Hey! Children Really Are Our Future!
Polling wizard John Zogby believes today’s youth will be more practical and global, less materialistic and have a formidable BS detector when they grow up; and that, he says, is great news.

“At long last, cynicism bottoms out,” Zogby says in his new book, The Way We’ll Be. The book provides a look at Zogby’s innovative polling style (He sometimes asks his subjects, for instance, if they would like to see scientists bring back the woolly mammoth.), as well as what he and his organization think the world will look like in the not-too-distant future. (New York Times)

Striking Gold
Swimming superstar Michael Phelps’ historic eight-gold-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics was called by some the “Great Haul of China.” For Phelps, the real payday is just beginning.

According to some experts, Phelps may be the next iconic sports pitchman, nearly on par with Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods. “If he’s handled properly in the next four years, he should generate in excess of $40 million,” says Mark Ganis, president of the consulting firm Sportscorp Ltd.

Howard Freeman, president of the marketing firm Promo 1, said, “Phelps will reap the biggest financial reward from water since Jaws.”

Phelps already held $5 million worth of endorsements before he dipped his foot in the Beijing water, and he earned a $1 million bonus from swimsuit manufacturer Speedo after winning his seventh gold medal there. That’s just the beginning. The guy eats 12,000 calories a day. You don’t think McDonald’s won’t want a piece of that? (New York Daily News)

My, What a Lovely Shade of … Dark
Black is, and probably always will be, the new black. So says Cintra Wilson, who writes about the strangely enduring popularity of goth-oriented fashion in The New York Times. Seems the fashion statement, which has been around one way or another since Victorian ladies gussied up in their blackest best when their husbands kicked the bucket, is still very much with us. Its latest hallmarks: pale skin, vampiric elegance, decadent accessories and—well, black, black and black clothing. The reason for its continuing popularity is equally definitive.

“It remains a visual shortcut through which young persons of a certain damp emotional climate can broadcast to the other members of their tribe who they are,” writes Wilson, herself a former goth (adherent to the fashion, not a pillager of ancient Rome). “Goth is a look that simultaneously expresses and cures its own sense of alienation.” (New York Times)