Word: hapless
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...tiny Vietnamese sect that worships French novelist Victor Hugo as a saint, and a handful probe the mysteries of Jainism, an Indian religion in which (as one learns on the Net) the truly faithful sweep the ground with a small broom to avoid accidentally stepping on insects or other hapless creatures. Even the famously technophobic Amish are represented online by a Website run by Ohio State University. It offers, among other things, a guide for installing a rear warning light on a horse-drawn carriage...
Stumbling back to the right, I entered a waiting room with yet another empty desk, devoid in fact of all human life except for two other hapless patients sitting against the wall. I asked them if they knew what was up, and it turned out that they were also waiting to sign up to be seen, that there was a nurse who poked her head in every so often, and that I should just wait...
Richard Jewell seems like the most hapless individual you could find for a contest against such powerful antagonists as the FBI and the media. An overweight, single man in his 30s, he hasn't amounted to much in life. He belongs to the one demographic group--working-class, Southern white males--about whom society still seems to allow slurs, like "bubbas." He also seems to be one of those ineffectual men who take things too far when they are given a little power. In the movies, when an an ordinary person faces great, malign forces, that person is played...
Like desperate passengers abandoning ship, President Clinton's cabinet members and top administration aides are involved in a mass exodus. Clinton did not even have time to savor his crushing (though expected) victory over the hapless Bob Olde--excuse me, that's Bob Dole--before he had to start searching for replacements and explaining to the press why his staff was deserting...
There is no welcome mat at the entrance to Edward Gorey's world. Strange creatures frolic in topiary gardens, inanimate objects bemoan their fates, society types engage in meaningless expeditions, hapless children meet gruesome ends. Empty rooms and desolate landscapes speak volumes...