Word: ersatz
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...dole in London, takes these words to heart as he aspires to the comfortable status of his assimilated (and sleazy) uncle and pursues his own commercial dream of "a laundrette the size of the Ritz." With the assistance of his gay lover, Johnny (Daniel Day Lewis), an ersatz National Front hoodlum, Omar dreams up "Powders," a designer cleaning service replete with neon signs and high-style furnishings--even a fish tank...
...from seeming grave. "Ours was not a modernist solution," said Karl Ermanis, the palace's chief architect, as if there were any doubts. The designers borrowed from King Ludwig II, Piranesi, Gaudi, Maxfield Parrish and Walt Disney. There are some fetching small touches: off to one side is an ersatz ice ruin and a skull-shaped ice cave...
...simpler times, beepers were usually worn by doctors on call to answer medical emergencies. Today they are routinely carried by executives, lawyers and journalists. In fact, they are something of a status symbol. Now comes a new twist: an ersatz beeper so that people can beep themselves. Press a small button. About 25 seconds later, a red light flashes and a beep starts to sound. The person can gracefully excuse himself from a boring business meeting or a dull blind date. About the size of cigarette lighter, this device, called the Timely Beeper, weighs 2.5 oz. and sells...
...jacketed Deerfield High School band swung into Military Escort, and the crowd cheered. Behind the stage in what had been an employee conference room, McFarlane and his aides waited somberly with their news. The gentle folks of Sara Lee had rented a big desk and hung an ersatz presidential seal to make the place seem properly official. A tiny pen holder shaped like a Sara Lee truck cheeerily waved the bakery's banner. Reagan entered, the door closed, the men who run the U.S. huddled...
...same 30's drama, with a different sex swap. Sure, Joel actually says, "Sometimes you just gotta say, 'What the fuck.'" But what he's really saying, desperately, is that "sometimes you just gotta fuck." What do we have for our lucky couple? Well, for the dumb, anxious, ersatz blonde, there's Tom Cruise, the dumb, protohulking, died-brunette--and vice versa (if you haven't lost...