Word: drain
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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London hotel managers claim that Japanese guests fill up the tubs, leave the taps on, then pull out the drain plugs to ensure a constant flow of clear water. The result: heavy damage from the overflow flooding through carpets and cascading into rooms below. Says Geoffrey Gold, general manager of the Swallow International Hotel, where 20% of the guests are Japanese: "It got to the point where an average of one bathroom a day was flooded." Some hotels are warning Japanese guests that flooders will face fines; others have made a simple but costly technological adjustment: installing drains in bathroom...
...Hungary entrenched themselves by using foreign loans to subsidize cheap consumer goods rather than upgrade industries. "The last thing the West should do is to forgive us our debts," says a senior Hungarian diplomat. "It would just relieve the pressure for reforms, so it would be money down the drain again...
...news is not good for either side. The men, selfish and distracted, bolt at the first hint of that dread word, commitment. The women work at being hip and wary but are as overmastered by virility as any Victorian maiden ("With his touch, the will seemed to drain out of her"). Susan Minot, who made a notable debut with her 1986 novel Monkeys, has a laser instinct for the clinching detail and the giveaway phrase. She can summon descriptive power when she wants it ("Clouds rose up, golden, fisted, dwarfing the islands"). But the very unity of this collection produces...
...Paramount would have to borrow some $10 billion to acquire Time at the offering price, which Davis admitted at an analysts' meeting would mean no earnings for at least two years and would be a long-term drain on operations. At the very least, the debt would impose the kind of cost cutting that has characterized Laurence Tisch's management of CBS. At worst, it could force the sale of certain assets to meet the bankers' bills. Indeed, almost any of Time's defensive strategies would require heavy borrowing that would sap profits from whatever entity results when the dust...
...town's involvement transcends checkbook activism. Media-shy Meryl Streep performs as spokeswoman for Mothers and Others for Pesticide Limits. The names of celebs who huddled around a garbage-filled storm drain at a rally for Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica, Calif., group, read like a short list for the 25 most intriguing people: thirtysomething people (Ken Olin, Patricia Wettig), sitcom people (Justine Bateman, John Ritter), people named Moon and Dweezil Zappa. A sludge protest drew Dynasty's Linda Evans to Olympic, Wash. More recently, Dennis Weaver, Michael Landon and Robert Downey Jr. voiced their protest against offshore...