Why the Oscars still matter

It happens every year and involves a certain academy and a group of gold-plated statuettes. No, I'm not talking about the Oscars themselves, but rather the question of whether these venerable awards, clocking in at 90 years and counting, are still relevant.

On one level, asking whether something a decade away from a century can continue to matter in a youth-obsessed culture, where something that's lasted four score and 10 years might as well date from the Mesozoic era, is going to be inevitable.

But given