Sitting at the dinner table the other night, my 14-year-old son, realizing he was about to ask for something to which I already had said "no," started his request with "Sorry to sound like a broken record, but...."

Where, exactly, does a 14-year-old pick up the phrase "broken record"? Most kids in his generation have never handled a record, and many don't even know what a record is.

I asked Marc if he knew the literal meaning of the phrase "broken record," and he had no idea. He simply knew it referred to repeating oneself.