No matter how we feel about 2020, it’s always nice to pause and reminisce about the past in order to excite our minds with nostalgia. Below are ten bits of “cool” from the glorious 1990s. Many of these entries conjure pure joy when thought of. This eclectic list includes some very fascinating backstories and curious histories for these pop culture gems. And at the end of the day, aren’t we ALL waiting for JNCOs to make a comeback?

Top Ten Banned Snacks

10 Big Brother Magazine

The first issue was released in 1992 with a warning label and a cartoon picture of a teen pointing a revolver at his nose. The second issue was when Jackass creator Jeff Tremaine jumped on the insane Steve Rocco-led ride that would literally become a middle-finger to all of the corporate-run skater magazines out at the time (which were basically professionally shot shoe catalogues). It was crude, rude, in-your-face and disgusting. It was everything a 1990s skater kid wanted. From as young as eleven I loved Dave Carnie’s profanity-laced editorials.

Big Brother published literally ANYTHING. From articles on how to commit suicide, to how to use a straw to take coke, with a picture of a kid using one off a skateboard (it was pixie-stik dust IRL). The editorial team would also do bonkers stunts like package issues in cereal boxes and they were the first magazine to start attaching VHS cassettes and stickers. Big Brother was also the precursor to DIY media pre-internet, so it wasn’t just a bunch of pre-Jackass-fame idiots laughing at poop jokes.^[1]

9 POGs

POGs have a wild history that goes as far back as 400 years. The game has it’s roots in an Edo Period (1603-1868) game called Menko. Menko was originally played with circular paper pieces. The game travelled as such into Polynesia, but in Japan it evolved to use rectangular cards; which are largely believed to also be the forerunners to trading cards (fun fact: Nintendo started as a trading card company). Menko then became POGs when in 1991 a school counselor wanted the kids to play a non-violent game at recess, but instead of milk caps from the 1920s and 1930s, she used the caps from the fruit beverage company Passion Orange Guava.

This innocent act gave birth to what would become a worldwide craze. Soon the game had hopped the Pacific and caught the eye of a Southern Californian business man named Alan Ripinski who bought the rights to the lids and licensed out the idea to basically everyone and everything in the 1990s. You could find OJ Simpson mug-shot ones, every fast food and soda company had one, every hit movie coming to theaters got in on the game; 350 million were sold in 1994 alone. However, Ripinski would end up being a victim of his own success and by flooding the market, it also destroyed the game. By 1996 knock-offs were being made out of flashy plastic and 3D images, which just turned them into trinket collector items. The fad had come and gone in only a few years.^[2]

8 Goldeneye 64

This was the quintessential video game of the 1990s, period. Goldeneye 64 changed the way we gamed in first-person-shooters, as it buried Doom by breaking away from the fixed-rail format. Development began in 1995 and when the game was released on the Nintendo 64 system in August of 1997, no one expected it to be the success that it was. It was the first game to use all four controller plugs and is the godfather of multi-screen death matches (which was actually a last minute addition). The game is also argued to be the single most important first-person-shooter in gaming history, It is the third best-selling N64 game of all time, and has won a plethora of awards for its innovation. Many of us in a certain age-group have fond memories and I personally miss my GameShark loaded with all the cheat codes. Paintball mode with golden rocket launchers anyone?^[3]

7 JNCOs

Los Angeles-based JNCO (Judge None Choose One) was started by Moroccan-born and French raised brothers Haim Milo Revah and Jacques Yaakov in 1985. Using $200,000 of their life savings, the brothers wanted to shatter the norm when it came to denim and were heavily inspired by the baggy pants of urban Californian Latinos. Looking back it seems mad any of us wore these, but it all came down to an entire rebellious generation thinking that Levis, which were made popular by young boomers, were antiquated and uncool. The famous JNCO crown logo was designed by the very well respected L.A. street artist Joseph Montalvo, a.k.a. Nuke. Teens couldn’t get enough of the alien-like designs, colorful logo patches and eccentric colors.

The most popular leg width was the 23” design, but JNCO also made one that was 50” wide. The company started raking in the cash and by 1998 they made $186.9 million. The next year those sales slipped by half. By the 2000s the company crawled along with scattered sales from club kids and ravers. In 2018 the JNCO license was terminated, but then in 2019 they announced they were looking to make a comeback. Not sure if we need JNCOs in 2020, though.^[4]

6 Surge Soda

In the 1980s and 1990s Coca Cola and Pepsi were in an aggressive marketing war to become America’s absolute soda. These “Cola Wars” were merciless and produced some odd products while the two giants tried to one-up each other’s portfolios. Surge was introduced into the market in 1997 as a competitor to Pepsi’s Mountain Dew. Now Mountain Dew was technically created in 1940 with a revised formula in 1958 and the recipe was finally acquired by Pepsi Co. in 1964. Mountain dew had already been around for decades, so Coca Cola went all in. In an age of skater punks and MTV, Coke decided to create and market Surge as a “hardcore” cola. Coke scientists also decided to use maltodextrin, which is an enhanced energy-producing starch, instead of caffeine. Coke intended to launch Surge with a Super Bowl ad, but first they had to pay an undisclosed amount to a company that produced cow milking machines with the same “Surge” name. After only five years in 2003, Surge was discontinued with a few recent limited re-releases.^[5]

Top 10 Discontinued Sodas

5 Sony Playstation 1

Released into the Japanese market in 1994 and then in the North American market in 1995, the Sony Playstation was actually supposed to be built in partnership with Nintendo. The split came around 1991 when Nintendo broke with Sony to work with Philips and it is rumored the similar grey and block-like design to the Super Nintendo system was done maliciously. The Playstation was also the first real gamble in 3D gaming and was considered a high risk venture. Interestingly, the black color of the disks was made for no reason other than to look cool. Crash Bandicoot was supposed to be a wombat originally. And the PS1 also had two failed mascots. The first was Polygon man who was a head made of shapes to show the contours of the 3D effects, and the second was an obscure white cat character named Toro which never made its way out of Japan.^[6]

