Word: fixes
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Americans' impatience for quick-fix remedies resembles the frustration that drives inner-city youths to seize on illegal get-rich schemes: they want to cut corners, produce high yields and not pay a price. But grim experience indicates that, as with crime, hard time doesn't always pay the anticipated dividends. When money is poured into building another prison cell at the expense of rebuilding a prisoner's self-image, it is often just a prelude to more -- and worse -- crime. "They start as drug offenders, they eventually become property-crime offenders, and then they commit crimes against people," ( says...
Actually the source of their agony is the same person, a gushy and gauche young woman (Sophie Thompson, sister of Oscar winner Emma) on whom both of the men and the lesbian fix their romantic longings. The same bent for imagination that makes them so keen for the game lets them see undying devotion where only vague kindness is meant. Sweet but terminally insensitive and preoccupied with her own problems as the battered wife of a stalking husband, this unlikely femme fatale remains unaware of her allure until much too late...
...second story is about American quality control. After the innocent pawing of Trekkies rendered the games in worse shape than a breached warp-core, a handy technician came out to fix it. Once the dazzling frieze of the Enterprise outrunning the Borg was relit, die-hard Trekkie pinballers breathed a sigh of relief and returned to their habit. Alas, their joy was premature; the technician was no Jordi. The first ball launched came to a dead stop, as if stopped by the Enterprise's own ample shields. But a closer inspection revealed the true culprit-the technician, ersatz hero...
Professor of Sociology Theda Skocpol, who is a Faculty Council member, agrees that improving the flow of information--short of asking students to pre-register for their courses and eliminating shopping--is best way to fix the system...
...developed by Yale's James Tobin, a Nobel laureate in economics. No one will say what's coming, but "it can't be much," sniffs an Administration official. "Tobin's a great economist, but he doesn't know health care." Perhaps so, but it's the politicians who will fix America's health-care system, and dismissing someone Moynihan respects is a prescription for even more trouble than the President's plan already faces...