They Were the Best of Times, They Were...Oh, You Know

Contributors to the 20th Anniversary issue proffer what they consider to be the finest--and darkest--hours of the past two decades.

By Inc. staff | 
 
Inc. At 20 Years!
Look back at the people and trends that shaped our world, 1979-1999

Contributors

In the interest of retrospection, introspection, and the need to give credit where credit is due, Inc. asked contributors to this issue what they consider to be the finest--and the darkest--hours of the past two decades

SENIOR STAFF WRITER
EMILY BARKER

Finest: The premiere of The X-Files
Darkest: Apple's fall from grace

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PAUL BROWN

Finest: The rise of businesses founded and led by women
Darkest: The demise of great corporate nicknames such as "Ming the Merciless" (turnaround artist Sandy Sigoloff) and "Darth Vader" (American Airlines' Robert Crandall)

SENIOR EDITOR
LEIGH BUCHANAN

Finest: The election of Bill Clinton to a first term
Darkest: The election of Bill Clinton to a second term

SENIOR STAFF WRITER
CHRISTOPHER CAGGIANO

Finest: The advent of a seller's market in labor, resulting in a resounding "I told you so" from this prescient writer
Darkest: The murder of Matthew Shepard

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
GEORGE GENDRON

Finest: The fall of the Berlin Wall
Darkest: George Smiley's final appearance in a John LeCarré novel

SENIOR WRITER
SUSAN GRECO

Finest: The birth of Roller- blade Inc.
Darkest: The death of J. Peterman Co.

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
CURTIS P. HARTMAN

Finest: Watching the ongoing bull market
Darkest: Having all my assets in the small-cap companies I wrote about for Inc.

EXECUTIVE EDITOR
MICHAEL S. HOPKINS

Finest: The invention of a new material with the brand name Polarfleece
Darkest: The reinvention of an old atrocity with the euphemistic name ethnic cleansing

STAFF WRITER
MIKE HOFMAN

Finest: The launch of MTV
Darkest: The proliferation of minivans

SENIOR EDITOR
JOSHUA HYATT

Finest: The cancellation of Melrose Place
Darkest: The cancellation of thirtysomething

SENIOR EDITOR
NANCY J. LYONS

Finest: The return of bluebirds to the New England region
Darkest: The Challenger disaster

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ROBERT A. MAMIS

Finest: The spread of capitalism in the third world
Darkest: The day in 1984 that Inc. made me give up my IBM Selectric typewriter

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
TOM RICHMAN

Finest: The U.S. Supreme Court's rejection of an amendment to Colorado's constitution that banned laws protecting gay people from discrimination
Darkest: Colorado's passing the amendment in the first place

SPECIAL-ASSIGNMENT EDITOR
JEFFREY L. SEGLIN

Finest: The elections of Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel as, respectively, South Africa's first postapartheid and the Czech Republic's first post-Communist presidents
Darkest: The death of Jim Henson

ARTICLES EDITOR
THEA SINGER

Finest: The handshake between Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin
Darkest: The death of George Balanchine

CONTRIBUTING WRITER
JERRY USEEM

Finest: The Red Sox in the 1986 World Series
Darkest: The Red Sox in the 1986 World Series

SENIOR EDITOR
MICHAEL WARSHAW

Finest: The revolution in medicine brought about by gene-splicing technology
Darkest: The Dodgers' failure to return to Brooklyn

SENIOR WRITER
EDWARD O. WELLES

Finest: The release of Nelson Mandela
Darkest: The release of the Starr report

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