase to the biggest band in the world. And now, they're being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

It's not my favorite U2 song, but I'll always have a soft spot in my heart for One because it's the song about them, about these four Irish lads who've been together since they were teenagers (and now they're all in their 40s). These lyrics are so much more meaningful when you know that Bono is singing about himself, The Edge, Adam Clayton & Larry Mullen, Jr.:

We're one
But we're not the same
We get to carry each other

For me, knowing the meaning behind a lyric or a picture or any work of art makes me appreciate it so much more. For example, I liked Bob Marley, but I could never single out a particular song until I heard that Is This Love was a plea to his wife and he was reminiscing about their early days together to try to win her back.

One of the great things about blogs is that it's so easily to learn the real meaning behind the comments politicians, newcasters and policy wonks make. Now, when a Harry Reid inexplicably praises Antonin Scalia and dismisses the opinions of Clarence Thomas, writers all over the Internet can try to expose the truth behind the sound bite. When an AP reporter claims a crowd in Milwaukee jeered get well wishes to President Clinton, folks on the Internet can both spread the facts and dig into the motive behind the allegations. Because of all of this, the news is so much more interesting than it was back in the days when we had to settle for whatever Walter Cronkite read to us, even if we have to find it for ourselves.