Word: fad
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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NAME: Al ("the Roke") Roker OCCUPATION: Serving weather with a smile BEST PUNCH: On the Today show, Roker named theme restaurants as the worst fad of the '90s, saying, "They were basically a reason to foist really bad food and cheap merchandise on Americans and tourists...
...reinvented every few decades. Losing weight is easy. The challenge is to achieve and maintain a healthy weight for life. This requires a commitment to physical activity and a nutritious diet that includes a wide range of foods eaten in moderation. Contrast this approach to the risks of fad diets. Rather than showcasing the insanity of magical diets, you should report on the science of health and nutrition. MARY JO FEENEY, R.D. Los Altos, Calif...
Last confession: I'm as eager to pretend understanding of a hot fad as any journalist. And I do like things kids like; this summer I read all three Harry Potter books, aloud and enthralled, to my wife. So I'm no grinch. Honest. I'm just a guy who loves good cartoons and, when he sees a bad one, gets a little...bit ...UPSET...
...verbal section on standardized tests. Okay, maybe kids won't find the words poltergeist, Quidditch or transfiguration on the SATs anytime soon, but the Potter books have a larger vocabulary than most of the drivel that is published for children nowadays. Compare the Harry Potter series to the last fad in children's books, that formulaic series called Goosebumps, and you'll see what I mean...
Backcountry activities have become extremely trendy, a fad that has been eagerly abetted by Madison Avenue. These days it's impossible to turn on a television or open a magazine without being assaulted by a barrage of ads that use skillfully packaged images of wilderness activities to rev the engine of consumerism. In 1851, when Henry David Thoreau declared, "In wildness is the preservation of the world," he could not have foreseen that wilderness, as an idea, would one day be used to sell everything from SUVs to soda pop. Disconcerting though this development may be, it happens to come...