Word: direness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...extent that there is some consensus among sensible experts, it is that the dire predictions of major social disruptions are way overblown. The most likely problems involve temporary glitches, especially overseas, in billing and invoice systems, that could cause some disruptions in business and government. The Internal Revenue Service, you will be relieved to know, promises to be prepared. (So it's true about death and taxes.) And the Social Security Administration, which sends out benefit checks, also says it's ready...
...there's nothing to suggest that things are nearly so dire: DNA fingerprinting has been used for years, and so far it is only wrongdoers who have real cause to wish it hadn't. But when it comes to scientific advances, human beings have often been a slapdash species--racing out ahead with a new technology before fully appreciating its power. If DNA fingerprinting should get into the wrong hands, society's law-abiding members may find they have more in common with its lawbreakers than they ever dreamed possible...
...meantime, there were serious problems to fix. The fall campaign season could hardly have looked more dire for the Democrats. In mid-September, two dozen Democratic Congresswomen came to the Yellow Oval Room and laid out their desperation to Hillary over coffee and Danish. Their problem was what they called, out of politeness, "the clutter." Clinton himself was useless to them as a campaigner; he was a prisoner of the briefing room and the fund raisers. She was the one politician in the country who would not be interrupted with questions about the scandal. In the miraculous month of October...
...thank heaven, a particularly magnificent one. Travolta and writer-director Steve Zaillian, compressing complex issues and characters with admirable craft, make it clear that greed and ego, more than compassion, drive Schlichtmann. Only when he reaches straits as dire as his clients' does he (non-melodramatically) achieve something like full humanity. Meantime, we've enjoyed a richly acted--see especially Robert Duvall's dreamy-fox opposition lawyer--subtly suspenseful, blessedly unmoralizing morality play...
...reading well, it turns out, can be hazardous to your health. A new study shows that people who have difficulty reading or understanding health-related materials are more than twice as likely to end up in a hospital as those who don't. This has especially dire implications for many Americans over age 65, nearly half of whom are classified as functionally illiterate...