4 McDonald’s Big N’ Tasty (or: The Failed War Against the Whopper)

Major corporations can be really nasty and overly competitive. Like Coke and Pepsi, McDonald’s and Burger King have always been bitter rivals despite having enough differences to technically be treated as separate entities with plenty of original and distinctive menu items to offer. That was not enough for McDonald’s, they needed to once and for all bury the Whopper and its fresh veggie toppings. First came the McDLT in 1984 offering fresh lettuce, tomato, pickles and onions in a ridiculously designed packaging (and hilarious ad wit future-Seinfeld’s “Jason Alexander” looking considerably more hirsute than today) which was a huge flop… then came the 1990s. In 1991 the McLean Deluxe came and went. Then the Arch Deluxe in 1996 which failed. Finally came the Big N’ Tasty which debuted in 1997. Eventually it was demoted to one of the original dollar menus. Finally replaced in 2003 for the double cheeseburger. It’s still occasionally referred to as the “Big N’ Nasty” as it is only available on some military bases and parts of the Middle East.^[7]

3 Pokemon

Pokemon, originally Pocket Monsters, was developed by Game Freak and Published by Nintendo in 1996. Game Freak was originally a mini-comic publication that interviewed local arcade owners for tips on beating certain games. Starting in a house, Game Freak now resides in an ambiguous carrot-shaped building in Setagaya, Tokyo. You won’t see an identifiable Pokemon sign or character anywhere until long after you pass through security. Game Freak started out very small and only won the trust of Nintendo in 1991 for developing a Yoshi puzzle game, then later on a Mario & Wario game that would never make it to North America. Originally, Pokemon was released as Green and Red versions, but it was redone for international release and changed to Red and Blue. Shockingly, Pokemon was actually supposed to end with the Gold and Silver versions. They should be thankful they didn’t as they would have foolishly missed out on billions… with a B.^[8]

2 Titanic

At the time of its release in 1997, Titanic by James Cameron was the most expensive film ever made at $200 million. To date, it has grossed $2.195 billion only getting beat by Cameron’s other epic, Avatar. Titanic was a cultural phenomenon and it’s almost impossible to imagine anyone else in the roles of Rose and Jack, but things could have turned out much differently if Matthew McConaughey and Gwyneth Paltrow had been picked instead. They were first choice for the parts but a relatively unknown Kate Winslet sent Cameron a bouquet of roses apparently saying “Roses from your Rose” which got her the audition and the part. Leo was allegedly cranky on set and sick of Cameron’s giant set pieces and massive pool. Film is a hard business and the 14-hour days got to him on multiple occasions. Leo even asked Kathy Bates in-between takes which utensil he should lobotomize himself with (these days, thanks to his political outbursts, I’m sure many people would happily suggest something appropriate). Good things did happen on set for Baby Leo. When Winslet knew Leo would need to see her in the nude, she broke the ice and flashed him before they shot their scene. Enya was actually supposed to score the soundtrack, not Celine Dion. The cost of the movie was more expensive than the Titanic in real-life with inflation ($200 million > $150 million). And the strangest thing happened on the last night of shooting. On location in Nova Scotia, someone drugged the chowder being served to the cast and crew with PCP (angel dust). Some 80 people needed to be rushed to the hospital for hallucinations.^[9]

1 The O.J. Simpson Trial

The People of The State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson was THE court case of the 1990s and was the precursor to live true-crime events unfolding in spectacular media-frenzy fashion. Charged with the murder of his wife, Nicole Brown, O.J. got help before his arrest from Kim Kardashian’s father, Robert Kardashian (who was also on his defense team and a very close friend). O.J. literally almost shot himself in the head in Kim’s bedroom before Robert talked him out of it. Then came the famous car chase. The white Bronco used in the live-action extravaganza is now housed in a crime museum in Tennessee, and while the events were unfolding, the country came to complete halt. Domino’s pizza orders skyrocketed as people were glued to their televisions. The entire world could not look away. O.J. was famously acquitted and one of the prosecutors, Marcia Clark, even stated that the trial and verdict ruined her life despite hitting it big with a best-selling book about the events. The most bonkers fact of them all is that when O.J. was found not guilty, he threw a massive party he organized himself and it was so rowdy the police needed to shut it down. Strange decade . . . but who wouldn’t love to be back there . . . even if just for a day?^[10]

Top 10 Reasons Life Was Better In The ’90s

The ’90s are famous for many things—but these days, they’re most famous for their spawn—the overly-nostalgic X-ennial middle-children that call themselves 90s kids. You might be a ’90s kid if you always start sentences with, “Aw man, ‘member…?” You might be a ’90s kid if you think the best version of everything was the version you had when you were 10. You might also be a 90s kid if you caught the Jeff Foxworthy reference and hate it.

The one thing that is guaranteed to be common to all of us 90s kids is that we all grew up with the absolute weirdest trends. Our toys, tech, food, and furniture were all nuts, at least until we collectively wisened up and moved on to the next nonsensical fad. Here are ten of those bizarre trends of the ’90s, and may we all absorb these harsh truths and do better next childhood.

10 Furbies

I need to get these haunting little monsters out of the way first so I can close some tabs and never see their vacant, inhuman eyes again. Furbies were at best an annoying knickknack designed to periodically shout out Simlish and, at worst, an over-the-counter demon for children. It’s been said before: this was an odd fad. Sure, the trend toward home robotics has always been inevitable, but we all expected our home robots to be humanoid butlers or lovable metal dogs, not cheap Mogwai knockoffs that watch you while you sleep.

Somehow, Furbies reigned supreme for a few years, around 1998 and 1999. During this time, 15-20 million Furbies charmed their way into households across the globe and entertained children by nonconsensually recording them and learning their language. However, a series of revivals in the new millennium failed, and at least for now, any Furbie heat is constrained to the back burner.

9 Big Mouth Billy Bass

Let me just say this out loud. It’s a mounted fish. But it’s fake. And it sings. Exclusively the most annoying song you’ve ever heard. And only when someone walks by. Sigh. Okay. As someone who once actually got for Christmas from my mother a towel marked on one side with ‘butt’ and the other side with ‘face,’ let me say with some certainty: joke gifts are not good gifts.

