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FROM THE INSIDE OUT, AND BACK AGAIN
Jan 7th, 2012 by Clark Humphrey

A few days late but always a welcome sight, it’s the yummy return of the annual MISCmedia In/Out List.

As always, this listing denotes what will become hot or not-so-hot during the next year, not necessarily what’s hot or not-so-hot now. If you believe everything big now will just keep getting bigger, I can score you a cheap subscription to News of the World.

INSVILLE OUTSKI
Reclaiming Occupying
Leaving Afghanistan Invading Iran
Chrome OS Windows 8
The Young Turks Piers Morgan Tonight
Ice cream Pie
Bringing back the P-I (or something like it) Bringing back the Sonics (this year)
Community Work It
Obama landslide “Conservatalk” TV/radio (at last)
Microdistilleries Store-brand liquor
Fiat Lexus
World’s Fair 50th anniversary Beatles 50th anniversary
TED.com FunnyOrDie.com
Detroit Brooklyn
State income tax (at last) All-cuts budgets
Civilian space flight Drones
Tubas Auto-Tune (still)
Home fetish dungeons “Man caves”
Tinto Brass Mario Bava
Greek style yogurt Smoothies
Card games Kardashians
Anoraks “Shorts suits”
Electric Crimson Tangerine Tango
Michael Hazanavicius (The Artist) Guy Ritchie
Stories about the minority struggle Stories about noble white people on the sidelines of the minority struggle
(actual) Revolutions The Revolution (ABC self-help talk show)
Kristen Wiig Kristen Stewart
“Well and truly got” “Pwned”
Glow-in-the-dark bicycles (seen in a BlackBerry ad) BlackBerry
Color print-on-demand books Printing in China
Ye-ye revival Folk revival
Interdependence Individualism
Hedgehogs Hedge funds
Erotic e-books Gonzo porn
Michael Fassbender Seth Rogan
Sofia Vergara Megan Fox
3D printing 3D movies (still)
Sex “Platonic sex”
Love “Success”
“What the what?” “Put a bird on it”
RANDOM LINKS, BOXING DAY EDITION
Dec 26th, 2011 by Clark Humphrey

The new year draws nigh. Around here, that predominantly means one thing. It means we seek your nominations for MISCmedia’s 25th Annual In/Out List, North America’s most accurate predictor of future trends (in a vast array of categories). Tell us your forecasts of what will become hot and not-so-hot within the next 12 months. (Not merely what’s hot and not-so-hot right now.)

Now, in random-linkland:

  • Knute Berger has kind words for Lorraine McConaghy’s new Wash. state history tome New Land, North of the Columbia. McConaghy bases her tales on verbatim documents of the periods she explores. This gives her book a real “you are there” feeling, and brings to life events and historical figures which have often been laden with Edwardian creakiness (an image promoted, in many cases, by the historical figures themselves).
  • Someone’s put together a list of every all ages show ever held at the long-since demolished RKCNDY club on Yale Avenue from 1996 to 1999. (RKCNDY had previously been a 21-and-over venue since 1991; its site now holds the SpringHill Suites hotel.)
  • Charles P. Pierce at Esquire looks at one of this election cycle’s wannabe Third Parties and asks what’s the whole point, if it just gives us yet another champion of the billionaires? (Note that even Esquire, one of those magazines that always points with pride to its advertiser-friendly “upscale” readership, now finds the need to jump on the class-struggle bandwagon. This is actually a sign that the message is getting through.)
  • On a similar note, George Monbiot explains better than I can how corporate “libertarian” ideology extols the name of “freedom” as it seeks to make almost all of us much less free. (“Freedom Is Slavery,” indeed.)
  • For your listening pleasure, here’s Teutonic punk priestess Nina Hagen in her early years, when she was expected to conform to East German aesthetic as well as ideological strictures.
  • If you still yearn for the holiday spirit that never was, relive the fantasy in old Christmas catalogs.
OF INNER FLAMES AND OUTER LIMITS
Jan 4th, 2011 by Clark Humphrey

A few days late but always more than welcome, it’s the yummy return of the annual MISCmedia In/Out List.

