Popular culture drives the overall culture of the U.S., for better or for worse. While many middle school and high school age students easily understand it, it is more difficult for foreign students and in the case of OLS, for seminarians to understand pop culture fully.
So whether you are a parent seeking to understand slang, or a student trying to understand why people quote the movie "Office Space", start here:
A Guide to Internet Slang - http://www.safesurfingkids.com/chat_room_internet_acronyms.htm
The Top 100 Movies of All Time (as featured in Time Magazine) - http://www.time.com/time/2005/100movies/the_complete_list.html
Billboard 200 - The top 200 music albums this week - http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/charts/chart_display.jsp?g=Albums&f=The+Billboard+200
National Public Radio Popular Culture Homepage - http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1048
TMZ (Popular Media) - http://www.tmz.com/
Technorati (Imagine blogs, news stories, and pop culture all colliding...you'd have this website) - http://www.technorati.com/
Mashable - Covering the pop culture that drives the World Wide Web - http://mashable.com/