Back in 1979 was when I think it started. My wife and I had gone to the movies to see The China Syndrome, a movie about a near-catastrophic "meltdown" at a nuclear power plant. The plot was unheard of and honestly, sounded a little far-fetched, but I awoke the next morning to the news that a similar incident had actually occurred at the now-infamous Three Mile Island complex.
One Sunday afternoon in 1981, I saw an article in the Chicago Tribune about brewing coffee. The article said that people generally make many mistakes when brewing coffee, and it described how to get that "restaurant taste" when brewing your own coffee, how you should grind your own beans, make coffee stronger, etc. In those days, there were basically three or four decent store brands of coffee, and we worked our way through all of them in search of the perfect cup. We became known as the "coffee people" to our friends. One day years later (at least in Atlanta), this thing called Starbucks appeared, and you know the rest.
In the mid-1990's, I became very interested in the Arts and Crafts style of architecture. The only problem was that there were no builders constructing this style of house anywhere. I went to Barnes and Noble and picked up books on Craftsman bungalows, visited Frank Lloyd Wright's home and studio in Chicago, and checked out tons of web sites describing this appealing style of architecture in communites such as Pasadena, California, and Oak Park, Illinois. Then suddenly a few years ago, Atlanta builders began constructing new homes in a unique Arts and Crafts style. Now, they're all over town.
For years, I thought that a handheld computer-like device that could play music selected from menus would be a great idea. Hmmm...maybe I should have told someone!
About a month ago, again out of the blue, I decided that I'd like to see some of the old Miami Vice shows on DVD. I did, and a few days later, I found out that the Miami Vice movie was being released and along with that, we now had Miami Vice marathons on TV.
Finally, a week ago, totally out of the blue, we rented Krakatoa: East of Java from Netflix and watched it one evening. In this 1969 movie, the eruption of the Krakatoa volcano causes a tsunami that hits the island of Java. The next morning, I awoke to the news that a tsunami had hit Java.
So what does all this mean? Friends are telling me that I need to become some kind of "cultural forecaster". The incidents I've mentioned above are only a few...there have been many more, too many to count. It's gotten to the point where this is spooky.