As always, this listing denotes what will become hot or not-so-hot during the next year, not necessarily what’s hot or not-so-hot now. If you believe everything big now will just keep getting bigger, I can get you a Hummer dealership really cheap.


INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Cash


Credit

Kinect

Silly Bandz

Making stuff here

Outsourcing

John Stuart Mill

Foreclosure mills

Pies

Cupcakes

Sunset red

Aquamarine

Portlandia

Men of a Certain Age

Saving Basic Health

Saving the big banks

Conan on TBS

The Talk

Christopher Nolan

M. Night Shyamalan

Etsy

eBay

Rye

Vodka

“He’s dead, Jim”

“Epic fail”

“Yummy”

“For the win”

Amanda Seyfried

Katherine Heigl

Carlessness

Homelessness

iPad (still)

Windows Phone (still)

Tieton

Soap Lake

Legal absinthe

Legal pot

Root Sports

OWN

Antenna TV

Joe TV

ThePenthouse.fm

Click 98.9

Google ebooks

Borders (alas)

The Head and the Heart

Taylor Swift

Compassion

Righteousness

Bruno Mars

Adam Lambert

Mindfulness

Fearfulness

Oboe

Saxophone

Jason Statham

Gerald Butler

Mixed households

Mixed use projects

Zesto’s

Zappos

DIY animation

3D remakes

Coalitions

Capitulations

Grocery Outlet

Groupon

Life as change

False certainty

Regional soccer rivalry

Kanye West’s beefs

Support networks

Social networking sites

Barter

Gold

Paid web commenters

Unpaid web writers
THAT TIME OF YEAR HAS COME AGAIN
Dec 15th, 2010 by Clark Humphrey

It’s time to send in your nominations for MISCmedia.com’s annual In/Out List, the longest-running and only accurate list of its type anywhere.

People, places, things, celebrities, fashions, catch phrases, paint colors, politicians—all these and more are yours to choose.

Which will become hotter, which will become more not-so-hot?

Tell us now.

INS & OUTS FOR THE YEAR OF 20/10 WINDOW CLEANER
Jan 1st, 2010 by Clark Humphrey

It’s the madcap return of the MISCmedia In/Out List.

As always, this listing denotes what will become hot or not-so-hot during the next year, not necessarily what’s hot or not-so-hot now. If you believe everything hot now will just keep getting hotter, I’ve got a great house for sale at its 2007 price.


INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Tablet Mac

Barnes & Noble Nook

Live theater

Reality TV “stars”

Sultry

Cute

Building a progressive infrastructure

Caving to big business

Sicilian pizza

Carne asada

Real breasts

Fake speakeasies

Adult books

[adult swim]

Webisode dramas

LOLcats

Rapid transit

Slow food

Rock bands

RockBand

Taco trucks

Tonka trucks

Rose water

Imitation bacon flavor

10th and East Pike

The Bravern

Pies

Cupcakes

Coptic

Kabbalah

Wanda Sykes

Jay Leno

Steampunk

Transhumanism

Medicare for (almost) all

Liebermanian faux-reform

Intellectual doubt

Emotional certainty

Facts

Power

Open source

Windows Mobile

Artisanship

Outsourcing

Hats

Hoodies

Big John’s PFI

Whole Foods (still)

Turquoise

Pink

Public sex

Private banks

Paz de la Huerta

Kristen Stewart

Bellingham tourism

Forks tourism

Chelsea Lately

My Life on the D-List

Sam Worthington

Daniel Day-Lewis

AMC

TLC

Pho

Claritin

Modern Family

Ugly Betty

The end of As the World Turns

The end of Lost

Writing implements

Financial instruments

Thermals

Kelly Clarkson

Death of landline phone service

Death of newspapers

Red Dress reunion

Soundgarden reunion

Saving farmland

Playing Farmville
YEP, IT’S THAT TIME AGAIN
Dec 9th, 2009 by Clark Humphrey

…Time to compile our annual MISCmedia In/Out List. This, the oldest and most accurate list of its type anywhere, predicts what will become hot and not-so-hot during the following twelve months, in fields ranging from politicians and public-affairs issues to fashions, cars, and dessert products.

