 Contributors
 Letters to the Editor
Readers from Paris, New York and Jakarta
respond to Topic 3: Cities Remember Magic Eye?
The editors explain how to view the cover
– and admit that they can’t do it either. From the Editor:
Sombody get this man a Ninja Turtle!
DAVID HASKELL
Blips on the Radar
T.C. Boyle has made a career out of exposing
ludicrous fads, whether it be the health hysteria of the 1900s
or the commune craze of the 1970s.
Topic sat him down to find out how today stacks up.
As it turns out, we're nuttier than ever.
T.C. BOYLE
Building a Better Fad
Predicting fads for most people is a pastime
– for Jon Berry, it's a profession.
Here he shares a cookbook for the next big thing.
JON BERRY
Extreme Market Research
Pro-skater Ocean Howell looks back on
his career in the eye of the skateboarding storm.
Tales from the underbelly of skater-cool.
OCEAN HOWELL
Mali's Hipsters
Topic features the work of Malian photographer Malick Sidibé,
whose defining images exposed the edges of 1960s Bamako.
MALIK SIDIBÉ
Ghetto Exports
According to British author William Shaw,
hip-hop was determined not to become a white, suburban fad.
How did it fail so spectacularly?
WILLIAM SHAW
Selling the Lama
What do you do when your religion makes it into Vogue?
Vishvapani suggests what to make of Buddhism-lite.
VISHVAPANI
Inventing Reality
The developer of T.V.'s 'Big Brother' sits back
to observe his own era in broadcasting.
PETER BAZALGETTE
Adopting Love
It's been two decades since Cabbage Patch Kids
blanketed America. Historian and enthusiast Ann Wilhite
remembers finding a friendin the 1980s' most popular doll.
ANN WILHITE
Love is Everything
Brazilian writer Patrícia Melo calls the perfect body
the newest worldwide pathology – nowhere more so than Rio.
PATRÍCIA MELO
Translated from the Portuguese by Cliff Laanders
All That Glistens
The life and times of the shonky Peter Foster.
David Fickling reports from the Aussie Gold Coast.
DAVID FICKLING
Burying the Dead
The short, strange fad that was
Ben Ehrenreich's Grateful Dead.
BEN EHRENREICH
So, You Wanna Be a Rock Star?
Industry legend Danny Fields shares what it takes
to make it in the music business: know what you like.
DANNY FIELDS
Interviewed by Brian C. Crocker
New, Improved Hydrogen And Oxygen
Tim Morris reports from Texas on all those bottles
– and the future of the water industry.
TIM MORRIS
As Seen on T.V.!
Topic features the work of Argentinean photographer
Marcos Lopez, whose depictions of today's Buenos Aires reveal
a city dancing tango to a country music twang.
MARCOS LOPEZ
The Royal Road to Learning
Educational historian Diane Ravitch explores
the quest for cutting corners in America's schools.
DIANE RAVITCH
English for Beginners
Who knew this language could be so complicated?
Simon Elmes deconstructs how we speak today
– and predicts what will be gone tomorrow.
SIMON ELMES
Absinthe, Anyone?
Today's Ukraine: the land that fads forgot.
ANDREI KURKOV
Translated from the Russian by Alex Milner
Nostalgia in a Post-Genocidal Society
Peter Dickinson edits Kiev's What's On magazine.
To his mind, fads in Ukraine are alive, well
– and a little bit disturbing.
PETER DICKINSON
Globalisation on the Ground
Noreena Hertz, author, academic and activist,
locates the passion for protest.
What do you do when your cause becomes a fad?
NOREENA HERTZ
Why Oil Sheiks Love a Good Hummer
The battle over America's petroleum addiction.
ARIANNA HUFFINGTON
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