Making a Comeback

Every year around this time, for the past dozen years or more, mainstream journalists who don't know how to search Google tell us that "board games are making a comeback", just as if they haven't been reported to be doing so for the last dozen years or more.

And every year I find myself curious as to what else is making a comeback, if we are to believe mainstream journalists.

This is from the last thirty days on Google News (click here to see last year's list):

• the A-10
• ABB
• absinthe
• ActiveWorlds
• affordable living
• Agathiyan
• the age-old curse of inflation
• Akron
• alligators
• all-in-one pcs
• al Qaeda and the Taliban
• AMD
• Amit Khanna's character in Karam Apna Apna
• animal prints
• ankle boots
• Aparna Popat
• Apenisa Qereqeretabua
• Apple Cup week trash talking
• aprons
• Arabic
• Arsenal
• August's credit turmoil
• baldness
• Barbie
• Barry Manilow
• bed bugs
• Bedford North Lawrence High School’s long-dormant pep club
• Ben Cousins
• "the best man for the job is a woman"
• Big Cat
• Billy Ray Cyrus
• bio enhancements
• the BJP
• black crepe headlines
• blue-ear pig disease
• boar
• board games
• Boon Lim
• Boyzone
• Brian Schwartz
• the bruising babes of roller derby
• bubblegum
• the Buckeyes
• Buffalo
• Cabbage Patch Kids
• Cadilac
• calorie- and carb-heavy macaroni and cheese
• Calum Menzies
• Carbohydrates
• the Cardinals' glory years of the 1940s
• Caribbean cruises
• Catholic confession
• chastity
• Che Mohd Azrol Che Mat
• the chestnut crop
• Chitrangada
• Christopher Kane
• civil society
• Clifford Mulenga
• coal
• cod
• college nursing program
• comedy
• common sense
• the community's economy
• Confucius' ideas
• conservative underwriting
• the constitution
• countertenors
• crafting
• Crosstalk
• cuff links
• Cullinan operation
• the culture of command economy
• curling
• Dale McDonald
• dinner, drinks, hanging out
• Dino
• Dinosaur Jr.
• the discarded policy of assimilation
• disco
• the DIY movement
• dolls and dolls clothes
• Don Imus
• door-to-door caroling
• the downtown
• Dreamcast
• driftwood and distressed leather
• drive-in movie theaters
• Duro Olowu
• The Eagles
• eagles, barred owls and ravens
• Earth Shoes and Birkenstocks
• Ecstasy
• Elizabeth Berkley
• endangered bats
• enrollment at Vincennes
• Erdem
• everyone from Led Zeppelin to the Spice Girls
• everything from chinchilla to fox
• EVs
• Extreme
• fabric-topped convertibles
• false eyelashes
• the fascinating cultural traditions of the Kyrgyz nomads
• Father Ioann Okhlobystin
• faux firs
• FHA loans
• Florida panthers
• Fort Wayne
• Frank Sinatra
• frogs
• the furry-upper lip
• the gameshow Mr & Mrs
• Gareth Bale
• Gary Neville
• gazundering
• geese
• Genghis Khan and Tamerlane
• George W. Bush
• Gerard Denton
• Ghostbusters
• Glendon Rusch
• gold panning
• the Goundamani-Senthil duo
• granola
• green bean casserole
• grey and white hair
• "Growth is good"
• hair metal
• Happy Mondays
• Harbhajan Singh
• the high street
• Hollywood Regency
• Hope For Agoldensummer
• horror
• hotel restaurants
• the humble clothesline
• illiberal notions like protectionism
• the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Cherokee Street
• Isiah Thomas
• Islam
• job perk programs
• John Howard
• John McCain
• Jonathan Lounsbury
• Jules Schneider
• Julia Roberts
• Julio Arca
• Justin Stanley
• Karran Nathh
• Kesaco Phedo
• Kimberley Underground workings
• Knight Rider
• labor unrest
• the Lady Red Devils
• Lalit Pandit
• Latin (and the traditional Latin Mass)
• Law & Order
• Lawrence
• layaway
• LeBron James
• legislation putting the state superintendent's job in the hands of the governor and subjecting state school board elections to party politics
• liberalism
• a lighter shade of burgundy
• Lilliputian "bubble cars"
• linoleum
• lipstick
• Lisa Fernandez
• Little Shop of Horrors
• live jazz
• Louise Goldin
• Madhuri Dixit
• Maine agriculture
• malaria
• manual mowers
• manufacturing in a different form
• many of the world's forests
• the marathon in the SEA Games athletics programme
