1995-96 REVIEW AND OUTLOOK : HTML Is Hip, Gingrich Is Yesterday's Newt

By MARTHA GROVES

Dec. 31, 1995 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

What would the year-end be without a look at what’s hot and what’s not? Here’s our take on the subject as 1995 lurches toward a close.

Remember our arbitrary guidelines: We reserve the right to deem “out” anything or anybody that is too “in.” And vice versa.

Speed is in, on both asphalt highways and the digital Infobahn. Congress allowed higher speed limits that plugged the “double nickels,” the 55-mph relics of those bygone days of oil crises and long lines at the gas pumps.

And fast modems now vault users into cyberspace via cable a thousand times more rapidly than over phone lines--unless it’s a digital phone line, which is also lightning-quick. As home offices and Internet addresses proliferate, families are finding multiple phone lines a must.

The Internet, of course, is way kewl (as they say in cyberdom). Online services not so much. Just ask Microsoft’s Bill Gates, who is belatedly wandering into the Internet party and wondering how he can turn himself into the host. Gates, by the way, is so much in the limelight that he’s out on principle. The man is more overexposed than Madonna (who is also no longer in the swim).

Knowing enough HTML (hypertext markup language) to set up your own World Wide Web site is all the rage. Java, Sun Microsystems’ World Wide Web programming language for creating interactive environments, is suddenly cooler than Windows 95 ever thought of being. In: bespectacled cyber nerds. Out: husky action-film stars. In: Cyberspace reporting. Out: Most other kinds of reporting. Apple Computer’s Michael Spindler will be out as CEO, unless he works some very fast Macintosh magic.

E-mailing is de rigueur, but cellular phones are humdrum. Faxing? Old hat, unless it’s via computer.

If the bleak holiday retailing season just passed is any indication, shopping and consuming are done for (unless the purchase is made over the Internet). Saving and investing, or at least getting out of debt, are in style. Borrowing to buy stocks is fine, even if borrowing to buy anything else is bad form.

Refinancing the homestead is wise--again--as is paying off the mortgage early. Buying a bigger home is out. Grain futures are in, but the Japanese yen has fizzled. Central banks are wielding power these days, even if central governments are not.

As much as management consultants plead for corporations to grow, layoffs are still the order of the day. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas just counted the nation’s 3 millionth pink slip since 1989. (Can we please resolve to purge that ghastly word “downsizing” from the management lexicon? And let its predecessor, “reduction in force,” or RIF, rest in peace, or RIP?)

Most of the carnage is occurring in defense, banking and retailing. One reason is that consolidation in those sectors still rules, and more shrinkage and merging are in store for 1996, notably in California. This is despite studies showing that mergers seldom pay off in savings or higher profits. By the way, sealed-on-a-handshake, do-it-yourself mega-mergers are in (witness Walt Disney’s pending bid for Capital Cities/ABC, engineered more or less by investor Warren Buffett).

O.J. Simpson is out of jail and, thank goodness, out of the public consciousness--for the most part. But seven-figure book deals for the lawyers on both sides of the “Trial of the Century” are disgustingly plentiful.

In Britain, airing the Royal laundry continues to be in vogue, as is hanky-panky by princes and princesses. After the queen’s decree, divorce is surely at hand.

The British Invasion has also brought us a very hot young rock band called the Beatles. (Let’s do the time warp again.) The mop-haired lads are mod once more--a quarter of a century after their breakup. Likewise, movies based on Jane Austen’s timeless, 200-year-old prose.

Elsewhere too, what’s old is definitely new again. The film “Toy Story” (with computer animation by Pixar, a hot commodity) has enabled baby-boomer parents to feel excellent about buying Mr. Potato Head, Etch-a-Sketch and Slinky dogs for their tykes. Barbie continues to reign, but forget the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Hush Puppies--a preppy favorite in the ‘70s--have staged an unexpected revival, inspired by Tom Hanks as “Forrest Gump” and wholeheartedly embraced by singer David Bowie. New shades: wild violet, Oxford blue and forest green, clearly not your father’s earth-tone suede pigskins.

As in shoes, comfort is taking a front burner at trendy eateries, where bean dishes, salads, soups and pies rate highly. Stuffed-crust pizzas are in; spicy buffalo wings are out. Reduced-fat cookies, chips, meats and soups are gearing up for another great year, but Taco Bell is looking for a way to rescue its Border Lites menu.

Of course, smoking in restaurants is taboo. But devotees of fancy cigars now have their own big, glossy magazine, Cigar Aficionado. And puffing away in Montecristo-friendly hot spots such as the Viper Room is a hit among trendy twentysomethings. Those Generation Xers think they’re in, but they have another think coming. Baby boomers can still pull rank based on sheer numbers. Watch for Modern Maturity subscriptions to soar.

The old-boy network reigns again in many quarters, and not just in Washington. Affirmative action is under siege. But Mr. Contract With America, a.k.a. Newt Gingrich, has flamed out of favor, whereas President Clinton’s approval rating has soared to a record high. Likewise, the world has soured on Rush Limbaugh and made a hero of Howard Stern. What a difference a year makes.

Career politics is out for a heap of career politicians in Washington, who decided to self-impose term limits after the most recent mean-spirited congressional session. But one career politician who can’t seem to get enough is California’s own Willie Brown, erstwhile Assembly speaker and mayor-elect of San Francisco. Balancing the federal budget is in, even if the art of compromise is not. Meanwhile, thousands of federal employees are out of luck.

In: Los Angeles’ fiscal crisis. Out: Orange County’s fiscal crisis.

Snowboarders outnumber skiers at many Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountain resorts. Home gyms have replaced health club memberships for many frazzled yuppies. Uprooting professional sports franchises appears to be the new sport for team owners. Baseball’s Cal Ripken, Mr. Work Ethic, is totally rad; Dennis Rodman, now of the Chicago Bulls, has made an art of being defensive and offensive at the same time.

Speaking of CBS, just about everything appearing on that beleaguered network is out--even David Letterman, whose ratings have been gored by Jay Leno’s. “Friends” envy is in--witness the plethora of TV-show copycats featuring gangs of impossibly gorgeous and perky 28-year-old male and female friends in you-name-the-setting.

And NBC’s “ER,” the hottest thing since angioplasty, is doing for hospital scrubs what “Friends” has done for hairdos. (In real-life hospitals, eight-hour maternity stays are in; 48-hour maternity stays are out.) Also big for the stars of these wildly successful shows is the leap from the small screen into big-money Hollywood pics.

In Tinseltown, the game of musical chairs continues with abandon. Out: Mickey Schulhof of Sony. In: Nobuyuki Idei at Sony. Out: Michael Fuchs of Time Warner’s Warner Music division. But don’t count him out.

Electric industry monopolies in California will soon be history, and energy-efficient electric cars have hit the brakes. But gas-guzzling luxury “utes” (sport-utility vehicles) are still going strong.

The Broadway department store chain will soon be a faint memory, as will the Bullock’s name. Let’s hear it for Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s.

Moonwalking went out years ago, but Jovian probes--by Jupiter, they are really in.

And the Northwestern Wildcats are in--the Rose Bowl, that is. Now, that’s in-credible!

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What’s Hot, What’s Not for ’96

OK, maybe it’s arbitrary, but this is probably what you’re going to overdose on--and what you won’t miss--in the new year.

ON A ROLL

The Internet

Mr. Potato Head

Luxury “utes”

Baby boomers

Old-boy network