Get your nominations in now, via our finally-got-’em-at-last comment threads.

TWENTY-OH-SEVEN, SHAKEN NOT STIRRED
Dec 31st, 2006 by Clark Humphrey

It’s the madcap return of the MISCmedia In/Out List.

As always, this, the most accurate In/Out list published anywhere, compiles what will become hot and less-hot in the upcoming year, not necessarily what’s hot and less-hot at this current point in time. If you believe everything that’s hot now will just keep getting hotter in the future, we’ve got some Skykomish River waterfront cabins to sell you.


INSVILLE


OUTSKI

OxyWash

Oxycontin


The N

Disney Channel

Falu red

Taupe

Portland envy


NYC envy

Sanity


Hubris

Compassion


Pomposity

North

South

’90s nostalgia


’80s nostalgia

Flips


Mullets

Puppets

CGI

Bollywood

Vancouver

Beyonce

Britney

Women in politics


Drunken heiresses

Class

Ostentation


Tweed

Denim

Calligraphy


Embroidery

Budapest

Cancun


Anne Hathaway

Lindsay Lohan

Trader Joe’s

Whole Foods

Transsexuals

Trans-fats

Green tea


Red Bull

Walla Walla

Odwalla

YouTube


MySpace

Cointreau

Jagermeister

Saving the Sonics

Saving the P-I

Supporting small business


Bashing Wal-Mart

Hockey

Soccer

Xbox 360

Nintento Wii

Cottages

McMansions (still)

M&M’s Dark

Russell Stover

IFC Films

Weinstein Company


Bartell’s

Walgreen’s

HDTV

MyNetwork TV

“Vitamin beer”

PBR (still)

Sacha Baron Cohen

Will Ferrell


“Netroots” politics

Sleazy campaign commercials


KPTK

KTTH

Jack Black

Jack White

Inuyasha

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Biofuels

Biofeedback

My Name Is Earl

According to Jim

Ugly Betty

Project Runway

Amy Hempel

Amy Sedaris

Decemberists

Nickelback

Post-conservative

Post-modern

Blended families

Celebrity adoptions
GET YOUR KICKS IN TWENTY-OUGHT-SIX!
Dec 30th, 2005 by Clark Humphrey

It’s the madcap return of the MISCmedia In/Out List, the longest-running and most accurate list of its type anywhere in the western hemisphere.

As long-term readers know, this is a prediciton of what will become hot and not-so-hot in the months to come. If you think everything hot now will just keep getting hotter forever, I’ve got some Mariners season tickets to sell you.


INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Netflix

Blockbuster


Sudoku

Doom

HDNet

USA Network

Love


Fear

Staged withdrawal

Permanent occupation

Podcasting


Satellite radio

Lap-dance ban repeal

Smoking ban repeal

Home theaters

Home gyms

Guiding Light


Passions

Seahawks (but you knew that)

Sonics (but you knew that)

Overstock.com

The Store Formerly Known as The Bon Marche

Burgundy

Tan

Bratz (back from “Outski” status in ’04)

Hello Kitty

Friends with benefits

Jobs with benefits


Saving America

Saving yourself

Mother-in-law apartments

McMansions

Pokies

Thongs


Heath Ledger

Russell Crowe

Emmanuelle Devos

Naomi Watts

Grey’s Anatomy

One Tree Hill

Session Lager

Budweiser Select

Rebuilding New Orleans

Deconstructing texts

Progressive populists


Power whores

Pearls Before Swine

Sally Forth

The Colbert Report

MSNBC

Soulseek


Sony BMG

Political revolution

Nintendo Revolution

Johnny Cash fetishism

Jimi Hendrix fetishism

New Thunderbird

Explorer

CortiSlim

Atkins

Butter Crown

Red Bull and vodka


Bacon

Tofurkey

Dental tourism

Eco-tourism

Minneapolis

Cincinnati

Istanbul

Havana


“I wish I knew how to quit you”

“All your base are belong to us”


Sonnets

Sound bytes
THE OLD IN-AND-OUT DEPT.
Dec 29th, 2004 by Clark Humphrey

Once again, it’s time for the annual return of the MISCmedia In/Out List, the longest-running and most accurate list of its type anywhere in the western quadrant of the northern hemisphere.

