Crystal Ball: 87 Things to Look For in 1987

Hot tips, best guesses, a dose of wishful thinking. That’s the recipe for this none-too-serious preview of the year to come, compiled by Times staffers and their sources.

1. Gridlock: L.A.’s next Big Issue.

2. Young investment bankers: changing careers.

3. Your friendly tax accountant: burning out.

4. The Internal Revenue Service: buckling down.

5. Forgotten diseases: like tuberculosis, rising among the homeless.

6. Architect I. M. Pei & Partners: a surprise on the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica.

7. “Rambo” meets the Universal Studios Tour: Negotiations under way?

8. More development in Malibu: Where’s El Nino when you need it?

9. “Biosensors”: electronic gizmos from Japan that can tell you if the fish is fresh.

10. Death Row.

11. Escape artists Evelyn and Leonel at the L.A. Zoo: Where there’s a will, there’s a way.

12. Bangs for boys: already a hot hair style in Europe.

13. Miniskirts, with petticoats.

14. High heels: replace flats.

15. Pills that eat cholesterol.

16. The Beverly Hills Hotel: Marvin Davis redecorates, to the tune of $40 million.

17. California air fares: Will mergers murder the consumer?

18. Your cable TV bill: deregulated, and going up.

19. The ozone--or what’s left of it.

20. Palmerola: air base in Honduras.

21. Nancy Reagan: and Donald Regan.

22. All-year schools.

23. Gene therapy: a fast-moving medical frontier.

24. Culinary confusion: like Cha’s Cuban and Chinese restaurant, in Koreatown.

25. Hurricane Arlene: expected in April or May.

26. Movie match-ups: Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman, Mickey Rourke and Robert De- Niro, Kelly McGillis and Tim Hutton.

27. Music match-up: Paul, George and Ringo about due.

28. Stanley Kubrick: back, with “Full Metal Jacket” for Warner Bros.

29. Annette Funicello: back, with “Back to the Beach” for Paramount.

30. More deja vu: “Beverly Hills Cop II,” “Hardbodies III,” “Creepshow II,” “Teen Wolf II,” “Rambo III,” “Superman IV,” “Jaws ’87.”

31. General Motors: restyling.

32. Parents Music Resource Center: resurgent.

33. Communism lite: The Russians call it glasnost (openness).

34. “Amerika”: From ABC, just when the Russians decide to lighten up.

35. The real cultural revolution: U.S. ad men blitz China on the heels of Mickey Mouse, “Dallas,” and such.

36. Larry Speakes: speaks out--in a book, we bet.

37. Howard Weitzman: a REAL L.A. lawyer, riding high.

38. Intellectual ferment: long overdue.

39. Expensive Scotch: now that cocaine is out.

40. White wines on a holiday: Reds come on strong.

41. Beef is back: lean and rare.

42. Caribbean food: heats up.

43. The Securities and Exchange Commission: insider trading, Part III.

44. Steve Forbes: eclipsing Daddy Malcolm.

45. Manhattan Inc.: has the old-line business magazines in a dither.

46. America’s Cup: runneth over the Tasman Sea to New Zealand, just maybe.

47. Video disks: They hook to your stereo and sound like a million.

48. Debit cards: inevitable.

49. Plastic surgery: Boomers turn 40. Can a fanny tuck be far behind?

50. Water bars: selling esoteric bottled waters, instead of beer and wine.

51. Mexico: tick, tick, tick.

52. Our own poverty pockets: tick, tick, tick.

53. Literary debut: Carrie Fisher writes fiction about deal-making--both the movie and drug kinds.

54. More hot novels: from Erica Jong and Philip Roth.

55. Tons of biography: including Yoko Ono, Thomas Wolfe and Ernest Hemingway (again).

56. The RTD: shaping up.

57. The Raiders: reorganizing.

58. Gene Mauch’s blood pressure.

59. Tommy Lasorda’s waistline.

60. Pedro Guerrero: on first base for the Dodgers.

61. Prince: a new princess?

62. The Beastie Boys: on the cover of Rolling Stone?

63. The new homeless: retirees living on city streets in RVs.

64. Dinosaurs: yet another extinction theory looms.

65. Glowing animals: from the same scientist who brought you glowing tobacco plants.

66. Regional American beers: return of the home-town suds.

67. Beer lists: In the toniest restaurants.

68. Funny mushrooms: like hedgehogs, pom poms and matsutake .

69. Holographic diets: Computer pictures show the skinny you, just dying to get out.

70. Minoxidil backlash: Bald is beautiful.

71. “Tissue glue”: could make doctors’ stitches obsolete.

72. “Wrapped hair”: including variations on the ‘50s beehive.

73. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland: new face in the Senate.

74. A mini-mall shakeout.

75. Car theft: another Big Issue.

76. Washington Boulevard in Venice: the new Melrose.

77. Ollie North: The pardon? The book? The movie?

78. Jehan Sadat: The book? The Vanity Fair cover? The miniseries?

79. (Slightly) cleaner air.

80. Grenada: tourist boom.

81. The Great Peace March, Part II: on to Moscow.

82. U2: hot concert ticket.

83. Hyundai: goes upscale.

84. Teen chastity: catches on.

85. Father Junipero Serra: sainthood?

86. White-collar Texans: job-hunting around here.

87. Los Angeles: on a roll.

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Left, high-riding attorney Howard Weitzman; Carrie Fisher, a future literary star; for a Prince of a fellow, a new princess?; below, right, Pedro Guerrero . . . who’s on first?