#1990s

#1990s

From Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville to the Wahlburgers chain, it's easy to assume that a boldface name attached to a restaurant equals instant success. Whether a restaurant boasts its celebrity owner on its sign or it's one of the many bars where VIPs are quieter investors, surely there's a certain momentum celebrities bring to their hospitality ventures, right? Wrong, if the demise of one particular restaurant chain is any clue.

What do you see when you hear the word "Chicago"? In the popular imagination, it's probably the skyline, skyscrapers with antennas forking into the clouds. Zoom in and you might focus on heavy and wet food like salad-loaded hot dogs, oily Italian beef sandwiches, and deep dish pizza. Think back and you'll conjure Michael Jordan with his tongue out, Harry Caray's blocky bifocals, or maybe George Wendt saying "Da Bears."

The 1990s were the decade that gave us boy bands, Pokémon, and an unreasonable fear of the coming millennium, but it was also the defining age of novelty gadgets. Long before smart small kitchen appliances started filling our homes, countertops and cabinets were brightened up by multi-functional tools designed to save time, remove fat, and part you from your hard-earned cash. The late-night infomercial prompted millions of amateur cooks to purchase items that claimed to make their culinary lives easier and their food so much better.

"The '80s and '90s felt like a bit of a lawless land for parents. We were told to sit back from the TV lest we ruin our eyes, but it’s rare to find a kid from that era who didn’t watch something incredibly inappropriate, either with their parents or on their own."

The classic '90s TV show The X-Files is returning as an official Lego set, ever more appealing than lackluster legacy seasons.

The new Lego sets feature iconic '90s themes, including The X-Files and Wallace & Gromit, bringing nostalgia and fan creativity to life.

Euro 80 was marked by violence and hooliganism, described as a miserable event, while Euro 2000 celebrated the joy of football, highlighting a significant change in the sport.

Rather than the minimalism that's regularly embraced in the 21st century, the 1990s hinged on a sense of warmth and coziness. The warm-walled '90s color scheme provides a great retreat from cold, harsh colors.

"I had been complaining about action shows since I was a kid... Both anime shows and also American shows would have 20 minutes of talking and then two minutes of great action. They didn't give me enough, I wanted more."

If you have to fill your brain up with anything, it might as well be the funniest stuff that's ever been on TV.

"When Harriet arrived, she found an office that smelled of fresh paint and had enough mess lying about that she concluded staff had only just moved in from another facility and were yet to finish unpacking."

"We decided we wanted a couple of days off... We were losing our minds. But all I had was people shouting through the letterbox at me for three days."

Reggie Miller reminisced about his friendship with Macaulay Culkin during the 90s, recalling the joy of sharing their love for basketball amidst their respective fame.

It's the earnestness of today's high-stakes culture wars that has dulled the Turner prize's edge, making this year's shortlist disappointing and uninspired.

In his new book 1999: The Year Low Culture Conquered America and Kickstarted Our Bizarre Times, Ross Benes explores one fateful year and its impact on everything from network television to consumerist mania.