Gee. It’s the 18th year of the new millennium, yet I still want to call it the new millennium. Heck, I still need a dictionary to spell it right, but I suddenly realized it isn’t very new anymore.
As we stumble into 2018, what better guide than a look at what’s hot and what’s not? Top items on my hot list are robot floor scrubbers. I have the vacuum and appreciate it, but now there is one that vacs and scrubs. I think I’m in love.
Around here there are so many things that will never fall off any hot list, like our beaches and, generally, our weather. But what has hit the local “not” list? Let’s start with taking the freeway, anywhere, anytime. Add driving most anywhere on Fridays. I would put electric cars on the hot list, but I suspect self-driving cars will top them for 2018.
According to some reports, the gluten-free fad has slipped to the not list, but the Paleo diet and the farm-to-table cooking hold their hot spots. If you want to hit the top of the hot list, consider alternate edibles like flour made from crickets or going vegan. The best I can offer to that list is that I have become an absolute devotee of pasture-raised meat, from what I like to call happy animals. That doesn’t yet include crickets.
Word is that moringa oleifera is the new supplement that will give you what you haven’t got and take what you shouldn’t have. Yes, I had to look it up, too. But according to examine.com, preliminary evidence suggests its seeds and leaves have a respectable antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potency. The leaves are also a significant source of B vitamins, vitamin C, provitamin A as beta-carotene, vitamin K, manganese, and protein. I vote any strides in medicine straight onto the hot list.
I’m terribly excited that one fashion site insists that painfully high heels made the not list, along with “anything Kardashian” and, well, pom-poms. I didn’t actually notice the explosion of pom-poms in 2017, but I think I can live without them.
And finally, it looks like skateboarding remains on the hot list, but this year it will be the female skaters in the spotlight. Our very own homeboy Tony Hawk agrees. Exposure Skate and Oceanside’s Paul Mitchell NEON Supergirl Pro event are showcasing some impressive local women skaters, while doing some really great things for women, in general.
Last, and never least, I’m putting civility at the top of the hot list. To quote one of my favorite vintage “Saturday Night Live” skits, let’s just “simmer down now” for 2018, shall we?
Jean Gillette is a freelance writer who is clearly no slave to what’s hot and what’s not. You can contact her at [email protected].
