Maybe It’S Our Preoccupation With Y2K Stuff

The Roaring Twenties top the P.O.V. magazine list of best decades this century.

Other decades in descending order of attractiveness to P.O.V. editors: The Fab ‘50s, the 1900s, the 1910s (Life During Wartime), the 1940s (Life During Wartime, Redux), the ‘80s Greed Decade, the ‘60s We Decade, the ‘70s Me Decade, the Depression Decade and, at the bottom, the ‘90s.

Wow, what does it say about our lives when the Depression seems better than the current decade? (From December/January P.O.V.)

* The haves and the have-nots: The world’s richest 20 percent account for 86 percent of private consumption and spend $29 billion a year on perfume and pet food.

The world’s poorest 20 percent account for 1.3 percent of private consumption and need $15 billion to provide education and clean water. (From December Fast Company)

* An Emerald City update: Last week we noted that Seattle rated as one of the best cities for young, ambitious entrepreneurs. This week we add a little lifestyle context to the rosy picture: The Economist magazine rated Seattle as No. 7 among the 10 worst-sprawling cities in America. Atlanta tops the list. (From Jan.-Feb. Utne Reader)

* Seeing into the future: Trends forecaster Faith Popcorn says she watches the following shows on TV: Extra, Hard Copy, Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, 911, Unsolved Mysteries, Cops, Dateline NBC, 60 Minutes, 20/20, 48 Hours, Nightline, CNN. And from these, she somehow discerns where we’re going next as a society. Frightening. (From January House & Garden)

* Someone, please draw the line: Perhaps it’s time to call a halt to Princess Di memorials. Included in “Poems for a Princess,” a new collection of 1,562 amateur tributes, was this poem: She touched our hearts, filled a void / Her sudden death has left us annoyed. (From January Esquire)

* Need help with those resolutions? We offer up this sampling from Esquire’s “Man at His Best Resolutions.”

“Resolve to:

Use only the following adjectives when ordering coffee: A) large, B) small.

Stop classifying golf as exercise.

Vote for somebody because he or she had an affair.

Not take a laptop on vacation.

Not discuss loudly our inclinations to pull out of or stay in ‘the market.’

Plant something besides a lawn and fight valiantly for its survival.

Having gambled and won, leave.”

And, we add, strive to be more civilized in this last year of the decade. (From January Esquire)