Word: commonness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...quick admission to the National Guard. The managing editor of his grandfather's newspaper, Wendell Phillippi, had indeed called an old acquaintance, the Guard planning officer, on Quayle's behalf. This old-brass network clearly expedited Quayle's access to a relatively safe haven, but such transactions were common throughout the country during the Viet Nam War. Thousands of other Americans, including Senators Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Don Nickles of Oklahoma, sat out the war in the National Guard or military reserves (though they were not, like Quayle, outspoken advocates of the Viet...
...million) was the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, which has frequently intimidated the elderly into donating even when no one was attacking their benefits. Ranking third ($2.55 million) was Philip Morris U.S.A., which successfully opposed hikes in tobacco taxes. But what was second, at $2.56 million? Common Cause, the citizens' lobby that claims other interest groups corrupt Congress...
Lower back pain, as prevalent as the common cold, is the price human beings pay for walking upright. In most cases, simple treatments like bed rest, exercise and pain-killers bring relief. But many sufferers are not so lucky. If one or more of their spinal disks -- pulpy masses that cushion pairs of vertebrae -- rupture and press on nerve roots, the pain that radiates from the back and down the legs can be excruciating and disabling. For many the only treatment is surgical removal of part of the blown disk, a major operation called a laminectomy that requires general anesthesia...
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD. Many thought that when the Old Trouper Ronald Reagan tap-danced off the political stage, he would take the references to Tinseltown with him. Not so. Movie allusions were so common among speakers in New Orleans that the place sometimes resembled another French city: Cannes...
Black delegates at the Republican Convention were about as common as photographers for Reader's Digest. Less than 3% of the delegates were black. But while black faces were rare on the Superdome floor, a conspicuously high number turned up on the podium or in the VIP box: Muhammad Ali, former Transportation Secretary William Coleman, and Fred Brown, chairman of the National Black Republican council...