Word: familiarization
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Americans famously overspent during the 1990s and early '00s. It's a familiar story: we mortgaged oversized homes to buy colossal TVs. But you may have heard less about another commodity we binged on: justice. Americans indulged in an enormous criminal-justice spending spree during the past 25 years, locking up more and more offenders (particularly for drug-related crimes) for longer and longer sentences. Total spending on incarceration rose from $39 per U.S. resident in 1982 to $210 per resident in 2006, according to the most recent figures from the Justice Department. We now spend $62 billion a year...
...lunch," she writes. "The people with whom you're talking need to have 100 percent of your focus." The author is not a fan of texting ("Unless the situation is extremely urgent, text-messaging is not an appropriate way to communicate in a professional setting"); smiley-face emoticons; overly familiar salutations or sign-offs (forget "ciao" and "cheers"); or ungrammatical, unproofread messages. Jones warns that getting too frisky on social websites like MySpace, Facebook and Twitter can be career suicide: "Job candidates across any number of industries--from bankers to police officers--have been weeded out due to inappropriate postings...
...What They're Hoarding in Europe: Before the European Union's ban on incandescent lightbulbs went into effect on Sept. 1, consumers across Europe raided stores to stockpile the familiar bulbs. Under the new rules, retailers can continue to sell what they have in stock but won't be able to buy or import more. The policy forces shoppers to switch to environmentally friendly compact fluorescent lamps, which use 80% less electricity. But fans of the traditional lights argue that the new bulbs don't glow as warmly--and that they cost more than twice as much...
...hotel bills: just fire people from the home office, over a picture-phone device like iChat. Ryan is stricken. Natalie's plan threatens not his job - he can stay in Omaha, Neb., and make the kill calls - but his way of life. No more first-class treatment; no familiar salutations from hotel clerks and flight attendants who are his equivalent of friends; no more great sex with Alex. Just chained to a desk in, really, Omaha...
Larry is a familiar figure from Jewish literature that dates back to the Old Testament and up to Bruce Jay Friedman's 1962 novel Stern, about a Jew who moves to the suburbs and endures a plague of abuse from neighbors and nature. The men at the center of Philip Roth's novels may rage and flail, but Larry doesn't dish out insults, he takes them. When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies, just suck it up and hope you don't explode. That's Larry's method of coping...