As long-term readers know, this is a prediciton of what will become hot and not-so-hot in the months to come. If you think everything hot now will just keep getting hotter forever, I’ve got some Thailand beachfront timeshares to sell you.


INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Reality

Reality shows

Happy Bunny

Hello Kitty

Purple

Red vs. Blue

Pixar

Disney (still)

Adult Swim

Jay Leno

Jon Stewart

Tucker Carlson

Animal Planet

G4TechTV

Jena Malone (Saved!)

Jennifer Aniston

Blythe

Bratz

KBTC

KCTS

Carrie Akre

Karaoke

Euro

Dollar

Kobe beef

Kobe Bryant

Thirties

Fifties

Novels

Video games

Desperate Housewives

Soccer moms

Empathy

Hubris

Hookers as heroes

Pimps as heroes

Iowa

Texas

The Nation

The New Republic

BBQ

Fusion cuisine

New Doctor Who

Revenge of the Sith

Harvey Danger reunion

Cher farewell tour

UW basketball

UW football

Everett Events Center

Qwest Field

Made in USA

Made in China

Programmed in USA

Programmed in India

Filmed in Seattle

Set in Seattle, filmed in Vancouver

Overstock.com

HouseValues.com

Stupid Prices

Big Lots

Work

Workfare

Hydrogen

Hydrocarbons

Spongebob Squarepants (still)

Yu-Gi-Oh!

Cities

Exurbs

Kmart-Sears merger

ConocoPhillips

RVs

Yachts

Verizon Wireless

T-Mobile

Wales

New Zealand

Democracy for America
Democratic Leadership Council

Draft dodging

Dodgeball

Western wear (again)

Ultra-pointy shoes

Cell phone text messaging

Gmail

Scion

Land Rover

Dogs the size of cats

Cats the size of dogs

South Lake Union

West Edge

Tacoma Art Museum
MOHAI

Yahtzee

Poker
IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!
Dec 13th, 2004 by Clark Humphrey

Yep, time for that annual tradition that’s almost as old as Kwanzaa and older than e-greetings, the MISCmedia In/Out List. Send your nominations this week to our handy-dandy email addy.

Remember, we’re looking for what will become hot or not-so-hot during the course of Ought-Five, not necessarily what’s hot and not-so-hot right now. If you think everything that’s hot now’s gonna just keep getting hotter forever, I’ve got some pot-bellied pigs to sell you.

IN/OUT FOR '04
Dec 31st, 2003 by Clark Humphrey

HEY EVERYBODY! It’s the madcap return of the MISCmedia In/Out List, the longest-running and most accurate list of its type anywhere in the western hemisphere.

As long-term readers know, this is a prediciton of what will become hot and not-so-hot in the months to come. If you think everything hot now will just keep getting hotter forever, I’ve got some Cubs World Series T-shirts to sell you.


INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Young & Restless

The O.C.

Fotolog.net

Friendster.com

iPod

The new Napster

Duck Dodgers

House of Mouse

Imitating Blind Date

Imitating Jackass

Granddaddy

Kid Rock

Fountains of Wayne

Kings of Leon

IFC Films

Paramount

Peaches

Herb

NoSweat

Old Navy

Saving Eddie Bauer

Saving Medicare

Any other baseball team

Yankees

Any other basketball team

The Lucking Fakers

Paul Martin

Tony Blair

Green Cine

Blockbuster

Neo-power-pop

Rap-metal

Quakers

Baptists

Maroon houses

Maroon hair

Dean as electable candidate

Dean as party-killer

Believing in global warming

Believing in wrestling

Convicting corporate crooks

Prosecuting online escorts

Columbia City

Fremont

Poker shows

Judge shows

Thongs (still)

Boxers

King Street Station restoration (finally)

Viaduct replacement


Regime change (domestic)

Regime change (export)

Democracy

Demographics

Real health care reform

Placating HMOs and drug cos.