If you know someone who loves fishing, get them a rod and reel or an actual mounted bass. Don’t get them something that forces them to do the awkward, “Why the heck did they get me this? Now I have to fake being thankful, “Gee thanks, grandma!”‘ present performance. This inexplicably successful fish made more than $100 million dollars in its first few months of sale, and later spawned (heh heh) spinoffs such as a Christmas Billy Bass, a deer head named Buck the Animated Trophy, and a new Alexa-enabled Billy Bass, guaranteed to frustrate a number of hippies when they ask their home assistant to “play Phish.”

8 Wassup

Let’s face it: Budweiser was absolutely on fire when it came to advertising in the 90s. I still think about those three delightfully laconic frogs “Bud”, “Weis,” and “Er,” and even their less-popular frenemy the chameleons. Then in 1999, Anheuser-Busch rolled out the “Whassup?” ad, which took their advertising dominance to new levels. The commercial won a Clio, the Oscars of advertising, and was even inducted into the Clio hall of fame. And everyone saw this commercial.

You know they did because everyone started saying whassup constantly, always making it raspier, longer, and more unintelligible. I was a preteen at the time, and this meant that every person in my school said “whassup” every day—in the hallway, in the cafeteria, at recess. Then I would come home and my dad’s friends would be saying it. It was the type of cultural wildfire that forced news anchors to learn the word ‘memetic’—a decade before they learned the word ‘meme.’

7 Blow up furniture

I’m going to place the blame for this one on “Clarissa Explains It All,” “Blossom,” “Saved by the Bell,” and every other 90s kids show in which the characters inevitably slept in overly elaborate rooms filled to the brim with neon, bowling alley carpets, and thrift-store miracle-finds.

There was a lot of wish-fulfillment in 90s kid’s shows when it came to furniture. Those kids had everything, and everything was perfectly unique. It was all so kitschy. To emulate this, normal kids grew up wanting to put their own spin on interior decorating. Enter blow-up furniture. If you’ve ever sat in a blow-up chair in shorts, you know why this trend was doomed to fail, but for a time it was all the rage.

With a few cheap items, kids could make their rooms big, bright, and loud. They could make their room theirs. Of course, anything blow-up in the hands of a child is destined to pop, but that didn’t mean that fun night on the blow-up couch watching Clueless and chatting with Nate on your clear-plastic wall phone wasn’t worth it.

6 Pokemon

Yes, Pokemon is still around and yes, it’s only getting bigger in a lot of ways. But when writing about the bizarre creations of the 90s, you can’t not include its most famous sci-fi anime dogfighting card game/RPG. Love it or kind of love it (because how can you hate Pokemon?) you have to admit that the premise is just insane.

The Pokemon story goes like this: at age 10, Ash, a child whose father is being cuckolded by a Mr. Mime, leaves home alone. He travels the world, sleeping in bushes and blindly trusting every adult he meets in any old dark forest. His goal: find every animal in the world, force it to fight another animal until it loses consciousness, and then capture it inside a Matrix-like digital prison forever. He will periodically let the animals loose for ‘bonding,’ but this is just so they can recover in time for the next fight. After all, the ultimate plan is to catch ’em all, i.e., force the entirety of the natural world into captivity, and that takes capable combatants.

And yes, maybe the franchise has some good qualities, too. Maybe I cried when Ash gave up Butterfree, maybe I still have my first holographic Haunter, and maybe when my little nephew asks me to tell him about all the old Pokemon, my heart explodes. Maybe. But that doesn’t make this franchise any less bizarre as a multi-billion dollar kids’ show and game.

5 AOL Instant Messenger

Sit back and let xX_bannana_hammock_Xx tell you a story. Before the dawn of social media, communication on the internet was more cloistered. Niche communities used small chat services to talk, often about (at the time) counterculture topics like coding, anime, and comics. There were larger instant messaging clients with broader user bases- the old IRC comes to mind- but it wasn’t until 1997, when AOL launched AIM, that an instant messaging service became a widespread phenomenon. AIM launched right when the internet was beginning to become a part of daily life, and unlike other AOL services, was made available for free to any internet user, not just AOL clients. Suddenly the cloister was open to all. And it often got weird.

Suddenly people discovered things like sarcastic away messages, using song quotes on your page to seem deep, ghosting, the perils of creating a ‘close friends’ list, and even forcefully blocking a person from using their own application. That’s right. With AIM, you could “warn” someone enough to forcefully log them off their own account. I don’t think the AIM programmers understood trolling yet.

4 Pogs

Just to be clear, this is where a lot of our addictive personalities were born. Pogs were collectible cardboard discs, ostensibly the caps to old milk jugs, with cool designs drawn on them. As a craze, this one is weird.

They were literally just cardboard circles, although they had skateboarding bigfoots and whatnot on them, which I guess adds value. There was a game based on Pogs, involving slamming stacks of them with heavier plastic or metal discs, though most Pog enthusiasts seemed to be in it just for the collection. And again: the collection was just cardboard circles. This fad understandably didn’t last, and the company which brought the Pog brand to popularity in the early 90s, Canada Games Company, was out of business by 1997. The lasting effect of the craze was that we were now primed at a young age to value hoarding…

3 Beanie Babies

…and hoard we did. For kids, the 90s were all about moving from one collectible craze to another. If looking at the ratio between money spent and lack of reward, Beanie Babies were the king. And they still are, as eBay continues to play host to hundreds of Beanie Baby collectors seeking to cash in and reap their well-earned fortune, only to be disappointed when no buyer appears. For many, Beanie Babies are a hard lesson that just because someone says something has value, that doesn’t mean it actually does. While that can be true—capitalism does exist, after all—Beanie Babies prove it often isn’t.

In 1995, Beanie Babies became a craze. They were cute, cuddly, and adorably named. Their creator Ty, Inc., started “retiring” certain Babies to create market rarity and drive up collection in reaction to this. It worked extremely well for a time. Both Beanie Baby sales and resales were a huge industry. Then came the inevitable collapse, as people starting asking themselves questions like, “What the hell do I do with 500′ Bandage Bears’, and why did I insure every single one for $10,000?”

2 Bowl cuts

Fashion is subjective. What looks good now may look stupid in 10 years, or even now but to a different audience. Except, that is, for bowl cuts. They have never looked good and never will. As their name implies, Bowl cuts are haircuts in which the hair has the shape of an upside-down bowl. Indeed, many of them were created by cutting around actual bowls. This haircut is so wrong, so evil, so universally reviled that even The Ramones couldn’t make them cool.

