Word: formulaic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...limitation on heating-oil use, which would be based on a sliding-scale formula tied to need instead of fixed amounts...
Just as accountants use the double-entry system to order wildly diverse assets and liabilities, so this novel draws up a balance sheet on everyday life. Its hero, Christie Malry, scratches the essential formula on a London wall: "Debit them, credit me! Account settled...
...song selection follows their tried and true formula. Loggins contributes a mover, "Didn't I Know You When," and a soft solo love song, simply entitled "A Love Song." Danny Loggins, his non-performing brother who was the subject of "Danny's Song," offers another standout tune, "Sailin' the Wind." Messina tempers all the breezy music with his own brand of melancholy rock in "Travelin' Blues," "You Need a Man" and "Pathway to Glory." They combine for a pair of fun songs in their "Your Momma Don't Dance" mold, "My Music" and "Watching the River...
...outside world is not cut off from Steve and his clams. Every customer exits from the shack with Steve's business card in hand. The card gives Steve's telephone number, a formula for steamed clams is printed on the back...
What turns a normal woman into a Harlequin junkie? The formula requires three ingredients: an exotic setting (Rome, the Caribbean, Africa), a demure heroine whose modest station in life is similar to the reader's, and a usually rich, arrogant hero who initially patronizes the heroine, then sweeps her off her feet "like a leaf in the wind" into a blissful, totally unLiberated marriage. Curses never go beyond an impetuous hero's "God's teeth!" ("What a shocking remark!" exclaims the heroine.) Sex never gets further than a kiss, but manages to crop up in perfervid abundance...