Word: jape
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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American humor in its traditional forms -the wisecrack, the tall tale, the deadpan jape, the shaggy-dog story -has both resisted the official puritanism and made it all possible. For more than two centuries, from that subversive puritan Ben Franklin to the wryly theological Charles Schulz, the nation's humorists have operated as a tolerated underground culture. They have conspired to create a fantasy world where good Americans could be as shiftless as Charlie Chaplin's tramp, as cynical as W.C. Fields never-giving-a-sucker-an-even-break, as lecherous as Groucho Marx prowling a bedroom. American...
...rather imperious behavior. As for their marriage, there are no indications of dissolution. Tony, who bubbles with humor (one of his best bits is a wicked impression of David Frost), telephoned Margaret from New York during one flurry of rift stories to suggest that they rendezvous, as a jape, in Reno...
...fate of individual companies and even single contract awards. In Seattle, one out of every six jobs depends on Boeing, and unemployment is heading toward 6%. The company's cutbacks will cost the city an estimated $500 million worth of business this year. A current Seattle jape defines a pessimist as a Boeing worker who leaves his car running in the parking lot. Rather than move away, most unemployed Seattleites are dipping into their savings, waiting until business turns up again...