Word: flake
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Jerry Brown, the flamed-out former California Governor, derided by Democratic insiders as a flake, a fake, a maverick and a mountebank, regained political legitimacy last week by edging out Clinton 37% to 36% in the Connecticut primary. "It's a miracle," Brown proclaimed. "It's not about me. It's about the grass roots rising up against the bounced checks, the congressional pay raises, the corrupt status...
...also become a logistical horror show. Over the Christmas holidays, 7,000 people were stranded in cars and trains when avalanches blocked valley roads. A similar disaster struck last February, cutting off several resorts from the outside world for two days. Olympic organizers say they are prepared. "The first flake won't even have time to hit the asphalt," says Killy. "It will land on a snowplow." But a few minor accidents on the two-lane mountain roads that lead up to the ski runs, bobsled course and hockey rink could create gridlock in transporting the 2,300 athletes...
...Jerry Brown I saw at the Kennedy School last month was not the flake I had come to expect from press reports. The Jerry Brown I saw seemed witty, impassioned, spontaneous, casual, eloquent, inspiring, sarcastic, serious, rebellious, astute, and--above all-honest. What a refreshing change from the pre-packaged, poll-driven politicians we have come to expect and even admire...
...kind of language voters love to hear, but there's a comfortable buffer protecting Brown's rivals from his diatribe. Nicknamed "Governor Moonbeam" and labeled everything from futurist to flake, Brown has an image problem...
This meant that Pop could flood the culture, especially in America, with an / ease that Abstract Expressionism could not possibly rival. The collectors, to quote the English dealer John Kasmin, "found it immediately easy and accessible. Everything added up for them: you make money out of soap flakes, and buy art based on soap-flake advertisements." The difficulties were invented later, mainly by critics who wanted to claim for Pop the depth and resonance of "classical" Modernism. You can't read what some of them wrote about the supposed profundities of Warhol's alienation without wanting to laugh out loud...