A Quick Look at 1998 (because it's been 10 years... get it?)

Recently I have been getting emails about my upcoming 10 year high school class reunion. I started thinking about that last year of high school and you know, I just couldn't remember much. To be perfectly honest, my mind was already moving on because I was ready to go to university. Just for the heck of it I decided to take a trip through the 97-98 year. First though, I want to see how much you remember about the years 1997 and 1998...

First, 1997:

What was the first movie to gross more than $1 billion at the box office?

What colony returned to China under a proposed "One country, Two systems" pact?

What comet were Heaven's Gate cultists hoping to hitch a ride on after they died?

Whose 1997 antics inspired the headline: "Lobe Blow for Boxing"

Now, on to 1998:

Who claimed to have wirtten a resume that deadpanned: "Supervised vice president's invention of Internet"?

What film suspended production for a year so the star could let his hair grow and lose 50 pounds?

What Billy Blanks exercise program inspired fitness center knockoffs with names like Cardio Kickboxing?

What nemesis shared Time's "Men of the Year" honors with Bill Clinton?

Did that jog some memories?

I do remember the school year starting out with the death of Princess Diana followed by the death of Mother Theresa within a week. I remember piles of flowers at the palace gates in England with a huge funeral at Westminister Abbey. I also remember simple wrinkled hands laced with the Rosary resting on a white sari.

The Unabomer, Ted Kaczynski, plead guilty and was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. I remember my teacher actually calling Newsweek to figure out why "Unabomer" was spelled without the second 'b' on their cover. FYI, turns out "Unabom" was a name assigned to the original case, so the name itself was never actully meant to have the word "bomb" in it.

"I did not have sexual relations with that woman." Enough said.

The winter olympics were in Nagano, Japan. I think figure skating was practically at its height then, so Tara Lapynski and Michelle Kwan were the stars. I also liked Picabu Street because of her name and that she was from Idaho.

My friends all watched Titanic 1,538 times. I still haven't seen it.


Viagra was approved by the FDA. Canadian men were coming down in droves to get it giving Niagra Falls a new nickname.

Michael Jordan played his last game with the Chicago Bulls. I've never been much of an NBA fan, but that was truly an end to an era.

So, there you go. That helped jog my memory a little and to be perfectly honest, a little is enough. Now, on to making some more memories.

D

By the way, here are the answers to the trivia question above:

Titanic
Hong Kong

Hail-Bopp
Mike Tyson

Bill Clinton
Castaway
Tae Bo
Kenneth Starr