Word: flaccidity
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Crisis time in Rome. Had another government fallen or the lira tumbled? Worse. Thanks to a ruling issued this month by the European Community's Court of Justice, Italy's lasagna may go limp and its fettuccine flaccid. For a nation that eats its pasta al dente, or firm to the tooth, such news is hard to swallow...
Televangelist Robertson reached in another direction, toward alienated social conservatives who yearn for a counterrevolution against "secular humanism." His minions had enough zeal and savvy to take over local party cells in some regions where flaccid G.O.P. regulars slept. But Robertson proved to be so reckless and ineffective a campaigner that his message was never tested amid a blizzard of controversy. Among registered Republicans surveyed last week by Yankelovich Clancy Shulman, 58% had a generally unfavorable impression of Robertson...
...Gephardt lashed out at the "opinion centers, Wall Street and editorial boards" and exhorted Democrats not to "play the Establishment game on foreign trade." Campaigning as an "anti-Establishment" candidate is an odd turnabout for the Missouri Congressman, who built his reputation as a Washington insider. But in a flaccid field, it seems to be working...
...remote, autocratic style. Last year his administration abolished a labyrinthine tax code in favor of a 20% value-added tax. Grenadians bemoaned the levy in a calypso song and even dubbed a local virus the VAT flu. Blaize has begun, amid yelps of protest, to reduce the flaccid civil service, which totals 7,800 employees in a population...
Programs like the one David is in are beginning to demonstrate gains, but many more of them will be needed if the nation's youth is to lose its flaccid profile. Meanwhile, health experts read with awe and admiration about China and West Germany, where strenuous exercise programs for children are the norm. American lassitude is proving difficult to overcome. "It isn't like being in the locker room with 45 players and you go through that door and get immediate results," says George Allen, after five years of being coach to the nation. "It's very difficult to motivate...