Word: annoying
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...constant state of uncertainty is stressful not only for teens but for adults as well. Parents try hard to keep their kids away from things that might corrupt their future, whether drugs, alcohol or violent movies. But placing strict restrictions on teens will accomplish only two things: really, really annoy them and make the temptation for rebellion greater...
They seem just as thoughtful about most of their transgressions, all of which, except perhaps BASEketball, they still find funny. Orgazmo, which was written before South Park, they say is funny if thought of as a guerrilla film to be shown at Sundance to annoy local Mormons. The Down syndrome tape, which was recently purchased by the BBC, is funny, they say, not because of the newscasters but because of the uncomfortable reactions people have when dealing with the disabled. And the dancing penises? It's just that they still think dancing penises are funny...
Even if the kids don't touch each other, they can still annoy each other--and you. Caroline Keens, a Virginia mother of two, forestalls battles over the car's air temperature by insisting that everyone wear the same number of layers, and music choices must be unanimous. But she also knows she can only do so much. "If you remove the arguments altogether," she says, "they don't have any way of learning how to negotiate." When the bickering is truly unbearable, don't attempt your dad's brand of auto discipline, circa 1965: steering with your left hand...
...used to be said that I was the only man on the cabinet. That used to annoy me because it implied only men could do those things," Charles said...
When science fiction gets over its trite romance with the parts catalog, it can achieve unnerving power. Aldous Huxley and George Orwell are the classic exemplars of that small, elite class of science-fiction writers who frighten and annoy science-fiction devotees. Huxley's Brave New World (1932) bursts with prescient speculation: "feelie" multimedia, Prozac-like "soma" tranquilizers, test-tube babies. Late in life Huxley became a psychedelics guru, seduced by the potent allure of brain chemistry...