Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 6, 1992 TAG: 9201040234
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: VALLI HERMAN
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
WHAT'S IN, WHAT'S OUT, FOR 1992
IT'S A NEW YEAR, so you are allowed to start over, without so much as a backward glance. But you know, and everyone else knows, that you're programmed by habit, nature and nurture, to swap the old for new, and it's probably equally as bad. Never mind. For this year, stick with us while we tell you what's hot and what's not.\ Campaign comedy
\ OUT: Quayle jokes. It's no fun when the target is such an easy hit.
\ IN: Bush jokes. Only people profiting from the worsening economy are joke- starved political satirists.
\ Status symbol
OUT: Rolex. Such flash is gauche, and with violent robbers, potentially deadly.
IN: Times. Great price, works like a charm, and don't you love the ads?
\ Cocktail
OUT: Beajolais Nouveau. The November uncorking parties were great fun, but the young wine tasted like vinegar after Christmas.
IN: Absolut Vodka. It's the best vodka an expensive advertising campaign can buy.
\ Gadgets
OUT: Cellular portable phones. As if they weren't obnoxious enough, rude users rarely made calls in private.
IN: Laptop computers. Let your fingers do the talking, and the banking and report writing.
\ Man's best friend
OUT: Posh pets. Fancy, yappy, neurotic, shedding wrecks of overbred pure breds may be cute, but designer dogs are as passe as stonewashed jeans.
IN: Mutts. They're lovable, huggable and deserving of a good home. Put an end to puppy mills and death-by-dog-pound.
\ Talk shows
OUT: David Letterman. Rude and snide isn't funny or all that effective, and with the demise of the Top 10 list, what's to stay awake for?
IN: Jay Leno. A dynasty is a dynasty, but Carson was becoming the nation's best sleep aid. Leno could save the show.
\ Dumping Trump
OUT: Marla Maples. It takes conviction to throw a $250,000 diamond in anger across a hotel lobby.
IN: Marla Maples. A woman has the prerogative to change her mind.
\ New shoe
OUT: Inflatable footwear. The gimmick was great, and so was the fit, but shelling out $100 bucks for youngsters' athletic shoes grew thin faster than the kids grew up.
IN: Flashback tennies. With the launching of the P.F. Flyers from the '50s and the canvas Keds still a classic, paying $25 for timeless tennies makes more than fashion sense.
\ New 'do
OUT: Bad buns. The tousled Bardot pouf, revived by Ivana Trump, looks like messy hair on anyone worth less than $25 million.
IN: Juice-can curls. Designer Donna Karan rolls her hair on jumbo rollers, just like your baby sitter did in the '60s. It's the new wave.
\ New taboo
OUT: Drugs. Oh, grow up already. Compassion is growing thin for those who seek chemical solutions for their problems.
IN: Waste. Drinking coffee from non-recyclable cups inspires wrath faster than insulting motherhood and apple pie.
\ Scalpel of youth
OUT: Face lifts. It's obvious, it's never enough, and it's only part of the solution.
IN: Eye jobs. They cost less and do more. Who needs sleek cheeks anyway? Leave that look to the mummies.
\ Dressing to thrill
OUT: Sausage dresses. On perfectly whippet-like women under 20, they're killer sexy stuff; deadly for everyone else.
IN: Flounce. Whether it's a ruffled prairie dress straight out of "Big Valley" or a fluffy crinoline, feminine, figure-flaw hiding fashions are the way of the future.
\ Role model for black youth
OUT: Michael Jackson. Just what in the world is he trying to say? Smash cars with a bowling splint for an armband?
IN: Malcolm X. His message has sent his decades-old biography into extra reprints.
\ Travel
OUT: Frequent flyers. Has anyone's airline stayed in business long enough for you to rack up a freebie? Take a long weekend in the car.
IN: Frequent lodgers. Hotels are starting to offer bonuses for repeat travelers. George Washington slept here - a lot.
\ Food fad
OUT: Ethnic finger food. The frenzy for tapas and dim sum lost its sizzle when filling up took 100 tiny shrimp dumplings.
IN: Ethnic vegetarianism. Pizza, day and night, night and day, sent the desperately meatless seeking something livelier and leaner.
\ Fantasy job
OUT: General Motors chairman. Cutting a giant in half isn't very rewarding, even if you do earn a fortune.
IN: Any job at all.
\ Exercise
OUT: Aerobics. If the music weren't always so bad, maybe getting shin splints wouldn't be so painful, too.
IN: Alternative exercise. exercise. Walking the dog qualifies as the daily workout, and so does 20 minutes of yoga.
\ Phobia
OUT: Financial ruin. We've been down so long, it looks like up to us.
IN: Physical ruin. Now heterosexuals are feeling the fear of the AIDS plague.
\ Pop music
OUT: Gangsta rap. Hateful to women, Koreans, Jews and just about everyone else, this extreme end of the rap realm is due for a backlash.
IN: Retro-pop. When Natalie Cole topped the charts with songs her father made famous, it was reason for aging baby boomers to cheer. Singing duet with dad made marvels of technology all the more marvelous.
Keywords:
YEAR 1992