Score One for the Humanities

An op-ed in today's New York Times argues why it is important to study the humanities in college. Makes me a tiny bit proud to have a degree in a humanities field, and I agree with the points he makes.
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To whet your appetite:
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"Studying the humanities improves your ability to read and write. No matter what you do in life, you will have a huge advantage if you can read a paragraph and discern its meaning (a rarer talent than you might suppose). You will have enormous power if you are the person in the office who can write a clear and concise memo.
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"Studying the humanities will give you a familiarity with the language of emotion. In an information economy, many people have the ability to produce a technical innovation: a new MP3 player. Very few people have the ability to create a great brand: the iPod....
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"Studying the humanities will give you a wealth of analogies. People think by comparison--Iraq is either like Vietnam or Bosnia; your boss is like Narcissus or Solon. People who have a wealth of analogies in their minds can think more precisely than those with few analogies. If you go through college without reading Thucydides, Herodotus and gibbon, you'll have been cheated out of a great repertoire of comparisons.
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"Finally, and most importantly, studying the humanities helps you befriend The Big Shaggy."
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