IPA

PBR

Cialis

Flonase

International Channel

Spike TV

Mini (still)

Hummer (still)

“Bonus features unrated”

“Professional driver, closed course”

Website banner ads

Spam

MILFs

Nymphets

YOU'VE ONLY THIRTEEN DAYS…
Dec 10th, 2003 by Clark Humphrey

…to send in your recommendations for the fantabulous annual MISCmedia In/Out List for Ought-Four. Remember, this is a prediction of what will become hot and not-so-hot in the coming year. Not everything that’s hot now will just keep getting hotter, but those of you with hurtin’ 401k plans already know that.

THE INNIES AND THE OUTIES
Dec 29th, 2000 by Clark Humphrey

THE TRADITION CONTINUES: For the 15th consecutive year, here’s your fantastical MISCmedia In/Out List. Thanks to all who contributed suggestions.

As always, this list predicts what will become hot or not-so-hot over the course of the Year of HAL 9000; not necessarily what’s hot or not-so-hot now. If you think every person, place, thing, or trend that’s big now will just keep getting bigger forever, I’ve got some dot-com stocks to sell you.

(P.S.: Most every damned item on this list has a handy weblink. Spend the weekend clicking and having fun.)

INSVILLE

OUTSKI

White kids who wish they were doo-wop singers

White kids who wish they were pimps

Seattle Union Record

Seattle Scab Times

Canadian Football League

Xtreme Football League

The print version of Nerve

Hardcore pay-per-view

Classic Arts Showcase

TNN

Christian sex clubs

Abstinance preaching

The American Prospect

The Weekly Standard

Retro burlesque

Thong Thursday

Razor scooters (still)

General Motors

Independent publishing

eBooks

Jon Stewart (now more than ever)

Chris Matthews

Dot-orgs

Dot-coms

Kamikazes

Martinis

Grant Cogswell

Tim Eyman

Whoopass

Powerade

Tantra

Bloussant

2-Minute Drill

Survivor

Verso

Regnery

Political gridlock

“Bipartisanship”

Scarlet Letters

Cosmo Girl

Renewing Tacoma

Saving San Francisco

Caffe Ladro

Folger’s Latte

TiVo

UltimateTV

McSweeney’s (still)

Tin House

Napster (while it lasts)

Liquid Music

Austin, home of political chicanery

Austin, home of hip music

Lookout Records

Interscope (still)

Public displays of affection

Personal digital assistants

Jared Leto

Chris O’Donnell

Building an all-around team

Depending on one superstar

Helen Hunt

Gwyneth Paltrow

Kenneth Lonergan

Robert Zemeckis

Open-source software

Microsoft.NET

“Slow food”

Fast Company

Goth revival #7

Ska revival #13

Antenna Internet Radio

The Funky Monkey 104.9

Bed Bath and Beyond

Lowe’s Home Centers

Green Republicans

Corporate Democrats

Gents

Dudes

Vamps

Bimbos

Collecting early home computers

Collecting Pokemon cards

Concerts in houses

House music

Cafe Venus and Mars Bar

Flying Fish

Fat pride

No-carb diets

Dump-Schell movement

Kill-transit movement

Hard cider

Hard lemonade

Indie gay films

Showtime’s Queer As Folk

Boondocks

Zits

Internet telephony (at last)

Wireless Internet

Coronation Street (UK soap on CBC)

