Blame this week's newsletter on McDonald's french fries.
I recently ordered some fries and reflected on the concept of supersizing. I wondered when the fast food giant first began offering the option to go bigger. Google to the rescue -- it turns out that supersizing launched in 1992.
Looking back, the 1990s weren't such a bad decade in many ways. And with all that's going on, now seems like the perfect moment to look back on some of the good things that came out of that time.
Something to sip on...
Cheers to the return of Frasier Crane!
Kelsey Grammer is back playing the character he originated on "Cheers" and later played on the spinoff, "Frasier," which ran from 1993 to 2004. The "Frasier" reboot just started streaming on Paramount+ and it's one of a few throwbacks coming at us from the '90s.
Readers of a certain age will remember the Scholastic Book Fairs at school, where some of the most popular books were the "Goosebumps" series. Written by R.L. Stine, the books first started being published in 1992 and they helped introduce an entire generation to horror and the paranormal.
Now a new series based on the books is debuting on Disney+ and Hulu. According to a preview, the show "follows a group of five high school students as they embark on a shadowy and twisted journey to investigate the tragic passing three decades earlier of a teen named Harold Biddle -- while also unearthing dark secrets from their parents' past."
Just in time for spooky season a.k.a. Halloween! (Which honestly begs the question: how are we almost at the end of the year already?)
One thing to talk about...
But the '90s aren't done with us yet.
98 Degrees recently told E! that Taylor Swift (you knew I couldn't make it through an entire newsletter these days without a Swift reference, right?) has inspired them to rerecord some of their hits. (Swift has famously been rerecording her music after a tiff over her masters with Scooter Braun.)
Nick Lachey, Drew Lachey, Jeff Timmons and Justin Jeffre are following her lead.
"We're gonna re-record five of our classic hits in kind of the rerecord/get-your-masters-back move," Nick Lachey told E! News. "We're also gonna have five new songs as well, and a new single coming out at the top of the year."
With *NSYNC back on the charts with the song "Better Place" from the "Trolls Band Together" movie soundtrack, all things seem possible, and I for one am embracing the feeling.
You should listen to...
Believe it or not, I am also going to tie Bad Bunny into the nostalgia theme this week.
That's because with his storytelling ability in his music, he feels part folk singer from the days of old while at the same time embodying a pop star for the future.
His fifth studio album, titled "Nadie Sabe Lo Que Va A Pasar Mañana (Nobody Knows What Will Happen Tomorrow)" is out Friday. Fresh off of multiple wins at the 2023 Billboard Latin Music Awards, including artist of the year, the new album is sure to be fuego. If you are not conversant in Spanish, don't worry. Bad Bunny's beats are usually so infectious you don't even need to know what he is saying to jam out.
Can't wait to watch...
I'm going to have to deviate from my usual streaming/TV pick here and go all in for Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" movie.
Yes, it may feel like it's all Swift all the time lately, but she's worked hard to give the Swifties (and others) what they came for. Since not everyone could make it to her live shows, the theater experience may be the next best thing.
You can even host a private viewing party at Cinemark theaters which -- to me -- sounds even better than trying to enjoy the tunes with thousands of other people in a stadium.
