Word: cult
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...advent of the 1990s saw more wonderful forms of dirty chortling, with the late-night game show "Sticky Moments" becoming a cult hit. Postmodern laughter and applause erupt as our unbelievably camp host mises onto stage in bondage gear. The leading contestants, having answered questions like "How long is this sausage?," win their prize by consuming as much ice-cream as possible in one minute. Their moment of stickiness climaxes with a tacky award of no value...
...important sect or cult has been born for decades. The colorful creeds from olden times are tiny or extinct, among them Baha'i, One-Faith, Christian Science, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Hemlockite death cult. Of the assorted new revelations that were announced toward the end of the second millennium, only Mormonism maintains global reach, but it remains relatively small. On the other hand, the ancient forms of Hinduism and Buddhism, once considered near- cults in the U.S., have become sizable and respectable there...
...concept. Strange written messages begin appearing on the computer screens and notebooks of a group of school friends. The messages emanate from an unseen supernatural being who communicates only in writing and helps the kids solve mysteries (in the first few episodes, a wave of backpack thefts by a cult of school-yard video-game enthusiasts). Forcing the junior detectives to read and write -- and perform other word tasks, like deciphering anagrams -- in order to solve mysteries is an ingenious way of getting young viewers to treat reading as something other than a chore...
...BOTTOM LINE: A cult figure returns in a new collection of old masterworks...
...still comes into the office almost every day. New staffers frequently ask about the identity of the reticent 85-year-old with the soft North Carolinian accent. "A cult figure" is the usual answer. Sometimes they are referred to the dedication in a book by humorist Calvin Trillin: "To the New Yorker reporter who set the standard -- Joseph Mitchell." Hardly anyone else refers to Mitchell as a New Yorker reporter these days. After all, he has not published a word in 27 years...