Word: flopping
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...ultimate lesson in spanking came about six years ago, when I found my five-year-old son leaping into his bath from the edge of the bathtub in a classic belly flop. Panicked, I pulled him from the tub, dragged him into his bedroom, promptly swacked him several times, got him dressed and sentenced him to time in his room. Several minutes later, after regaining some composure, I went back to him and attempted to explain the strength of my reaction and the seriousness of his act. My words stupefied me even as they came out of my mouth...
...addition, scientists have begun to get a better understanding of the sun's magnetic properties, which may hold the answer to what generates solar storms. While Earth's north and south magnetic poles have remained in place for the past 30,000 years, the sun's poles flip-flop every 11 years--so that the needles of any would-be solar compasses would swing 180[degrees]. The reversal is preceded by a kind of magnetic sparkling across the sun's surface--as if it were suddenly the site of millions of toy magnets, each with its own poles...
...climate machine, El Nino is more than just a sudden warm current off Peru. It refers to a rise in sea-surface temperatures over much of the equatorial Pacific as well as a change in winds and ocean currents. Indeed, there is a kind of climatic flip-flop, with a reversal of conditions across a wide stretch of ocean. Consequently, climate experts no longer refer to El Nino alone but speak of the El Nino Southern Oscillation. Rather like a pendulum, the ENSO cycle swings between an El Nino state and its opposite, a cold-water state known...
...goes well, not at Tarantino's. The director made numerous stumbles in the wake of Pulp Fiction, including an embarrassing guest-host gig on Saturday Night Live, a series of awkward acting efforts, and participation in the flop 1995 anthology Four Rooms. Although the 1996 horror flick From Dusk Till Dawn (directed by pal Robert Rodriguez), which Tarantino wrote, produced and appeared in, was a moderate hit, speculation whirled in the industry about whether his directing career had stalled. Miramax provided a jump start by buying the rights to four Leonard novels...
...such cases, of course, the reader is honor bound to swallow hard and assume that every word has been made up. Invention gives Kate a pretty, childish mother, who falls in love (literally, as a result of repeated backward-flop trust exercises) with her therapist, a slightly sleazy charmer named Anton. What follows melds The Bobbsey Twins with On the Road. Mom drags the girls across the U.S. to meet her lover at Esalen, the California therapy spa, borrowing gas money from Kate, the sort of wise child who always has some. Then with Anton, his five children...