Word: direness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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ELVIRA plays a character who (surprise!) is the hostess of a TV horrorflick show. Or was, rather. Out of work, she finds herself in dire financial straits until she learns that she has inherited a mansion. But the mansion is creepy, and it has a "recipe book" in the kitchen that Elvira's sinister Uncle Vincent (W. Morgan Sheppard) will go to any length to obtain. Mansion, magic book and menacing uncle are in a morally uptight, Salem-like Massachusetts town called Fallwell, run by gossipy biddy Chastity Pariah (Edie McClurg...
...brink of a breakdown because of carbon-dioxide loads, chlorofluorocarbon residues and forest destruction. The earth and its atmosphere are drowning in man-made wastes, a situation that has become so critical it may soon make other political issues -- even budget deficits and military needs -- seem trivial. Yet the dire nature of the danger, if properly approached, also presents the glimmer of a great opportunity: the planet's problems could become so paramount they would force a new spirit of international partnership, one that could serve as a model for cooperation on political, economic and military matters. "We're talking...
...moral education of young American males. The fact that it involved baseball players -- members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox -- who conspired with gamblers to throw the World Series (no less) struck at the very center of boyhood. The fact that the consequence of the act was so dire -- permanent banishment from baseball -- in comparison with the paltry rewards (a few thousand dollars to each man) imparted ironic force to the story. And then there were the poignant sidebars: the little boy crying "Say it ain't so, Joe," as Shoeless Joe Jackson, greatest of the team's several great...
Statistics vary, but Yugoslavia (12 deaths per 10,000 vehicles per year) and Portugal (11 deaths) appear to head the grim list of annihilation on Europe's roads. The U.S. rate: 2.6 per 10,000 vehicles. Italy reduced the limit after a dire weekend last month, when road fatalities totaled 95. According to a poll by the daily Corriere della Sera of Milan, two-thirds of Italians favor the speed cutbacks...
...full time, as Josh's do. Success is trumpeted at Josh's school, as it is in Josh's family. More than one-third of the Maisels in his father's generation made Phi Beta Kappa. In Belmont some 90% of high school students go to college. Many fear dire consequences if they do not get into the "right" college, and competition for those cherished spots is keen. "In Belmont it's the gold medal or nothing," a parent said. "The bronze is not enough...