The Ramones were able to make a song about beating a bratty child with a baseball bat (oh yeah) and make that cool, but they couldn’t make bowl cuts cool. I know fashion is supposed to cyclical. I’d rather spin back around to wearing the skulls of enemy tribes as a belt before I accept bowl cuts back.

1 Nicktoons

Before you lash the timbers together for the crucifixion, just hear me out. The article title is “bizarre” 90s trends—not bad trends, not good trends, just bizarre ones. And Nickelodeon in the 90s was so strange, the long-forgotten Greek god of bizarreness Catdogius was able to regain his full former power and take Zeus’s throne. Here’s a test. Google search “most normal Nicktoon” and count the results.

Now Search “Nicktoon” alongside “weird,” “strange,” or even “creepy” and count those results. As fun as it was describing the Pokemon plot without context, attempting that with Spongebob would be suicide. “Rocko’s Modern Life,” for one, is so weird that even just the intro sequence plays like one of David Lynch’s transcendental meditation dreams if the director had been experimenting with mescaline and bath salts. Even “Rugrats,” which in theory is just a show about babies, uh… doing baby stuff, feels like a fever dream at times. Don’t believe me? Go watch “Angelica’s Worst Nightmare,” and then we’ll talk.

We’ve all heard the phrase before: 9/11 changed everything.^[1] Over the course of 102 minutes,^[2] the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon seemed to wake the free world up from a happy daydream – a decade-long doze that began with the fall of communism and continued through the dot-com economic boom. We thought Western democracy was history’s final answer. We thought wrong.

But the tragedy of September 11, 2001 isn’t the only reason we yearn for a time the Twin Towers still stood. The decade before everything changed was alluring in myriad ways that 9/11 only punctuated. Here’s a few reasons why 90s nostalgia is so widespread and worthwhile.

10 Famous People Who Avoided Death on 9/11

10 A Dominant Decade

The 90s were essentially bookended by the fall of structural and symbolic behemoths: the Iron Curtain and the Twin Towers. In between was the mesmerizing myth of the “end of history”^[3] – the notion that, given Western Civilization’s triumph in the Cold War, free-market democracies would be the permanently predominant form of governance. The world was ours for the making.

What a remarkable run it was. When the Berlin Wall was breached starting in November 1989, a Western winning streak began that lasted through the ensuing decade. First, allied forces cut through Saddam Hussein’s vaunted Republican Guard in mere days, freeing Kuwait. Then the West developed and proliferated the first new mass medium since the advent of television; the Internet fueled a booming peacetime economy worthy of the West’s view from Earth’s figurative mountaintops.

Thinking oceans would buffer America from the world’s last real trouble spot, the Middle East, President Clinton balked at an opportunity to assassinate an up-and-coming terrorism financier named Osama bin Laden.^[4] Upon assuming office in early 2001, George W. Bush ignored urgently-worded warnings about a pending US attack being planned by bin Laden’s organization, al Qaeda.

We paid for our hubris with 3,000 lives and two destructive, quagmire wars that threw the Western world’s illusion of invincibility into history’s trash heap.

9 Polarized? Puh-lease

9/11 brought the free world together in mourning and Americans – whatever their political affiliation – together in patriotism and righteous purpose. Polls taken in the attacks’ immediate aftermath placed President George W. Bush’s approval rating at 90%.^[5] Considering a month-long legal battle for the White House – the 2000 Florida recount – had transpired less than a year earlier, that’s truly remarkable.

Nearly two decades later, it’s safe to say that 9/11 didn’t unite liberals and conservatives so much as it temporary dissolved differences that simply weren’t that wide. Pre-9/11, what we saw as political polarization now seems innocent.

In the US, the 90s began with George H.W. Bush as president – a war hero who steered the country through the Persian Gulf conflict and diplomatically refused to gloat when the Soviet Union collapsed. To counteract a rising deficit, he then raised taxes as a Republican, likely sacrificing a second term. His successor, Bill Clinton, was a Democrat who signed tough-on-crime mandatory-sentencing drug laws, and repealed a longstanding law against limiting risky investments by traditional banks^[6] – a free-market free-for-all that led directly to the 2008 financial crisis. Finally, the policy differences between 2000 Election candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush were laughably minor compared to this year’s race.

Similar centrism played out elsewhere. With an economy driven by the dot-com boom and no major military conflicts, the differences between, say, Conservative Prime Minister John Major and his Labour Party successor, Tony Blair, seem quaint given England’s heated post-Brexit polarization.

9/11 brought political rivals together because their differences were reconcilable. A solid argument can be made that this is no longer the case.

8 Global Warming Wasn’t a Hot Topic Yet

The 90s may end up being the final decade that humanity doesn’t feel the Sword of Damocles dangling over its collective neck.

The Soviet Union’s demise removed the specter of nuclear war from everyday life, with schools across the Western world retiring duck and cover instructional cartoons. 9/11, of course, would teach us that adversaries could effectively substitute jet fuel for enriched uranium – and, unlike with nukes, obtain and deploy it using standard box-cutters.

Sandwiched between communism and terrorism, the non-combative 90s were, coincidentally, also the last full decade when we didn’t realize the true gravity of global warming. Not that we were clueless: advances in computer modeling during the 90s led scientists to declare a near-consensus regarding greenhouse emissions’ and their effects. We just didn’t know it would become this urgent this fast.

Two decades later, we set high temperature records with regularity, heat-trapping carbon dioxide is more concentrated than it’s been in three million years,^[7] and life-sustaining coral reefs are being bleached en masse.

During a decade of optimism, ignorance was bliss and time seemed on our side. We’re in a very different place today.

7 The Nanny State Was Still in Its Infancy

On March 28, 2003, at about 11:55pm, I lit a cigarette, did a shot of cheap whiskey and chased it with a swig of even cheaper beer. I extinguished my smoke as the entire bar counted down, New Year’s Eve-style, to midnight. The bartender then cleared the ashtrays . . . forever. My beloved New York City had banned smoking in bars^[8] in the latest sign of its quickly-fading trademark grittiness. Another one bites the dus . . . uh, ashes.

