Word: fad
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...left him little time in England at all. "I was bitten by the India bug before it became all the rage." Late in 1967 he went to India to star with Rita Tushingham in "The Guru." A typical example of a movie made before its time. But then the fad caught up with us before it was released. You can't imagine how surprised we were to bump into people like the Beatles and Mia Farrow on our way home." York remains oblivious to general critical opinions: "Personally, I like that almost the best of any movie I've made...
...stigmatized by having their marital status revealed by a form of address, the feminists have decided to be called Ms. (pronounced miz). In spite of all the jokes about Ms. standing for manuscript and mail steamer and master sergeant, it is fast becoming both a symbol and a fad. Ordinarily nonpolitical and conservative businesses, publications and organizations that correspond with women are having to make the big decision about whether to switch to Ms. Women's Wear Daily has, Vogue has not; the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has, the White House...
Like black studies programs, women's studies have been criticized as a fad, or as simply a disguised form of consciousness-raising talk sessions. Cornell Historian L. Pearce Williams, for one, calls them "rather silly," "worthless," and "a lot of nonsense." His argument: "A lot of these courses are not scholarly, they're ideological. They're out to indoctrinate rather than illuminate." Teachers of women's studies reject such criticisms. "Actually," observes Portland State Professor Nancy Porter, "consciousness raising is what education is all about." Professors Annette Baxter and Suzanne Wemple of Barnard agree...
...federal management of the economy. Inflation has raised government costs for construction, supplies and utility bills more than tax planners had foreseen. Recession has caused tax collections to fall below expectations, while joblessness has jacked up government expenditures for unemployment compensation and welfare. Although it has become an intellectual fad to question the need for vigorous economic growth, no Governor, mayor or federal budget director can have any doubt about the meaning of a halt or even a slowdown: fiscal disaster...
Michigan Bell has mixed feelings about the fad. Any increase in calls means an increase in revenues, but a company spokesman has reservations. "As with any electronic device, you create problems by misusing your phone. We really think a phone is for communication, not a replacement for the piano or violin." That argument apparently fails to impress the phone musicians, least of all Student Ascher. "Have you heard?" he says. "They're coming out with a 16-button phone. Imagine, four more notes...