Word: bum
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...Massachusetts, the hunger is not fueled by the sweep-the-bum-out mentality that is rattling other incumbents. Rather, it is a vague sense that Kennedy's time is up. Months before Romney gained his lock on the Republican candidacy, veteran G.O.P. pollster Richard Wirthlin came up with some surprising statistics: while 43% of voters favored Kennedy's re-election, 50% did not. "His numbers are perfectly good," says Boston Globe pollster Gerry Chervinsky, "but half the people think it's time for a change." And a poll released last week by the Globe shows that while 52% of voters...
...Optima card in 1987 -- resulted in a plastic meltdown. The program quickly racked up $1.5 billion in unpaid charges, a figure twice the industry average, according to Robert McKinley, president of RAM Research Corp. Since March 1992, when the loss rate peaked at 12%, AmEx has wrestled bum credit to less than 6%, well in line with the industry average...
...Slang may be substandard, the stepsister of Standard English, but it has enlivened the language for centuries. It is so deeply embedded in the daily life of Americans that no amount of bad-mouthing or mouthwashing by box-headed double-domes, drelbs, brainos and chuckleheads can give it the bum's rush. Though it does not belong in "correct" literary or conventional usage, except when employed for effect, it is wonderfully expressive and endlessly inventive...
...remember: Pack a blacket, some beer and your binoculars, but you can miss the conductor because you'll be more interested in the slob across the way whose scratching his bum or the girl in the bikini who needs some help with her tanning...
Perhaps most galling of all are the fees charged account holders who unwittingly deposit bad checks. Thirty-five percent of U.S. banks resorted to such charges in 1991. Today it's up to 85%. USPIRG., which conducted the study, says that besides being stuck with bum checks, victims are paying on average a $5.29 fee to their bank for the privilege of being stiffed...