NYC’s smoking ban was a questionably coincidental civic safety microcosm of the nanny state ushered in by 9/11. Peacocking their willingness to do anything in the name of security, Western political leaders passed sweeping new surveillance laws. The result was predictable: a decade after the USA’s controversial Patriot Act, it wasn’t just the government tracking and tapping our cell phones, but corporations, marketers and potential employers^[9] as well.

Perhaps it was inevitable that, eventually, monopolistic online companies would be eavesdropping our every move to serve up customized crap for us to buy.^[10] Perhaps not. Here, the pre-9/11 era was quaint by circumstance, as it was a time when data wasn’t as all-permeating and, as such, couldn’t be weaponized as effectively.

9/11 ended our innocence; its aftermath ended our privacy – which leads directly to the next entry.

6 Big Brother Wasn’t Watching

. . . at least not always. In the years since 9/11, our increasingly nonexistent data privacy has been compounded by our equally nonexistent physical privacy.

The Brits are the most incessantly voyeuristic: The United Kingdom has one closed circuit television (CCTV) for every 11 citizens.^[11] In London alone there are more than 625,000 CCTV cameras, creating sizable swaths where getting out of range of one public camera means coming into range of another. There is literally nowhere to hide.

Not to be outdone in the race for China-level citizenry surveillance,^[12] officials in New York want to know not only where we are but where we’re going.^[13] The rationale for such surveillance is often unconvincing: recently, the city launched initiatives that track drivers and passengers entering and leaving the city, as well as where taxis and ride-hailing services pick up and drop off. The stated reason was – no joke – preventing driver fatigue.^[14]

Here again, the narrowing of privacy coincides with both the post-9/11 security-first mindset and the advancement of digital tracking and HD camera technology. The former is excuse, the latter execution.

10 Heroic Police Officers Who Gave Their Lives on 9/11

5 Security Was Simpler

OK, perhaps a little TOO simple. Why on Earth the cockpit doors of giant, jet-fuel-laden commercial airliners were EVER left unsecured is beyond comprehension.

Still, it took the confluence of a well-funded mass-suicide mission and stunning point-of-entry security screw-ups to bring 9/11 to fruition. Nineteen hijackers, many of whom barely spoke English, were willing to sacrifice their lives, with four able to attend flight schools without scrutiny . . . despite showing no interest in learning how to land. Red flag, guys.

On the day of the attack, a ticket agent nearly detained ringleader Mohamed Atta^[15] out of suspicion of terrorism. Then, incompetent airline security workers managed to allow men with boxcutters – which, contrary to what many believe, were NOT allowed prior to 9/11^[16] – onto the doomed planes.

The West’s great reckoning with its naïve 90s sense of safety, then, took cascading events of kamikaze determination and official dumbass-edness to become reality. The simpler, softer security we experienced was ALMOST enough to prevent the worst terrorist attack in modern history.

And then . . . the inevitable overcompensation. Airport security has gone from being slightly too lax to scrutinizing breastmilk^[17] and patting down a 96-year-old woman in a wheelchair.^[18] Part of 90s nostalgia is longing for a time when we didn’t need to get half nude in public to take a vacation.

4 Our Final Shared Experience?

If 9/11 happened this coming September 11 instead of 2001, we wouldn’t have both eyes glued to TVs . . . because we’d have one on our social media feeds. We’d be macabre witnesses to Facebook posts from trapped office workers, evacuees live-Tweeting their descent to hopeful safety and, likely, live-stream suicides as desperate, doomed jumpers recorded their final ten-second plummet.

But since 9/11 occurred three years before Facebook and six before the iPhone, we instead got what may end up being our final worldwide shared experience: billions around the globe transfixed to TVs broadcasting a smoking tower, the second plane’s live-on-air impact, the Pentagon aflame. And then . . . the collapses, the first breathtakingly surprising, the latter terrifyingly anticipated.

Here again, 9/11 is an unintentional demarcation line. Though a new medium, the Internet, proliferated during the 90s, it hadn’t yet given everyday people – bystanders, soon-to-be-victims trapped on high floors, passengers in hijacked planes – the sort of instant mass-megaphone social media provides. As such, the horror was a more collective experience.

However, though we were spared the horror of hundreds providing running accounts of their deaths, social media may have helped folks trapped in the South Tower learn of something only a handful discovered: a passable staircase to safety^[19] (those in the North Tower were doomed regardless, as no clear stairway existed post-impact).

3 We Were More Prepared to Save Ourselves

Another interesting thing that would have happened if 9/11 occurred today rather than two decades ago: more people would die. Because even if all things were equal – air travel rules, tower occupancy, time and day of attack – the one thing that wouldn’t be equal is our waistlines.

Watching video of people evacuating the Twin Towers – including those fleeing the soot-filled, all-encompassing dust cloud spreading rapidly from the imploded buildings – doesn’t just turn back the clock, it turns back the scale. It’s not a stretch to say that, had we had today’s obesity numbers^[20] in 2001, more people would have perished. Heart attacks descending dozens of flights of stairs and an inability to run from the area post-collapse are just two scenarios that would have upped the death toll.

Obesity figures from the early 90s are even more glaring: a state-by-state analysis^[21] shows obesity in America doubling, tripling and even quadrupling over the last three decades.

In 2020, of course, dying from obesity is less about catching our breath than taking a breath at all. were Americans and other Westerners in better physical shape, the death toll from the coronavirus wouldn’t be nearly high.^[22] That’s not politicizing a pandemic; it’s just cold, hard fat . . . uh, fact.

2 The Internet Wasn’t a Wasteland Yet

Before 9/11 we weren’t just safer from jihadist murderers – we were safer from each other. 90s nostalgia is more than just longing for a world without terror; it’s longing for a world without trolls.

Sure, the 90s had interpersonal interactions online. Message boards and chat rooms were helping hobbyists and like-minded people congregate virtually from the net’s inception. I met my first serious girlfriend through America Online, using the decade’s most prolific, if not successful, pickup line: “A/S/L?” (“Age/Sex/Location?)^[23]

Since then, society has seemingly devolved in direct association with cyber-technology’s evolution. High-speed Internet access brought the ability to stream videos, which we’ve mostly used for porn^[24] and pets.^[25] Facebook made finding like-minded morons even easier, with algorithm-customized news feeds and niche groups fueling confirmation bias and mass misinformation. Then Twitter came along, allowing us to rage Tweet at anyone about anything.