Dawson’s Creek

Energy conservation

Energy deregulation

Microsoft breakup

AOL/Time Warner merger

Dark blue

Beige

Pho

Chalupas

Caleb Carr

Stephen King

’90s nostalgia

’80s nostalgia

Toyota Echo

Range Rover

Sweat equity

Venture capital

Reality

“Reality TV”

Rubies

Crystals

Blackjack

NASDAQ

Matt Bruno

Ricky Martin

Quinzo’s

Subway

Hamburg

Mazatlan

Georgetown

Belltown

Red wine

Ritalin

Rational thinking

“War on Drugs”

Economic democracy

Corporate restructuring

Culottes

Teddies

Following your own path

Believing dumb lists

NO COLUMN MONDAY, BUT ON TUESDAY: What you might see on this site in the year of Also Sprach Zarathustra.

ELSEWHERE:

THE OLD INSVILLE AND OUTSKI
Dec 31st, 1999 by Clark Humphrey

THE TRADITION CONTINUES: For the 14th consecutive year, here’s your fantastical MISCmedia In/Out List. Thanks to all who contributed suggestions.

As always, this list predicts what will become hot or not-so-hot over the course of the Year of the Double-Oughts; not necessarily what’s hot or not-so-hot now. If you think every person, place, thing, or trend that’s big now will just keep getting bigger forever, I’ve got some Packard Bell PCs to sell you.

(P.S.: Every damned item on this list has a handy weblink. Spend the weekend clicking and having fun.)

INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Jigglypuff

Charizard

Washington Law & Politics

Washington CEO

TrailBlazers

Knicks

‘Amateur’ Net porn

LA porn industry

Game Show Network

USA Network (still)

Casual sex

Casual Fridays

The Nation

The New Republic

Women’s football

Wrestling

Gas masks

Bandanas

Begging

IPOs

Jon Stewart

Jay Leno

Public nudity

“Chastity education”

Global warming

Rolling Stone’s “Hot Issue”

Commuter rail

Anti-transit initiative

Dot-commies (online political organizing)

Dot-coms

Good posture

Implants

Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? (still)

Greed

Post-Microsoft Seattle

Silicon Valley

Post-WTO Left

Corporate Right

Dalkey Archive Press

HarperCollins

Bust

Bitch

‘Love Your Dog’

‘Kill Your TV’

Artisan Entertainment

Miramax

McSweeney’s

Speak

The Donnas

TLC

Tobey Maguire

Tom Hanks

Spike Jones

Spike Jonze

Michael Moore

Mike Moore

Darren Aronofsky (Pi)

Quentin Tarantino

Finding a Kingdome implosion viewpoint

Finding a New Year’s party spot

Keeping Ken Griffey Jr.

Trading away pitching

Quitting your job

Going on Prozac

Nerdy individuality

Hip conformity

NetSlaves

Business 2.0

Drip

Lattes

Dodi

Dido

Target

Wal-Mart

Amazons

Pensive waifs

Post-corporate economic theory

Dissertations about Madonna

Electric medicine

HMOs

“Girlie” magazines

“Bloke” magazines

Graceland

Last Supper Club

Labor organizing

Hoping for stock options

Yoga

Tae Bo

Urbanizing the suburbs

Gentrifying the cities

The Powerpuff Girls

The Wild Thornberrys

New library

New football stadium

Detroit

Austin

African folk art

Mexican folk art

As the World Turns

Passions

Liquid acid (alas)

Crystal

Dyed male pubic hair

Dreadlocks

Scarification

Piercings

People who think UFOs are real

People who think wrestling’s real

Red Mill

iCon Grill

76

BP/Amoco/Arco and Exxon/Mobil

Rock/dance-music fusion

Retro disco

Peanuts retirement

Garth Brooks retirement

Maximillian Schell

Paul Schell

Breaching dams

Smashing Pumpkins

Smart Car

Sport-utes (now more than ever)

Contact

Dildonics

Orange

Blue

Public accountability

Police brutality

Georgetown

Pioneer Square

Matchless

Godsmack

Buena Vista Social Club soundtrack

Pulp Fiction soundtrack (finally)

