Word: earnest
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...favorite games, in which the object is to figure out who were the major players behind important policy decisions in the White House or Congress. Though the game gets harder when the decisions come from the tight-lipped precincts of the Supreme Court, it was being played in earnest last week in an attempt to figure out one of the court's most unexpected rulings in years. Someone cobbled together a Roe-friendly majority that included three conservatives -- Anthony Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor and David Souter...
...seems misguided. The citizen forums have not replaced the news; they have replaced other forms of campaigning. What's more, they compare favorably with more mainstream TV-news venues. When Barbara Walters talked with Bush on 20/20 not long ago, the encounter was so carefully stage-managed that her earnest voice-over ("The President's greeting was warm, his desk clear") sounded like parody. ABC's Peter Jennings aired a prime-time special last week on Perot, but the rehash of familiar material was merely a warm-up to the lively 1-hr. 40-min. "town meeting" that followed...
...have for the umpteenth time two earnest parents (Kate Burton and Michael Brandon) who seem inordinately befuddled at the job of raising a family, and two teenagers who have little on their minds except sex. The show's attitudes are hip, but the plot twists are strictly Donna Reed: in one episode, Mom advises 14-year-old Jesse that he ought to be more frank in trying to woo his girlfriend. When he goes too far, the girl's father shows up on their doorstep and punches (who else?) Jesse's dad in the mouth. A laugh track tinkles wanly...
...week begins in earnest with first-yearregistration. Registration sounds important. Itsounds like something that requires an early alarmclock setting. But the secret to registration isto go in the afternoon. Everyone thinks it's agood idea to line up in the morning. As a result,first-years find themselves stuck in an hour-longline playing more name game, which by now isbeginning to get old. And it's still early in theweek...
...earnest though imperfect attempt to embody the Wilsonian principle of national self-determination, the postwar settlement created several new countries that were true nation-states. The Poles got back Poland, and the Hungarians got Hungary...