The Popcorn Report (1991)

The 16th century had Nostradamus. The 19th century had Rasputin. And the 20th century has...Faith Popcorn? For over 15 years, this soothsayer has been chairman of BrainReserve, a think tank that analyzes and forecasts consumer trends. Usually Popcorn makes her predictions known only to her list of blue-chip corporate clients, but now she's letting us all take a peek at the world of tomorrow in The Popcorn Report. Her list of current and future fads includes ''cocooning'' (''a sort of hyper-nesting''), ''egonomics'' (''a nicer narcissism''), and ''down-aging'' (''40 now is what used to be 30''). Popcorn's corporate benefactors pay untold sums for these visions, so I suppose we shouldn't scoff. Still, the most interesting question raised by this book is never answered — is that her real name or what? C