Word: commonized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...this relevant? Children share what author Jonathan Kozol refers to as the "equality of innocence." We know kids are not responsible for their situation because their youth exempts them from personal responsibility. Explanations we give for their poverty sound very common-sensical as a result: They are homeless because there is no affordable housing in Boston. They are poor because there are no jobs for their parents. They fail school because they do not speak English...
...scandal that is now mercifully over has helped introduce a new explicitness into our conversations. But the Lewinsky matter is only the latest in a series of episodes that have made graphic sex talk more common. The onset of the AIDS epidemic brought the clinical-sounding phrase anal sex into our homes, and the Clarence Thomas hearings gave the imprimatur of the U.S. Senate to dirty talk that would make us wince in mixed conversations. The rape trials of William Kennedy Smith and Mike Tyson accelerated the trend toward frank sex talk, and the rise of Viagra brought to mind...
...pervasiveness of legal concepts these days is coupled with the heaping of scorn on them. Take "legalistic hairsplitting," used to imply that we all know the precise meaning of common phrases like sexual relations. Thus the scandal has brought a touch of reality to our talk, making us realize how little we actually agree on the meanings of basic words. Not only do some people define "sex" narrowly as "sexual intercourse," but health professionals have long known that Humpty Dumpty spoke for us all when he claimed, "When I use a word, it means just what I choose...
...first; it wears its lofty paradoxes lightly. Bounding over the waves and through the woods, Covington bears an almost feudal loyalty to the brilliant master he calls "the gent." But while Darwin may have the upper hand socially and intellectually, Covington is the superior psychologist, gifted with a rustic common sense that allows him to hold his own with the great man and slyly enrich himself under Darwin's nose by selling rare animals to London collectors. Like the fantastic tortoises they encounter in the Galapagos, servant and master are perfectly adapted to their respective niches in the world, "proof...
Music and colors are richly interwoven in our psychology. In her latest release, Japan's Takako Minekawa draws us back to an infant's syn(th)aesthetic state where musical notes, colors, words and numbers find unity under a common sense of wonder. Armed with analog Casio synthesizer, Minekawa blends the controlled tones and rhythms of Kraftwerk (to whom she pays homage on the expansive "Kraftpark") with the delicate innocence of 60s French pop-to effects which at times echo likeminded Stereolab and 80s New Wave. Minekawa refines her music along minimalist lines, creating a childlike interplay between melody...