Labor/hippie solidarity

‘Cool’ corporations

Performance art

Performance Fleece

Radical politics

‘Radical sports’

Chloe Sevigny

Kate Winslet

International Herald Tribune

Morning Seattle Times

Piroshkies

Wraps

Prague

London

Kozmo.com

Blockbuster (still)

The exchange of ideas

NASDAQ

Fatigues

Khakis

First World Music

Interscope

Gill Sans

Helvetica

Pretending to be Japanese

Pretending to be gangstas

Botany 500

Blink 182

Tanqueray

Jaegermeister

Bremerton

Duvall

Nehi

Surge

Jimmy Corrigan

Dilbert

Cross-cultural coalitions

In-group elitism

Northern Ireland peace plan

Lord of the Dance

Hard bodies

Soft money

Doing your own thing

‘Rebelliously’ doing exactly what Big Business wants

MONDAY: I’m perfectly confident there will still be electricity and computer networks, and am prepared to ring in the double-ought year with a Peanuts tribute.

ELSEWHERE:

THE INSVILLE AND THE OUTSKI
Dec 28th, 1998 by Clark Humphrey

MISC., your post-print column for (what the Times Personal Tech section calls) the post-television age, was amused by the double standards and double dribbles in that front-page P-I headline on 12/22/98: “Reign star Enis judges basketball, parenthood.” Y’ever see a headline like that about, say, Shawn Kemp?

Alas, that P-I story was one of the last written in the local dailies about the Seattle Reign before the team’s parent American Basketball League announced its sudden, permanent shutdown, leaving fans as bereft of pro women’s b-ball as it is of the men’s game. One could lay the blame for the ABL’s demise on the rival WNBA, with its megabucks backing, its marketable-superstar orientation, and its stranglehold on sponsors and TV outlets. But a less-discussed factor was the league’s management structure. While it claimed to be a grassroots, fan-level outfit, it was really a centralized company which owned all its teams, hired and assigned all its players, and otherwise tightly ran all operations and marketing–just like the Roller Derby, Arena Football, and other assorted marginal team-sports ventures of the past three decades.

The graveyard of new team-sports organizations in North America is full of four decades’ worth of great and less-great visions, from the American Basketball Association to the World Football League and the U.S. Football League, to World Team Tennis and several attempts at indoor soccer. Aside from the American Football League (which got all its teams merged into the NFL in the late ’60s), none were long-term successes. (The only current such ventures with a chance at making it are Major League Soccer and the aforementioned WNBA.) None of those attempts found the formula for nationwide popularity and profits; though some tried to find such a formula thru centralized management. A single-ownership league structure (like that of the ABL) can present a unified public image and prevent a single well-heeled team owner from attaining an uncompetitive dynasty situation (like that which ruined the old North American Soccer League). But it also means local team managers can’t build their own squads, around personalities or playing styles popular in their own towns. And when league HQ runs out of cash and/or ideas, there aren’t local team owners (or buyers) to come up with individual solutions other teams can copy.

But for now, the WNBA (with its emphasis on megabucks and celebrity-driven advertising, and its neglect (or worse) of any lesbian fan base) is the remaining structure for women’s pro hoops, at least until the parent NBA can no longer afford to subsidize it (which, if there’s not even a mini-NBA season, might be more likely and sooner). Wish I had more encouraging news for stranded Reign fans, but a pro league of any sort, especially one with teams scattered across the continent, is an undertaking requiring immense logistics, savvy, and long-term backing. The ABL way didn’t work, and neither has just about any other way.

THE HOLIDAY TRADITION CONTINUES: For the 13th consecutive year, here’s your fantastical Misc. In/Out List. Thanks to all who contributed suggestions via private email and the public Misc. Talk discussion boards; and apologies to those whose board postings I accidentally erased last week. (I think I’ve gotten the hang of the discussion-board software scripts by now.) As always, this list predicts what will become hot or not-so-hot over the course of ’99; not necessarily what’s hot or not-so-hot now. If you think every person, place, thing, or trend that’s big now will just keep getting bigger, I’ve got some Tickle Me Elmo dolls to sell you.