The 90s’ Internet innocence – and its uncharted promise of a new medium – evokes nostalgia given what the world wide web has become: a shitshow that is making us stupider.^[26] Conspiracy theorists have gone mainstream, with QAnon – an anonymous alleged government insider proposing the theory that President Trump has been sent to dislodge a vast deep-state network of child sex traffickers – claiming millions of devotees.^[27]

Meanwhile, radical purity-test snowflakes drown out and cancel anyone committing a perceived micro-aggression, with pusillanimous media members and politicians cowering in fear of an online PC Wokerati capable of ending careers. A big part of 90s nostalgia is the impossible wish of a dot-com do-over.

1 New York Has Changed Dramatically . . . for the Worse

Recently, Jerry Seinfeld wrote an opinion piece in the New York Times^[28] disparaging those who’ve pronounced New York City dead. Unsurprisingly, New Yorkers have been fleeing the densely populated city for fear of contracting COVID-19, leading to eerily deserted streets.^[29]

But coronavirus didn’t kill NYC. Hyper-gentrification^[30] did. In “Vanishing New York: How a Great City Lost Its Soul,” Jeremiah Moss details the city’s dwindling grittiness, guttiness and uniqueness during his 25-plus years living there, starting in the early 90s. (Moss also details the city’s diminishing appeal with a blog that reads like a long-running obituary.)

The comparisons Moss draws are made more stark by their starting point: the early 90s were a truly special time in NYC’s history.^[31] The city had emerged from the crime-infested 70s and crack-epidemic 80s to become a safe yet exciting place with a “good grit” feel to it. Elegance on Park Ave, dive bars on the Lower East Side and the delicious dinginess of Chinatown restaurants . . . New York in the 90s blended the upscale and the seedy like nowhere else in America.

It didn’t last. As rents skyrocketed, ethnic neighborhoods once thriving with traditional restaurants became white-bread enclaves. Mom and pop shops sold out to sterile national brands, and independent bodegas became Starbucks and 7-11s. Today’s New York is too expensive for anyone except the rich, and too boring for anyone except wide-eyed tourists from Iowa.

10 Disturbing Raw Videos From 9/11

The 1990s had a wide array of musical acts. The beginning of the decade saw the decline of hair bands and the entrance of grunge music, which would dominate until the mid-1990s. With the new millennium on the horizon, pop music was king. The Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, and NSYNC controlled the charts.

But many of the most popular songs—songs that ruled the radio—had dark, somber stories behind them. Here’s a look at songs you know by heart but had no idea were written in the depths of despair.

Related: 10 Tragic Events That Created Iconic Pieces Of Pop Culture

9 “Under the Bridge”
Red Hot Chilli Peppers

The second single from the band’s 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik” peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. “Under the Bridge” is easily one of the most famous and beloved Chili Peppers songs, but its funky beat and catchy hook can easily mask the pain behind the lyrics.

Lead singer Anthony Kiedis wrote the song during a period of sobriety. He’d struggled through a heroin and cocaine addiction and penned the poem after a day of rehearsals where his bandmates were still smoking marijuana.

His feelings of loneliness made him reflect on his past drug use and darker days when he would buy drugs under a bridge in L.A., even though it was right in the middle of gang territory.^[1]

9 “No Rain”
Blind Melon

The uptempo, catchy track, complete with the iconic bee girl video, is full of happy vibes, right? Nope. Bass player Brad Smith wrote the breakthrough hit, but it definitely wasn’t coming from a place of happiness.

He wrote the song based on the perspective of his girlfriend at the time, who was depressed. Smith said that she slept during the day and complained when there was no rain. After penning the piece, he realized it wasn’t just about her—he shared the same feelings of despair.

The band was no stranger to depression. Their lead singer Shannon Hood struggled to cope with his own demons and died of a drug overdose in 1995.^[2]

8 “Zombie”
The Cranberries

The Irish rock band rose to fame in 1994 behind their debut album Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We? Smack dab amid grunge and Britpop, The Cranberries were unique. Lead vocalist Dolores O’Riordan’s melancholic voice, complete with lilts and yodels, exuded emotion, and the band’s catchy tunes easily landed them on the Billboard Hot 100. Their second studio album, No Need to Argue, featured the hit song “Zombie.”

O’Riordan penned the song following the IRA-linked bombing in England that killed two small boys in 1993. She made it clear to the band that she wanted the music to sound edgy and angry to express her frustration. The distorted guitars and hard drums appealed to audiences who were in the throes of a grunge renaissance. The song quickly gained airplay and made the album No Need to Argue the band’s best-selling one.^[3]

7 “Don’t Speak”
No Doubt

The ska-punk band from Orange County featured Gwen Stefani as the platinum blonde, red-lipped bombshell lead singer. By the time Tragic Kingdom was released in 1995, the band already had two albums under their belt, but neither had been big performers. Maybe that was because Stefani had a limited role in the writing process for the first two but took center stage on the band’s third album.

She penned “Don’t Speak” about her breakup with bassist Tony Kanal. Stefani had plans to marry Kanal, but he dashed those hopes when he ended their relationship. Stefani was devastated and put pen to paper to cope with her despair. The song about their breakup and how much it hurt Stefani played out again and again as the band gained more fans and had to answer questions about it in interviews. While it was brutal at the time, both Stefani and Kanal say it helped them cultivate the friendship they have today.^[4]

6 “3 AM”
Matchbox Twenty

Matchbox Twenty was all over the radio in the mid-1990s. Their songs were overplayed to the point of nausea. But while the band was mainstream darlings of radio, they also had a great talent in singer/songwriter Rob Thomas. His emotional deliveries, combined with touching lyrics, made for some superb performances.

While “3 AM” was an uptempo song, a close listen to the lyrics reveals Thomas’s heartbreaking truth. He wrote the song about his mother’s battle with cancer when he was only a teenager. In an episode of VH1’s Storytellers, Thomas tells the audience no one really knew it was about his mother but instead thought it was about a lost love.

