Young shoppers who never had to duck under their school desks during an air-raid drill, never worried about the draft and might not even know what all the fighting was about in Vietnam are embracing the Army now.

Textiles mottled with camouflage, and military motifs were popular on spring's high-fashion runways. Calling camouflage the new leopard, John Galliano, designing for Christian Dior, featured it on dresses, sandals and handbags in spring windows of the famed salon in Paris.

The look also has been showing up on T-shirts, baggy pants and swimsuits. Now it's invading home decor, appearing on rugs, lampshades, dinner plates and push brooms. The splotches of black, khaki and olive green -- or sometimes variations on those colors -- are being embraced by teenagers and those in their early twenty’s.

The jungle these young people will be fighting is an urban one-it has nothing to do with war. Since they never have had to dodge from bullets, or sit by a radio waiting for news of when loved ones would be home, they are looking at this as a fashion statement. According to fashion designers, it is becoming a classic pattern.

Transforming Tomorrow

Language is an important aspect of our lives. It is the way we communicate and stay connected to others in our social circles, specifically, and the world in general. Not all language is words. With the popularity of the Internet and email, it was difficult to communicate emotion. That’s when emoticons-or smileys-were born.

Often used by the younger generations, you may see these pop up in your email messages. Or, you might have wanted to express more feeling into your own email messages. To help you out, for the next few weeks, we’ll be looking at a dictionary of emoticom ‘smileys.’

• :-) - Smiling
• :-D - Laughing
• :-} - Grin
• :-( - Sad
• :-& - Tongue-tied
• :-II - Angry
• :-@ - Screaming
• :-P - Sticking tongue out
• ;-{) - Flirt
• :-0 - Astonished