Word: less
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Today many of the early edifices -- the sturdy brownstones, inspiring churches, elegant warehouses -- still stand. It is one of the few perks of slumdom: if property values do not rise, venerable properties are less likely to fall. Most midtown movie palaces were razed ages ago, but New York's first, the Regent, retains its Venetian splendor in Harlem, though it now does business as the First Corinthian Baptist Church. Above the marquee of another ancient Harlem theater, the Nova, is chiseled its original name, THE BUNNY (in honor of movie idol John Bunny), flanked by two grinning stone rabbit heads...
...Night, a blend of revival meeting and The Gong Show, the Apollo audience is the true star. A favored artist -- say, the 300-lb. gent whose falsetto carries him through an all-stops-out aria from Dreamgirls -- wins whooping applause from this Colosseum of 1,500 self-appointed Caesars. Less appreciated acts -- the Whitney Houston clones and clumsy break dancers -- are pelted with catcalls until a figure known as the Executioner darts across the stage in clown garb and chases them into the wings. Usually the performers soldier on to the end, broken but unbowing. Surely, as starmaker or heartbreaker...
Americans are no less fascinated by the allure of aphrodisiacs. Some claim to use Spanish fly, a powder made from the blister beetle, but it is poisonous and can kill you. The ginseng root, long a staple among Asians, is popular in the U.S. But nobody has yet bottled the genuine article, and until that happens, one simple rule will continue to apply: a tiger's penis or powdered peacock bones are aphrodisiacs only if you think they...
Americans are not comfortable lurking in drugstores, waiting for a chance to ask sotto voce for a pack of pomegranate pith, so we disguise our pursuit of Aphrodite in more acceptable forms: the pulse-racing perfume, the sexy dress, the dirty dancing, even the lofty status. No less a personage than Henry Kissinger asserted that view in the '70s. "Power," he said, perhaps with sparrow's tongue in cheek, "is the great aphrodisiac...
...American household soaked up microwaves, VCRs, blow dryers, mix 'n' eat, the computerized automobile that announces that all systems work and it is getting 23 miles to the gallon. The kitchen was streamlined with so much labor-saving gadgetry that meals could be prepared, served and cleaned up in less time than it took to boil an egg. Thus freed from household chores, Mom could head off to a committee meeting on social justice, while Dad chaired the men's-club clothing drive, and the kids went to bed at 10:30 after watching a PBS special on nuclear physics...