Callers phone in with their 1998 predictions, ranging from a massive stock market crash sending the Dow to 3,800, to friendly alien contact during the week of November 15th, to a Goodyear blimp crashing into a baseball field. One fisherman from San Pedro, California, describes a missing time experience near Catalina Island that left him with a vivid impression of coming extraterrestrial contact.
In the second half, Sean David Morton of the Delphi Associates joins to deliver his 1998 forecast. Morton discusses artificial weather vortexes he claims to sense through meditation, predicts El Nino will not be as destructive as feared due to protective cold air blasts from Alaska, and foresees a massive storm devastating Cuba that could topple the Castro government. He also warns that 1998 will be defined by airborne phenomena, from viruses to objects falling from the sky.
Key Moments
Hong Kong slaughters 1.2 million chickens - quickening news: Art opens with the 'quickening' news that Hong Kong has begun slaughtering 1.2 million chickens because the chicken flu, which has now killed four people, appears to be spreading human-to-human. He pairs it with World Health Organization word that the Africa illness initially feared as Ebola is now thought to be intestinal anthrax.
Ding/bonk scoring of the first 19 listener predictions for 1997: Art opens the sealed 1997 listener predictions vault and rapid-fires through the first nineteen, ringing 'ding ding ding ding' for hits and 'bonk' for misses. Hits: Jacques Villeneuve as F1 champion, Hale-Bopp benign, China expansionist, immigration tightened. Misses: Elway winning the Super Bowl, Clinton assassinated, Jesus returning, Castro passing, Hale-Bopp disintegrating, Mars Observer vindicating Hoagland.
Ground rules for 1998 predictions: Art lays out the official rules: one prediction per caller, made live on the air only - no faxes or emails accepted - each assigned a number, sealed in the Bell family vault, and dragged out next year. He calls the show a chance to be 'so immortalized.'