• 1974: “NEW DELHI-India in the year 2000: about half the population will be homeless, food will be scarce, the landscape will be bare of trees.”
• 1966: “IN THE year 2000, when Shirley Temple will be 72 and the moon may be a tourist stop, women may be able to change the color of their dresses by blowing a supersonic whistle, buy their wardrobes prepacked in cans and spray on their accessories…”
• 1967: “GENETICIST LOOKS AT THE YEAR 2000; Sees a World Free of Hunger and Infectious Disease, but Also a ‘Crisis of Values’”
• 1967: “THE chic woman of the year 2000 may have live butterflies fluttering around her hairdo. The butterflies, would be attracted by a specially scented hair spray…”
• 1977: “EAST BRUNSWICK, June 1 By the year 2000, the family could become a relic, men and women will enter the work force later and leave earlier and the gap between generations will become a chasm…”
• 1976: “UNITED NATIONS, N.Y., Oct. 13 The once-fashionable “doomsday economics,” which warned that the planet could not sustain advancing economic growth, was questioned again today with publication of a detailed blueprint to help world governments narrow the gap between rich and poor nations by the year 2000.”

—from the first page of search results for “the year 2000” in the criminally slept-on New York Times archive. Inspired by this hilarious 1982 article I saw linked up on hackernews this morning (“The report suggests that one-way and two-way home information systems, called teletext and videotex, will penetrate deeply into daily life”).

“Back then, over-the-top materialism seemed really interesting,” Mr. Regruto said. “But now with the recession and terrorism, globe-trotting socialites and yachts seem so superficial.”

That’s from 2002. The “Back then” refers to a 2000-vintage party, at Lot 61. This is all from an article about the burgeoning bohemia in the Financial District.

The cultural refs are funny, but reading Taavo going on about his Pussycat Lounge party without mentioning anything about mosques or hallowedness reminds us of our lost innocence.

I have not infrequently noted a disposition on the part of THE TIMES to go out of its way to show an unfriendliness, if not antipathy, to Irishmen, many of whom no doubt (including myself) are readers of your paper.

I think God might be real, because like a BOLT OF LIGHTNING two seconds ago the idea popped into my brain that if I searched for “Irishman” in the New York Times archive, I’d find gold. GOLD!

“Alongside the familiar L. L. Bean duck boots, Brooks Brothers shirts and Ray-Ban Wayfarers, there are Filson duffel bags, Gokey boots, Alden dress shoes, Gitman oxford shirts, Quoddy Trail moccasins, Wm. J. Mills canvas totes — to name but a few.”

Apparently, it takes a about 18 months to go from “criminally slept on”to “byword for Americana style in the NYT Styles section.

This is the best part of the article, though:

“What makes today’s prepidemic so fascinating is how it is, surprisingly enough, so Japanese. The look has its roots in the United States, to be sure. But the spirit, rigor and execution of today’s prep moment is as Japanese as Sony.”

This is totally true. Consequently (and with an american-made straw boater tip to Nina), I think rather than referring to this style as “made-in-the-usa/americana/workwear/classic”, we should borrow from the Japanese and just shorten it to amekaji. Here are some sample usages:

“Hey, have you been to the J. Crew Liquor Store?” “Yeah, man, that place is totally amekaji.”

“Have you noticed The Sartorialist has been posting an awful lot of amekaji photos lately?”.

A few years ago, I was bringing a racing boat back to England after Antigua Sailing week and we made a pit stop in Horta, in the Azores Islands, after 12 dry days at sea. There was a gale building behind, a full moon overhead, the deck and rigging were streaked with phosphorescence, and I turned off the instrument lights and drove by feel, with dolphins as outriders making luminous trails through the swells. You can smell land long before you see it. It smells like newly-mown hay, makes you think of all the things you’ve missed at sea — high on that list, for me, was sex and hooch — and Horta has one of the best bars in the world, Peter’s Cafe Sport.

I know I been real down on the New York Times Company lately, but I’ve enjoyed this Proof blog, particularly yesterday’s entry.

First, Finnish religious leaders warned that the Freddy Krueger look-alikes could inspire Satanic worship. Then critics called for President Tarja Halonen to use her constitutional powers to veto the band and nominate a traditional Finnish folk singer instead. Rumors even circulated that Lordi members were agents sent by President Vladimir V. Putin to destabilize Finland before a Russian coup — an explanation for their refusal to take off their freakish masks in public.