Word: american
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Poretz and fellow marketing executive Barry Sinrod have published The First Really Important Survey of American Habits (Price Stern Sloan, $4.95), a really important book for people who want to know what percentage of Americans rolls the toilet paper over the spool (68%) or what portion actually eats the fortune cookie (79%). Habits sold out immediately and is sprinting through its second printing toward a third. "It's a silly, funny, not-to-be-taken- seriousl y book," says Sinrod, a funny, not-to-be-taken-seriously fellow. He and Poretz mailed out questionnaires to a cross section...
Students of the American character will find plenty to chew on here, since the intrusive survey asks its recipients how old they were when they first made love (51% were under 18); whether they look behind the shower curtain or door when using someone else's bathroom (7% do); whether, if they found a diamond ring, they would attempt to locate the owner (79% would); and whether they eat corn on the cob side to side or in circles (for those who can't wait to find out, fully 80% eat it in circles...
Slash TV? Not quite. But horror, fantasy and science fiction have invaded the medium with a vengeance. The NBC series Quantum Leap involves time travel, and Fox's new Alien Nation postulates a Los Angeles of the future, where people from another planet are trying to integrate into American society. Cable is going for classy shocks in such series as Shelley Duvall's Nightmare Classics on Showtime and HBO's Tales from the Crypt, adapted from the old E.C. horror comics and directed by such notables as Walter Hill (48 HRS.) and Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future...
Californians are starting to calculate their risks a bit differently. Rene and Tony Donaldson live near Stanford University. Their $425,000 home escaped major damage in the Pretty Big One, though the tremors did smash their collection of American Indian pottery. "Now I know why California Indians didn't have a pottery tradition," Rene says with the deadpan cool of a real Californian. "In the future we'll collect baskets instead." But the Donaldsons are also looking into quake insurance, which they turned down when they bought their house four years ago. And while they are still determined to stand...
RICHARD MILHOUS NIXON: THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN POLITICIAN...