Word: formula
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...point when the Committee is looking for positive reasons to admit a candidate, as relatively few of the many qualified candidates can be admitted. The shorthand terminology--"tip"--does not suggest that the "positive weight" given to a candidate can be quantified or otherwise expressed as a formula...
...embargo will begin leaking badly; nation after nation will start casting around for a diplomatic solution; Washington itself will be under growing pressure to bring G.I.s home from Saudi Arabia where they will have been "sitting around in the sand for a year accomplishing nothing." A formula will be found to let Iraq keep part of Kuwait. Curtains for any hope of a world in which aggression does...
...main challenge for the networks, however, is to find ways of wooing back viewers who seem bored by the sameness of network programming. The success of such offbeat shows as The Simpsons and Twin Peaks early this year demonstrated that these viewers will perk up for formula-breaking fare. The result, say many TV producers, has been a rather confused quest for unusual shows. "The question is always, 'Why is this show different?' " says David Gerber, president of MGM/UA Television. "((Network programmers)) are worried that they might get a well-executed show but that it won't be different enough...
That's the formula WCBS in New York City used last week to hype its ratings in the November sweeps, local-news category, when it scheduled a three-part series on infidelity. What with baleful budget problems, an enigmatic mayor and the onset of holiday anxieties, it might be argued that New Yorkers didn't need something else to worry about. But the infidelity stakes seemed almost comic relief, a list to be swapped and talked about by the regulars in the fitness centers or the bars...
Dull stuff, prudence. Anthony Holden never hesitated: he wobbled out into the night. But as Holden, a British literary critic, reached the Golden Nugget's cardroom, he remembered the gambler's formula for chump detection: "If you can't spot the sucker in your first half-hour at the table...