Word: lip
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Milli Vanilli blamed it on the rain. As they sang (well, lip-synched), "You've got to blame it on something." Temporary insanity, stress, PMS--something. Even Joel Steinberg, the rich, white, coke-addicted New York lawyer who beat his wife and killed his baby, claimed that he was a "victim." Of what, I have no idea...
...notion that men should not display their emotions in public, and most specifically that they should never shed tears, was enshrined during the 19th century in the Spartan code of English public schools, which popularized the doctrine of the stiff upper lip, and was articulated by many writers, from early Victorian Charles Kingsley ("Men must work, and women must weep") to late Victorian "Mr. Dooley" ("Among men . . . wet eye manes dhry heart...
...this more enlightened age we no longer deny the boon of tears to half our population, nor the joys of honest labor to the other half. Today, doubly reversing Kingsley, women must work -- or else -- and men, far from keeping a stiff upper lip, must "let it all hang out," especially if they hope to get ahead in politics. There are cogent historical precedents...
Later that morning, one of my new partners asked me how I spot-washed the walls. I told her I looked for spots on the walls, and if I saw any, I washed them. She looked me in the eye, bit her lip, pointed at me and snarled, "No! You must spot wash left to right. Left to right!" She never talked to me again--only gave me scary looks...
...Millions of lip movers, right? Suckers for weensy wisdom...