Thomas described it as a “weird time” trying to care for himself and his mother and wondering why she was always tired and slept all the time.^[5]

5 “The Freshman”
The Verve Pipe

From the band’s second studio album Villians came one of their only hits. “The Freshman” was a slow, gentle, and moody song. It reached number 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1997 and garnered a place in history for the band.

The lyrics, written by the singer Brian Vander Ark, tell the tale of a girl who has an abortion and is so distraught over it that she commits suicide. Part of the tale is autobiographical as Vander Ark says that both he and another guy were dating the same girl, and she got pregnant by one of them. No one knew who the father was, and the girl ended up getting an abortion. After that, he took a bit of poetic license and added the suicide part to build on the tragedy.^[6]

4 “Santa Monica”
Everclear

The alt band Everclear had a slew of hits in the 1990s, and their poppy, sunny song “Santa Monica” seems like any other feel-good tune until you take a closer listen. Written by frontman Art Alexakis, it’s inspired by traumatic events in his life.

When Alexakis was a teenager, his brother died of a heroin overdose, and just a short time later, his girlfriend committed suicide. Alexakis was so distraught that he jumped off the Santa Monica Pier, intending to kill himself.

Alexakis’s personal tragedies inspired many of the lyrics on Everclear’s albums. He dealt with his own drug addiction, abandonment from his father, and even a rape in his childhood through his music. While the videos and sounds are upbeat and sunny, the underlying dark themes were common on Everclear’s albums.^[7]

3 “Today”
Smashing Pumpkins

The Smashing Pumpkins kind of squeaked through the 1990s as an “in the middle” band. They weren’t exactly grunge but weren’t pop or rock, just something in between. Known for songs with elaborate string sections and Billy Corgan’s unique vocals, The Smashing Pumpkins toured their way onto the charts.

“Today,” the second single from their 1993 album Siamese Dream, seems almost hopeful. With song lyrics like “Today is the greatest day I’ve ever known,” the song is far from the positive message first alluded to. In fact, Corgan wrote it during one of his darkest periods. A time when he regularly thought about killing himself.^[8]

2 ; “The Kids Aren’t Alright”
The Offspring

The California punk band was never known for its hard-hitting songwriting. In fact, they were more known for their catchy riffs, goofy music videos, and satirical take on white suburbia. With songs like “Why Don’t You Get a Job” and “Pretty Fly (For a White Guy),” The Offspring was looking for laughs instead of taking a stand.

That changed when it came to their third single released off their 1998 album, “Americana. “The Kids Aren’t Alright” is perhaps the closest thing to social commentary from the band. While the other songs are jokey and lighthearted, “The Kids Aren’t Alright” delves into the darker side of everyday America.

Written by lead singer Dexter Holland after a visit back to his hometown, he noticed many former friends and acquaintances were suffering and falling on hard times. There were suicides, drug addictions, and job losses that didn’t coincide with the sunny futures everyone talked about growing up. Holland wanted to highlight this illusion and show that kids were really struggling, even in America.^[9]

1 “Alive”
Pearl Jam

No ’90s list is complete without mentioning one of the surviving, iconic Seattle-based grunge bands. Pearl Jam was well known around their hometown, but it wasn’t until their debut album Ten came out in 1991 that they became a household name. Behind Eddie Vedder’s emotional deliveries, Pearl Jam topped the charts with hit after hit.

The debut single “Alive” almost seems like an uplifting song at first—until you dive into the lyrics. Written by Vedder, “Alive” tells the story of a young boy who finds out his father is actually his stepfather. His real father is dead. Based on Vedder’s own chaotic childhood, the song confronts this truth and how Vedder tries to deal with it.

These days, Vedder says the meaning of the song changed slightly. The “I’m still alive” chorus now has a positive spin—it’s a celebration—he is indeed still alive.^[10]

In my opinion, the ’90s were arguably better than the current generation, especially when it comes to rare toys, music, TV shows, and fashion. If you were lucky enough to own some of the most coveted gems from that period, you might want to sift through your stuff since you could be sitting on a fortune.

Something as small as a rare transformer action figure could make you hundreds of dollars richer. Stick around to find out which trinkets from the ’90s could make you a fortune on the market today.

10 Hot Wheels Funny Cars

As we speak, over a billion hot wheels have been released in the market. While most of them cost a few dollars, the rare pieces and prototypes are worth hundreds of dollars, and they keep getting more valuable as time goes by. For example, one of the first ever hot wheels to be released that mimics a white Camaro is now worth $2,500, but people are willing to pay more if it comes in good condition.

Another costly hot wheels is the Cheetah Python. It was one of the few collections designed by Bill Cushenberry and was forged after a dream he had. At first, the collection wasn’t meant to be released to the public, but somehow a few made it out of the factory and are now worth almost $10,000.

It’s easy to see why the Cash Money Hot Wheels is the most expensive out of all the cars designed by the franchise. Its body is encrusted with real diamonds and topped with an 18-karat gold frame. As if that’s not enough, it has red-cut rubies on the brake lights and a lot more expensive additions. The franchise made only one of its kind, now valued at $140,000.

9 Furby Toy

Furby toys debuted in 1998, and surprisingly the franchise sold $1.8 million pieces that year. While it certainly wasn’t the most innovative toy out there, it was one of the few that could mimic words, making it hit with kids everywhere. While Furbys used to be a few dollars maximum, some people are now willing to pay a few hundred for that scary-looking owl toy.

For this reason, if you were lucky enough to buy a Furby from the exclusive collections and it’s still in excellent condition, consider listing it for sale. Take the Bejeweled Furby, for example; only five of the same were released to the public, and considering its original price tag was $100,000, you can now sell it for way more money.

The most expensive Furby to be sold in the secondary market was listed on eBay and ended up selling for over $4550, which was still a shocker despite its pristine condition.

Aside from the Furbys mentioned above, you can easily sell yours for more than $500 regardless of whether it was from a rare collection, which is not a fortune but still exceeds the original price tenfold.

8 Pokémon Cards

If you were a Pokémon fanatic back in the ‘90s who didn’t mind spending money on rare cards, you might have made one of the best investments of that time. While the price of Pokémon cards has been steadily decreasing, they are still worth a fortune.