• marble
• Marcus Portman
• mare's milk
• Marios Schwab
• marriages between college graduates
• Marvel Annual
• Mervyns
• Michael Jackson
• Michael Schumacher
• micro distilling
• micro-hydro
• midfield maestro Dirang Moloi and striker Jerome Ramatlhakwana
• midwives
• model-home merchandising
• Mona Millie Vasu
• mullets
• Munaf Patel
• Nabaztag
• national accounts
• Nawaz Sharif
• Nazmul Hossain
• the names of mythological characters and royalty that feature in Indian folklore
• the nearly obsolete practice of doctor house calls
• the new 2008 TT
• New Rochelle
• The No. 3
• the notion that colleges are engines of "social inclusion"
• Notre Dame
• the noose
• nuclear power
• a number of species
• Octagon and El Hijo
• Ogre Battle
• old Britney
• old Christmas standards
• the old-fashioned ski train
• the old Forest Service timber program
• the Old Right libertarian message
• the once derided middle man
• Onondaga Lake
• open outcry
• open racism
• the original cast of Sleeping Beauty
• the original [punk] formula
• outdoor pools
• oversize knits
• oysters
• Panchito Bojado
• pale
• passenger-only ferries
• passion
• Paul Wotton
• the PC
• Pee-wee Herman
• penguins
• person-to-person lending
• Philip "Time Bomb" Ndou
• piped Christmas music
• Pippi Longstocking
• the Plague
• plastic bags
• polished chrome
• polo
• Portishead
• post-punk cultural touchstones
• pressure coookers
• Priest Holmes
• private equity
• pudding
• pumps
• Purdue
• radio
• The Raiders
• rainbow Afros
• Rambo
• rare and endangered key deer
• Ray Park
• rear wheels
• red Christmas trees
• religion
• retro music
• "Revival dishes and drinks more familiar to our grandparents
• the rice industry
• Richard Blackwood
• rickets
• river otters
• Robbie Williams
• Robin Goad
• Rodrigo Lopez
• Ryumochnayas
• sabbaticals
• The Salinas Activities League
• San Diego Chargers
• sanity in baseball
• Sarah Hammer
• satsuma
• school blazers
• the Sears Wishbook Christmas Catalog
• self adhered roofing systems
• the Shabby Rose
• shads
• Shoaib Akhtar
• Sid Owen
• silver
• some of those media stocks
• so-called "heritage" turkeys
• Sony PS3
• Sourav Ganguly
• Spanish
• sparkling wine and champagne cocktails
• Spiegeltents
• Srabanti Majumdar
• the stations that already carry the oldies
• the sterling
• still life
• storybook architecture
• streetcars
• Striker Harris
• Sunil Kumar Sipaeya
• Sweet Caroline
• the swinging sounds of the 1960s
• syphilis
• Tabu
• Taufeeq Umar
• a team from Rossel Island
• technology stocks
• themes of reincarnation, occult, supernatural powers and magic
• tighter churidars
• Tim Roth
• Todd Lynn
• Tom Ada
• Tony Evans
• toys from the 80s
• trains
• traditional kopitiams
• traditional lights
• traditional ivory, red and green
• the tradition of the church bazaar
• trenchcoats
• tripe
• Tropical storm "Lando"
• trunks
• tuberculosis
• turboprop regional airliners
• the ugly but comforting mongrel of a system put together by "mix and match economists"
• ukuleles
• Umar Gul
• variety shows
• Vimal
• Vinicius Bacaro
• Virender Sehwag
• Vladimir Putin
• the WAP
• watches with leather bands
• wearing animal skins, drinking beer and scratching yourself
• "We're by far the greatest team.... the world has ever seen"
• the western
• the wetlands
• Whitney Houston
• the whole community involved in raising a child, and neighbor looking after neighbor
• whooping cough
• whooping cranes
• wild turkeys
• winetails
• Winston Peters
• winter
• wooden train sets and painting packs
• wood flooring
• work bikes
• this worrisome [traffic] phenomenon
• The X Files
• the yen
• Yiddish

What drives the media so?

It doesn't seem enough to say that so and so now has a hit after a long absence. No, it has to be a trend. And a trends go ever onwards in only one direction, either up or down.

Do they expect to be rewarded for having been the first to spot this trend? Or are the actual facts without prediction too dull to make a good story?

Yehuda

P.S. Scott Jon Siegel on Joystiq reviews my game.