Word: dullness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...they were "supposed to come through the system," at which Schaefer snapped, "Why don't you just walk over and get them?" She did. On a more sympathetic note, Schaefer showed his concern for congenial working conditions at the department by rearranging furniture in an office that he found "dull and unattractive," and by suggesting that its occupant bring a lamp from home to brighten up the place. Marvels Schaefer: "They took all my suggestions...
...life sickos. Or maybe, as some argue, it drains their sickness off into harmless fantasy. But surely it cheapens our sense of ourselves to think that others, even fictional others, could see us as little more than meat. And it's hard to believe all this carnage doesn't dull our response to the global wastage of human flesh in famine, flood...
...Dull speaking, in Costner's case, is an emblem of miscasting. The character of Robin Hood demands emotional exuberance -- not Costner's forte. He does not spring; he is coiled. He is a reactive actor; audiences enjoy watching him think. In Bull Durham, Field of Dreams and Dances with Wolves he played, quite persuasively, cynics who find something to believe in. But Nottinghamshire is no place for California dreamin'. Perhaps, in the two recent movies about legendary princes, the stars should have swapped roles. Mel Gibson could have been a dashing Robin Hood and Costner a provocative Hamlet...
...police responded whenever an alarm shrieked wolf, they would waste time and taxpayers' money, and dull their own crime-fighting reflexes. The endless ululations of alarms in big cities fray people's nerves, inure them to noise and, on a deeper level, undermine their civic morale, their subliminal expectations. Crime, no crime -- the distinction vanishes in undifferentiated wailing and rage. The machine screams. The quality of life within earshot dies a little more...
Unlike the Energizer Rabbit--who walks funny and wears cool shades--the PC debate has become intensely dull. Right-wing ideologues accuse the "PC thought police" of baseless name-calling, intolerance, self-righteousness and McCarthyism. Left-wing ideologues accuse the right-wingers of--you guessed it--baseless name-calling, intolerance, self-righteousness and McCarthyism...