There are over 20 collections that can make you a millionaire, but the Pikachu illustrator is the most expensive one. YouTuber Logan Paul bought it for $5.275 million in July 2021, which caused a social media frenzy. Considering there are 40 similar cards in circulation, you should check your collection.

Another classic has to be the first edition of Shadowless Holographic Charizard, which was released in 1999. Due to how rare it is, this card remains arguably the most sought-after, with one of them selling for $420,000 at an auction in 2022.

Though the Pokémon Blastoise isn’t the most expensive collectors’ card in the market, it is the rarest. Only two of the same cards were ever created, and only one can be traced. In 2021, this card sold for $360,000 at a private auction.

If you have any Pokémon original cards, you might want to get them valued. While they might not be worth millions, chances are a fan/collector will be willing to pay good money for them.

7 Disney VHS Tapes

Only a few things can help you relive your childhood like re-watching classic Disney movies. While you can easily tune into the Disney streaming service to access any classics now, people from the ’90s relied on VHS tapes which were relatively rare as Disney moved titles into and out of their vault. Sometimes, certain movies weren’t available for years after their initial VHS release.

If you were lucky enough to own Disney VHS tapes with the black diamond mark/label at the corners, you should consider listing them for sale as they are worth a lot. Bonus points if you have a collection considering there is a seller listing his collection of VHS tapes for a whopping $150,000.

In 2019, someone sold their black diamond Beauty and the Beast VHS tape for $10,000, which piqued the attention of other collectors. However, you need to be strategic about your listing considering many people argue that the tapes shouldn’t be worth more than $30. But there’s a high chance you’ll struggle to find someone who appreciates its value.

6 Michael Jordan Jersey

Sports fanatics go above and beyond to see their favorite player in action. To take it an extra mile, fans usually buy original jerseys of their favorite player for outrageous prices. One classic example is when Michael Jordan’s jersey from the first game of the 1998 NBA finals almost broke the world record. It sold for $10 million in an auction hosted by Invictus.

Shockingly enough, the jersey, which was priced outrageously before the bid began, received 20 bids and would have gotten more had the buyer not shocked the crowd with his undisputed offer.

5 Black Lotus Magic Card

If you thought trading cards were affordable, think again. The Black Lotus, which is part of Magic: The Gathering, is one of the most expensive cards ever sold. In 2021, it was listed on an eBay auction and ended up going for a whopping $511,100, three times what the seller bought it for in 2019. If past trends are anything to go by, its value will keep going up as time progresses.

Part of the reason this card is as valuable as its price depicts is that it was the first ever made from the collection and carries the author’s signature on its casing. Also, the designers made it in a unique shape that was soon discontinued, making it stand out.

Did I mention that anyone who draws this card while gaming gets to cast powerful spells that put them in an advantageous position?

4 Action Figures

Action figures are arguably one of the priciest collectible trinkets from the ’90s. While not many people can justify spending a dime on the latest action figures, the original ones, especially those released for popular films, are worth millions.

One of these action figures is the Rocket-firing Boba Fett, which was to be released with the Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back movie. Sadly (or not), it was never mass-produced and is now worth more than $200,000.

Another expensive action figure is the handmade prototype for G.I Joe that was sold in an auction at $600,000. While you could get the mass-produced ones for cheaper in the ’90s, you can now easily sell them for a couple of hundred dollars.

Funny enough, some of the most expensive action figures are the ones that failed the beta testing for the Star Wars franchise and were never mass-produced. One example is Obi-Wan Kenobi, which recently sold for $65,000.

Lastly, if you are one of the 12 people who own a tri-logo General Madine, you are sitting on a gold mine. Due to how rare the said action figure is, it recently sold for $12,500 at an auction despite being initially bought for only a few hundred dollars when it was released in 1983.

3 Jurassic Park Toys

Each time Jurassic Park released a new movie, they would also release toys modeled after the movie characters, and they would always sell out in a few days. While some of the said toys were mass-produced, others were limited editions, and the original buyers would later sell them for a few hundred more than the initial price.

One of the most sought-after Jurassic Park toys is the series two Carnotaurus Demon. If you have one that’s in the original packaging plus the accessories, it’s worth more than $1,000.

When Jurassic 3 was released, it brought along the infrared remote control spinosaurus. At that moment, there was nothing special about it, but the movie didn’t do as well, and only a few of the said toys were produced, raising the demand. As of now, if you have a new toy in pristine condition, you can start eBay bidding at $900 and are bound to make a decent amount.

2 Beanie Babies

As someone who grew up in the ’90s, chances are you owned one of the Beanie Babies’ toys at one point or the other. Most people trashed theirs, but you will be shocked to discover they are now worth a hefty chunk of change for whatever reason. Of course, for your beanie baby to be worth anything today, it must have the original TY sticker and be in pristine condition.

For example, the Princess Di Bear Beanie retails for close to $10,000. Its value is mainly attributed to the fact that it was dedicated to Princess Diana, and only a few pieces were ever created. But that isn’t all—remember Bubbles?

Well, beanies from that release could now make you $120,000 richer. It’s easy to see why considering it was one of the most sought-after collections, and it never seemed to be in stock.

There was even a supposedly rare Valentino beanie bear listed on Etsy valued at $43,000. And many other dolls from the beanie collection are now worth a lot. If you can still get to the attic and figure out which box they’re hiding in, you might want to find them and cash in!

1 Original Harry Potter Books

When the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, was released in the ’90s, the franchise was not as well known as it is now. Only a few avid readers bothered buying one of the 500 hardcover copies that were released.

To put it into perspective, 300 of the 500 hardcopy books were donated to children’s libraries and schools, leaving only 200 for the masses. According to AbeBooks, one hardcover book from that collection is expected to fetch more than 30,000 euros. If you have an original copy, check to see if the print line reads 10987654321 and the author name reads Joanne Rowling and not JK Rowling.

If you have the first edition hardcover of the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone book, you can easily list it for $5000. To confirm whether your book falls in the said category, check to see if it has the print line 1357910864289/9 0/0 01 02 plus the wording first American edition, October 1998.

In short, all the hardcopy first editions of any books from the Harry Potter franchise are now worth four figures and above. However, if you have paperback originals that carry JK Rowling’s signature, you can also list them for an impressive amount.