Word: formulaic
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...universe of Cats & Dogs, the live-action comedy opening July 4, a power struggle has been raging in our own backyards since ancient times. Using high-tech spy equipment, man's best friend has kept the peace. And victory is at hand! A nutty professor has almost completed a formula that will eradicate human allergies to dogs, putting canines ahead in the people-pleasing sweepstakes. When an evil white Persian cat launches his plan to take over the world, it's Lou the beagle to the rescue...
...innocuous. Falling commodity prices, especially energy prices, are a virtual tax cut for the economy, and George W. Bush's starting-in-August rebate mailing is a tangible one for consumers. Maybe the Fed chair thinks those two will do the work of the other 25 points. Maybe that formula is what some inflation-fearing Fed governors made him follow, and Greenspan got the 50-point statement as a compromise. Or maybe, with Greenspan still smarting in the PR department from the one-too-many rate hike of last May, it was the other way around...
...Doing things over is one thing; overdoing them is another. Amid all their taking of pains, Yorkin and Lear rarely forget the importance of not being earnest. Their shows are, after all, only situation comedies. The scripts, however inventive, tend more toward formula than organic form. The characterizations are still exaggerated cutouts from the fabric of real life...
...FERC relenting? The argument against price caps is that they do infinitely more harm than good, as Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon discovered when they allowed government bureaucrats to clog the gears of a free market. Price caps, says Energy Secretary Spence Abraham, are merely a formula for "an increase in the scope, duration and frequency of blackouts...
Having it both ways requires some semantic gymnastics. FERC draws a distinction between "price caps," which impose a maximum allowable price, and the more flexible "price mitigation," which sets prices based on a formula that factors in producers' costs...