From the magazine rack...

What's hot for '99

Peering into the future, Maclean’s tracks the trends that will mark the closing months of the millennium

Divining the future is tricky at the best of times, especially in an age of fickle consumers, ever-smarter computers and ever-shorter attention spans. By the time many of us discover the latest new face, fad or pop culture craze, he, she or it is often hopelessly passé. Matthew McConaughey, last year’s Holly- wood hunk-du-jour? Tickle Me Elmo? Ellen DeGeneres? Thai food? Online chat? Big, overstuffed furniture? Yellow walls? “Qh, please,” to quote the Valley Girl protagonist of the movieBuffy the Vampire Slayer. “That’s so five minutes ago.”

But not all trends are difficult to foresee. Consider these relatively safe predictions for 1999:

Around the world, huge corporations will mate with wild abandon, delighting shareholders and endangering tens of thousands of jobs. A critically derided pop group will rocket up the charts, fuelling nostalgia for classic 1970s acts such as the Bay City Rollers. Scores of otherwise undistinguished firms will add “.com” to their names in a bid to sound technologically hip. Boomers will seize on a new wonder therapy that promises longer lives or better sex. A long-forgotten clothing fad will resurface, hailed by teen fashion mavens as the hottest thing since platform shoes. Millions of people will stockpile food and other necessities in fear of the Y2K computer bug, even while experts insist the problem is under control. There will be a run on champagne in the final weeks of 1999, yet many people — tired of the media’s fixation on the subject — will profess themselves prematurely weary of the new millennium.

Ross Laver in MacLean's, Jan. 18,1999

The Cadre + 26January 1999

From the News Stand...

SwissAir pilot report misleading

Pilot report ‘misleading’

The lead investigator of the Swissair disaster says a media report that crew mem- bers disagreed about emer- gency procedures minutes be- fore the jet crashed is mislead- ing and inaccurate.

Canadian law prohibits release of cockpit voice re- cordings, although the Trans- portation Safety Board of Canada can include written portions or a complete tran- script of the recordings in its final accident reports.

“T cannot comment or divulge the actual conversa- tions recorded on the cockpit voice recorder. That’s pro- tected by law, but I can say that the characterizations and interpretations in the media of that conversation and events

(in the cockpit) are mislead- ing,” Mr. Vic Gerden,

the board’s lead investi- gator, said.

Inastory Thursday, the Wall Street Journal said the summary reveals co-pilot Stefan Loew wanted to land quickly as the cockpit of the doomed MD-11 filled with smoke, but pilot Urs Zimmer- mann di ;

The jet went down in St. Margarets Bay on Sept.2, kill- ing all 229 passengers and crew aboard.

The Journal reported that Loew - who was flying the plane - suggested dumping fuel early in order to land and travelling directly to Halifax International Airport rather than heading out to sea todump

fuel.

According to the news- paper, Mr. Zimmerman told Mr. Loew he was going over an emergency checklist pro- cedure and didn’t want to be interru mm so often.

. Gerden said some of the times and air traffic control conversations in the Journal report are accurate, “but the interpretations of the interaction between the crew members are not

only misleading but inac- curate.”

During the sometimes contentious news conference Friday, Mr. Gerden was pressed repeatedly about what was misleading or inaccurate about the report but he refused to be more specific.

Excerpted from a story by Lois Legge in The Hali- fax Heral