Nationwide, this year's holiday spending is expected to dwarf last year's dismal showing. Over Thanksgiving weekend, mall revenues were up 11 percent, says the International Council of Shopping Centers. Retailers are having trouble selling PCs even with slashed prices and incentives like free monitors and delayed credit payments. But while computer sales are sluggish so far this holiday season, Silicon Valley is doing fine, thank you. The valley is proving it's more than chips and motherboards.
Analysts say the tech industry is more diversified and therefore more resilient now.
Medical laser manufacturers, Internet-related software makers, and computer networking companies are mainstays of the valley's economy now. In early April, of course, the poster boy for bombers everywhere may finally have been apprehended when Ted John Kaczynski was rousted from his Montana cabin and accused of being the dreaded Unabomber. Having read the manifesto last year, this year we put a face to the name and can now look forward to his megatrial in Sacramento, which means that maybe by this time next year we can stop talking about O.J. Simpson. The Unabomber trials seem certain to last for a long time, and Ted is poised to be a major celebrity into the next millennium, the most famous mathematician since Pythagoras. Look for a line of greeting cards, T-shirts, coffee mugs and calendars soon.