News from 90 Years Ago

Henry put down the map and said, "I'd like a bit of everything. But that last one depends on luck, doesn't it."

The plump waitress gave him a once-over and teased, "Don't worry, with your assets, you'd be popular up north in Saint Valley too."

San Fernando Valley, besides being a tourist attraction, was most famous for housing over three hundred adult film production companies.

At her light jab, Henry chuckled self-deprecatingly, "Hopefully I won't end up there anytime soon."

With that, he deftly rolled up the bacon with his fork, didn't even bother cutting it, and stuffed it straight into his mouth. Chewing, he gave a thumbs-up and said, "Mm, tastes really good."

The waitress puffed up with a little pride and said, "Take your time eating."

Henry picked up his knife and sliced the sausage into pieces. He had no intention of performing the stunt of swallowing a whole sausage—choking to death was the least of his worries; being mistaken for someone fit for a Saint Valley gay film was the real concern. So he opted for a more refined approach.

And his praise for the bacon wasn't empty flattery—it really did taste good.

He'd chosen this family diner deliberately. Now it seemed his trained super-smell was still reliable.

After cutting everything up, Henry ate with his fork while reading the newspaper. He'd already memorized the map's contents and would keep it handy for later.

The headline was about the impending collapse of that Red Empire near the Arctic Circle, argued with great conviction.

But at this stage, the Americans were probably just trying to scare people and steer public opinion. They likely never imagined that talking trash could actually bring down a superpower.

Flipping the paper, the other sections were full of Christmas-related news—where events were being held, where donations were needed, where aid could be collected, which celebrity had made some public statement. All useless crap.

Henry paid a bit more attention to the entertainment and sports sections.

The NBA regular season ran from October to April each year, followed by the playoffs and the championship finals in June.

The reports had Michael Jordan leading the Bulls on a rampage. From memory, 1991 would mark the beginning of the Bulls dynasty. Throughout the '90s, the NBA would tremble under Black Jesus's dominance.

As for Major League Baseball, the season roughly ran from April to October, and now it was the off-season rest and training period after the World Series. So there wasn't much news in the paper.

Together, the NBA and MLB covered a full year of sports entertainment.

But what Americans truly loved was the NFL—American football. Preseason started in August, the regular season in September, running through to the Super Bowl championship in February.

Compared to basketball and baseball, which could go global and attract players from around the world to compete in the U.S., American football was more like a game Americans played behind closed doors.

In film, Christmas was peak season, and the most intense period for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards.

The infamous Harvey Weinstein hadn't yet dominated Hollywood's awards, so the pages weren't yet filled with smear campaigns.

This year had many buzzworthy films: the highly anticipated Dances with Wolves, landmark romances like Ghost and Pretty Woman, the classic comedy Home Alone, and various sequels to famous works.

Like The Godfather Part III, Back to the Future Part III, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3, Gremlins 2, and the horror film The Exorcist III.

Henry even noticed a Captain America movie this year. The plot was a wild adaptation about Captain America, who didn't die in World War II, saving the President of the United States from a crime family that didn't like environmental policies.

In a world where the Captain really existed, Hollywood still dared to treat it like a celebrity biography and make up a story to mock him. They really didn't give a damn about the Captain... well, the Captain had no surviving family, so it was more like they didn't give a damn about the U.S. Military.

But since four years ago, when Top Gun in '86 sparked a Navy enlistment craze, the military and Hollywood had been thick as thieves, cozying up to each other.

If Captain America showed up to save the President, could the military really object?

Surprisingly, maybe because the Captain really existed in this world, the movie's buzz wasn't like typical superhero films where cheap CGI turned people off.

Though he hadn't seen this world's 1990 Captain America yet, from the glowing newspaper reviews, it seemed poised to rival this year's hit Dances with Wolves.

Even Kevin Costner, Whoopi Goldberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and other top actors and directors praised Captain America.

Of course, most of the praise was for the anti-fascist hero famous from World War II, with little commentary on the film itself.

Seems they knew better than to poke a sleeping tiger. The Captain might be gone, but the U.S. Military was still around.

Even during the Vietnam War, the classic recruitment poster "I WANT YOU" had swapped Uncle Sam for Captain America's image. That showed how deep the Captain's influence ran, spanning more than one generation.

Then came some entertainment gossip, a mix of truth and lies.

As for next year's movie previews, there wasn't a single article. Maybe it was because everyone was focused on the Golden Globes and Oscars right now.

While he read, the grilled steak arrived at the table, along with a thoughtful side of fries. The bread he'd gotten earlier was long gone.

Henry hacked the steak into chunks with his knife, then set the knife down and ate while reading, tossing all table manners out the window. This was a family diner, not some fancy restaurant—they wouldn't care.

By the time he stuffed the last piece of steak into his mouth, he was mostly done with the paper.

Pouring himself another cup of coffee, Henry waved and asked, "Sweetheart, do you have a Yellow Pages here?"

The plump waitress pointed to the platform beneath the payphone by the door, where a thick phone book lay.

Henry walked over, grabbed it, and brought it back to his seat, flipping through it.

In this era without the Internet to search for things, if you wanted to find a business in a certain industry, you didn't hit up a bartender or find a back-alley informant.

You went straight for this thing called the Yellow Pages—a relic of the ancient search era.

The Yellow Pages were usually provided free by phone companies, with ads as their revenue source. Even without an ad, just the company name gave you a good idea of what they did.

It even listed private phone numbers, sorted alphabetically.

Twenty years later, someone would sue over "privacy violations" for that.

But in this era, it was perfectly normal.

Of course, the Yellow Pages weren't updated too often—basically once a year.

New book requests follow-up reads, collections, and recommendations. Thank you~~