Word: ascent
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...habit of viewing it does not encourage reflection or contemplation. The eye is trained to crave novelty, while the brain rests or slumbers. Political debate, which during my last visit seemed a passion and a recreation among Americans, has shrunk to brief bursts of pleasant images. And television's ascent has coincided with a measurable decline in the ability of young people to read. Democracy cannot function without an informed citizenry. The paradox of television in forwarding such a goal seems clear: barring extraordinary circumstances, it can best summon the attention of most of the nation by presenting trivialities...
Like Giscard, Chirac began his ascent in the early '60s as an aide to the late President Georges Pompidou, who was so impressed by Chirac's seemingly indefatigable capacity for work that he called him "my bulldozer." After Pompidou's death in 1974, Chirac backed Giscard's candidacy for President. A grateful Giscard rewarded him with the premiership. Believing that he was not allowed enough leeway to carry out his economic policies, Chirac resigned in August 1976 and formed his own party, Rally for the Republic. The following year he was elected mayor of Paris. An able and efficient administrator...
Tammy was no great singer, and Jim no penetrating interviewer, but their TV ascent was rapid. Says their avuncular announcer, Henry Harrison: "They were just a cute little couple that people felt good about watching." Soon Bakker was giddily expanding religious and charitable works at home and abroad, though shunning politics...
...order; it meant that the engines had automatically reached full power and systems were go. Based on the performance of earlier engines, Challenger actually reached 104% of the older standard. The power-up meant that the shuttle had begun to endure the greatest stress of physical forces in its ascent...
Like most Americans, television news editors had begun to treat space shuttle flights as routine. Cable News Network, the Atlanta-based all-news channel, was the only network to carry live coverage of the shuttle launch. Correspondent Tom Mintier, narrating the spacecraft's ascent, retreated into shocked silence for several seconds following the blast. Then, after the explosion was confirmed by Mission Control, he announced "what appears to be a major catastrophe in America's space program...