Who the Heck is Linus Pauling?

This name came up in a conversation I had with people who are much more intelligent than I... and it occurred to me that you could be the greatest person on Earth, but if you're not in the entertainment industry... you might as well not exist as far as the general public is concerned.

Here's the bio for Linus Pauling in a nutshell: the only person to win two unshared Nobel prizes, one for Chemistry and one for Peace - also regarded by most as the greatest scientist of the 20th century.

Ever heard of him? Exactly.

I guess the lesson you learn from this depend on your philosophy of life, but these are the two points I see:

1) If you think true immortality rests on being remembered by the masses after your death... then you better start saving up for plastic surgery or take up an instrument now (people in remote regions of Africa know who Milli Vanilli is - that's just not right)!
2) Our society's collective consciousness is right at the level of a pot-smoking junior high drop out who sits on the couch in his underwear covered in fluorescent orange Cheeto dust.

Before you start thinking that I'm riding some kind of high horse here... I would like to say that I consider myself to be a part of the unwashed masses described above (Cheetos go well with Dr. Pepper and Snickers bars... however, I already qualify as chemically imbalanced without the benefit of narcotic influences... and I don't mean to brag, but my affinity for the letter B on multiple choice tests has allowed me to get past the 8th grade).

Speaking of disturbing trends... both my overly expensive refrigerator and dishwasher are on the fritz. @#(*$*#(@#*...

Also, there were no yellow M&M's in my entire bag of breakfast candies today.

Seriously, is there no pride in quality control anymore?