Word: fiascoes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Women have suffered a double blow from the Einstein fiasco. First a possible heroine and role model, Mileva Maric, was lost. Then the agent of that loss was turned around and used as a club against them. Einstein's legacy was style as much as substance. The absentminded, frizzed-out dreamer has become the archetype of male genius. "Don't bother Daddy. He's busy working on the space-time continuum." Substitute "novel," "fast ball" or "takeover plan" for the end of that statement, and you have the image of the lone genius. Genius needs a little slack...
Coca-Cola has always been the world's most popular soda. But in 1985 its Atlanta-based makers decided to replace it with New Coke, a sweeter concoction designed to challenge perennial opponent Pepsi. New Coke became the marketing fiasco of the decade. Within three months, soft-drink sippers loyal to the old formula forced its return; it reappeared as Coca-Cola Classic. Since then New Coke's market share has shriveled. Last week, in an effort to resuscitate the comatose cola, the company announced plans to test market New Coke under a new name: Coke...
...falls in love with an agoraphobic library assistant, Tissy, a delicate, nervous creature whom he hopes to nurse to a normal life. Abetted by her mother, a "Messalina of the suburbs," Tissy turns out to harbor the tyrannical selfishness of the very weak. Their marriage is a fiasco. Lewis falls under the spell of Emmy, a passionate and extraverted actress who is the opposite of his wife in every way except relentless self-absorption. Although he resists Emmy's advances, his wife leaves him anyway. He drifts passively through decades of wistful misery, unable to attain pleasure or please others...
Instead he reverted to his earliest version of his conduct during the Iran- contra affair, insisting that he knew little or nothing about many key aspects of the fiasco. He provided a scrambled account of the origins of secret arms shipments to Iran that contradicted the testimony of other witnesses and evidence assembled by various investigations. He asserted, for example, that the idea had been broached by "a group of individuals, citizens of Iran," who wanted to lay the groundwork for better relations with the U.S. after the Ayatullah Khomeini died. Both the Tower commission and congressional investigating committees concluded...
These embellishments were just plain boring after the initial oohs and ahs. and they tended to take away from otherwise good numbers (for example, the white glove fiasco in the midst of "I'm Getting Married"). Also, I really can't think of anything more heinous than day-glo pink and yellow Can-Can outfits that turn bright orange under the strange glow of the black lights...