Word: american
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...threat is this: the schools, perhaps believing that they are acting for one institution--"American higher education"--may be bilking the public and their own staffs, faculty and students by not aggressively keeping costs down and arranging salaries, housing costs and other fees in the open market...
FANS of big, thick black headlines have had a lot to be happy about in the last week or so. First, the stock market threatened to crash, and then the earth in California quaked. That's the most disaster that American newspapers have had to play with since the Challenger explosion. And both of last week's stories included double coverage potential: the business and sports sections, respectively, got to echo the front page...
...case of the stock market, such a numerical need is perfectly logical. The number was the story: down 190.58 points. The way in which numbers are expected to grow into bigger numbers, however, is not so straightforward. Exciting numbers--200, 300, 400, 500--flitted through American minds all weekend. In the end, a combination of relief and disappointment greeted Monday's actual closing figure: back up 88.12 points...
...case with the market, the American imagination counted its chickens in the Bay area before they cracked. Original estimates of "quake dead" (as the New York Times called them) had to be downgraded from 270 to 59. The three-digit figure was appealing to the media, but alas, not true...
Strange though it may sound, Bush--as President--is really the archetypal American observer of disaster. We aren't totally heartless, yet our sense of adventure lets us forget that what we're cheering on is real. Hence our underlying complacency--as if the whole disaster thing were a replacement for the World Series, and our team had the chance to pull together and score the most runs ever in a single game...