INSVILLE

OUTSKI

Apple “P1” laptop computer

Y2K scare tactics

Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce

Washington CEO

Pipes

Cigars

Caffe Vita

Tully’s

“Got __?”

“Yo Quiero __”

The WB

Fox

Asian (economic) Flu

“The Long Boom”

BBC America

PBS

Elan

Panache

Linux

Windows 2000

Cracked Divx videos

Pirated MP3 music files

Pic-N-Save

Pacific Place

Saving the Kalakala

Stopping the Makah whale hunt

Digital video camcorders

Furby

Dipsy

Po

Win Ben Stein’s Money

New Hollywood Squares

The PJs

King of the Hill

Philosophy

Semiotics

`Enough Is Enough’

Christian Coalition

Falcons

Forty-Niners

Lions Gate Films

DreamWorks SKG

New Rocky and Bullwinkle

New Star Wars

Felicity

Ally McBeal

Ed Norton

Leo DiCaprio

Todd Solondz

Gus Van Sant

Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth)

Meg Ryan

Mammoth Records

Universal Music Group

Perfect 10

Barely Legal

Mode

Vogue

Bento

Pan-Asian Cuisine

Less Than Jake

Better Than Ezra

Brita

Bottled water

Fruitta

Jones Soda

Westwood Village

University Village

Nude shuffleboard

Pro wrestling

Kroger/Fred Meyer

DaimlerChrysler

Bibliofind.com

Barnes & Noble/Ingram merger

ESPN The Magazine

Esquire

Sympathy for Kathi Goertzen

Sainthood for John Stanford

Last Supper Club

Ned’s

eBay fraud

Junk e-mail

Independent Film Channel

USA Network

Ken’s Market

Larry’s Market

New Cyclops restaurant

New baseball stadium

Imploding the Kingdome on 1/1/2000

Lighting bridges on 1/1/2000

Love lotteries

Personal ads

Pachinko

Megatouch

McSweeney’s

Bikini

Lovers

Survivors

Deliberately obvious toupees

Propecia

Female all-instrumental bands

Lilith Fair singers

Pabst

Miller

Pyramid

Redhook

Bars subsidized by pulltab sales

Bars subsidized by cigarette ads

Black

“The new black”

Tiffany Anders

Celine Dion

Pinot noir

Merlot

Psychographics

Demographics

Cubs

Braves

Co-housing conversions

Condo conversions

Mutts

Dilbert

Teen drinking

Pre-teen makeup

White Center

Duvall

Death Cab For Cutie

Dudley Manlove Quartet

Mystic pseudo-science

Fundamentalist pseudo-science

Hedy Lamarr

Marilyn Monroe

Tweedy & Popp’s (Wallingford)

Restoration Hardware

Pokemon

Rugrats

South Park (the Seattle neighborhood)

South Park (the TV show)

Promoting real diversity

White and/or male guilt-tripping

Neo-syndicalism

Global Business Network

Hungarian operettas

Raves

NBA death watch

Apple death watch

The Tentacle

Downtown Voice

Istanbul

Berlin

Sound Transit commuter rail

Trucks

Airstreams

Minivans

Plane-crash videos

Animal-attack videos

Creators

Celebrities

Outlandish heteros

“Mainstreamed” gays

Tycoons (the band)

Day traders

In-group patronization

Pious indignation

Direct action

“civil society”

Streaming net video

Cable access

Partying naked

Wearing `Party Naked’ T-shirts

“I love everybody and you’re next”

“Do I look like I give a damn?”

Doing your own thing

Following advice found on web sites

UNTIL NEXT WE MEET in the year so great there’s a Washington highway named after it, pace yourself by toasting the New Year once for each North American time zone (starting with Newfoundland at 7:30 p.m. PST), and ponder these thoughts attributed to Lillian Helman: “If I had to give young writers advice, I’d say don’t listen to writers talking about writing.”

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