Word: direness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Broadway congenitally hears more "voices" than Joan of Arc. Even before the Royal Shakespeare Company's epic production of Nicholas Nickleby opened at the Plymouth Theater on Oct. 4 for a three-month run, the voices of Mammon and Cassandra could be heard muttering their dire prophecies along Shubert Alley. Mammon said that no sane person would pay the unprecedented price of $100 a ticket. Cassandra moaned that 8½ hours in a seated position, with only a one-hour dinner break, was a spartan rigor that no human frame could endure. (Agreed Socialite C.Z. Guest: "The only...
...students, especially freshmen, escape experiencing the drastic reduction of alternatives that comes after 3 a.m. For the benighted Yardling there are three basic choices: finish the Expos paper (unthinkable), go to sleep (dire in consequence), or stroll down to the Square and The Store which (almost) never shuts, to aid procrastination with brownies. Or Hershey bars. Or Milano cookies. Or Entenmann chocolate chip cookies. Or Brach's Giant Circus Peanuts. Or cigarettes. Or soda. Or "doughnuts that look like they're about to implode." Or incense with erotic pictures on the packages. Or mixed nuts. Or penny candy...
McLaughlin wasn't far wrong in his dire prediction, with the Crimson making the long trip out to California look like a 6000-mile suicide drill, falling to Stanford, 93-70, before a crowd of 3000 at the Cardinals' Maples Pavilion...
...Despite dire predictions, the experience of the states that have enacted them shows clearly that bottle bills work. Oregon, though it never has had a serious litter problem, is now virtually free of beverage litter. Vermont highway officials reckon that roadside container rubbish has been cut down by 76%. Litter has been reduced by 90% in Michigan's heavily used state parks, according to officials. But in some of its industrial areas the cleanup has cost hundreds of lost jobs in bottle factories and millions in lost tax revenues from bottle sales...
...campaign this year, all of the incumbent councilors have taken credit for averting what had been dire predictions of essential service cuts. The incumbents maintain that because of their experience they will be better able to cope with the next round of budget slashing, while the challengers charge that thousands of dollars remain to be saved through more efficient management of current resources as well as the elimination of patronage jobs that continue to find a place on city pay-rolls...