Word: fad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...magnetism of celebrity: "Academstars like ...Cornel West and Henry Louis Gates, Jr.," Gabler writes, "built their reputations the way stars usually did: by gaining media attention, in this case writing articles for newspapers and magazines and appearing as experts on television programs, or glomming onto the latest academic fad or controversy...
...market has never been entirely responsive to its final consumers, since parents are required middlemen. But kids have probably never been so far removed from the creation of a toy fad as with Furbies...
...author of Kids' Stuff: Toys and the Changing World of American Childhood. Yes, the bears were cuddly, but parents liked the story that inspired them: Theodore Roosevelt's saving a baby bear on a 1902 hunting trip. Nevertheless, it was kids who ultimately made teddy bears more than a fad. It took at least four years for teddy bears to sell well, only after kids across the country started seeing them...
...disgusting diet of microbrews, cigars and fancy bagels, served up by Wall Street in recent years, has left fad-loving investors dizzy, nauseated and burned. Predictably, financial chefs are pushing a new dish: health food. At first blush, the "natural products" industry looks like just another of the stock market's fleeting love interests. The group tumbled hard this summer, led by a 78% drop in the shares of pill peddler General Nutrition. It was eerily reminiscent of the 75% crash at Boston Beer (brewer of Sam Adams) in 1996 and the 84% plunge that started at Consolidated Cigar about...
Similarly, Liebert argues that gays and lesbians ought to "prove beyond a doubt that homosexual union is a viable, albeit heretofore unexplored, version of virtuous living"-- suggesting that gay families are some kind of questionable new fad, like Viagra or swing dancing. Most gay and lesbian people aren't interested in proving that their relationships are "viable"--they're too busy simply living their lives together. Civil rights and basic legal benefits should not be dependent on offering evidence of our "virtue...