Word: atm
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...simple but ingenious, easily accessible -- and it gives people what they want without fuss or argument. It is, in short, one of the great conveniences of modern technology: the ATM, or automated-teller machine...
Only a few years ago, getting your hands on real money meant waiting in line at your (and only your) bank, or knowing the corner shopkeeper well enough to cash a personal check. The ATM changed all that, using a fusion of computer chips, telepad, phone line and dispensing mechanism to transform the way people access their money. Armed with only a plastic card and a functioning index finger, a customer can now obtain cash as easily in Tierra del Fuego as in downtown Tulsa...
There is something to be said for the feel of crisp bills or clinking change in the palm of your hand, but credit cards and automatic teller machines (ATMs) are taking over the market for money. The machines have popped up on every street corner, and you can pay with plastic just about everywhere-even supermarkets happily accept ATM cards these days. Limits on credit availability and allowable amounts for purchases have also begun to varnish...
...know nothing about. But that's not enough to explain why she has become such a lightning rod for criticism. Why is it that Arnold Schwarzenegger can hang out with Newt Gingrich and not take any hits? What Streisand is a victim of is her clout as the virtual ATM of Democratic politics. By simply and literally opening her mouth, she raised $1.5 million in one evening for six congressional candidates in 1986 (five won) and $1 million for Clinton in September 1992. It's much more seemly to be like Republicans, who are better at taking their money...
Some students visit ATM machines twice a day, while others say they draw funds only three times a year. But most say they hit the machines about once a week...