I like hybrids. I'm a sucker for interesting new mixtures of black and white, funky and classical, artificial and real, funny and moving…as the TV commercial used to say, "candy mints and breath mints - it's two, two, two mints in one!"

Of course, mixing of cultural styles and genres does not always generate great works of art. But that impulse to mix and match, I think, is absolutely necessary for the game to stay interesting, and for new great work to emerge.

If you look back at cultural history, every flood tide of important work is almost always preceded by a sudden proliferation of hybrids. And I'm starting to think, hopefully, that we may be in one of those linkage moments right now. Our culture seems a little hybrid-crazy.

In product design, the thing of the year may well turn out to be the brand new Handspring Treo -- which is a smart, achingly desirable hybrid of an electronic personal organizer and a cell phone.

The ubiquitous buzzword for these hybrids is crossover. And automobile design is undergoing a kind of crossover frenzy. The big hit of a few years ago was the Chrysler PT Cruiser, a pseudo-1940s hybrid of a hot rod and a delivery truck, that created a new category: the sport truck.

At this month's giant auto show in Detroit, all the car companies were pushing their new "sport wagon" -- crossover hybrids of SUVs and station wagons. Even Cadillac was talking about its forthcoming roadsters and sports cars. A small, sleek, hip Cadillac? If they say so.

In that instance, the crossover is not so much about real aesthetic cross-fertilization as it is about re-branding -- trying to refresh a musty image, to sell an old product to a new audience.

In music, both kinds of crossovers are now happening like crazy in every genre. There's alternative country music by singers like Lucinda Williams that urban sophisticates love. There's new blends of hip-hop and pop, like the Gorillaz. And the band Metallica with the San Francisco Symphony. Fine artists are using the styles and technologies of video games to make museum works. And dense narrative video games, like Myst, are absolutely as artful as most novels and films.

So let the hundred hybrid flowers bloom, and enjoy the spectacle of fascinating and sometimes freakish and occasionally thrilling mutants…even if only a few of them are liable to stick around.

This is Kurt Andersen in Studio 360.