Word: lows
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...admit: You couldn't care less about the midterm elections. Fewer Americans voted in the primaries this year than ever before, and polls indicate that just 35% of the electorate--another record low--plans to turn out Nov. 3. But that date still has both parties sweating. Midterm elections can produce big shifts in the congressional balance of power, and in this case, even modest gains by either party could determine the fate of Bill Clinton's presidency. But if you really want to get in on the action (and we know, you've got better things to do), then...
...brand name that, while dreaded by many parents, spelled excitement to a generation of kids, many of whom have kids of their own. Founded by Charles Lazarus in 1957, Toys "R" Us was the original "category killer"--industry jargon for a chain of large stores that offered low prices on almost every product and brand in its category and killed competing local retailers. (Think Home Depot or Petco.) Lazarus transformed an industry once dominated by mom-and-pop toy stores, eventually launching 1,462 Toys "R" Us outlets and gaining a 25% market share by 1990, the company's peak...
...slice of the profit. Wal-Mart's share of the $35 billion toy-retailing industry has grown from 10% in 1990 to 16% this year; over the same period Target's share has more than doubled, to 7%. The discount stores use toys as "traffic builders," attracting families with low prices on popular toys and then making higher profits on such items as clothing and appliances. "Wal-Mart and Target carry only the 50 or 100 hottest toys," says David Miller, president of the Toy Manufacturers of America. "Toys are only a fraction of their business, so they...
...slow hand is extending it to others by using a significant chunk of his own money to found the 28-day treatment center on the idyllic island where he's had a second home for 15 years. One-third of the center's 36 beds will be reserved for low-income Caribbean islanders, whose care will be subsidized. As someone who has benefited from treatment programs, Clapton says he has become "addicted" to helping people. Fortunately, some addictions are healthier than others...
...worried that their findings are being misinterpreted by the public. "The breathtaking PET scans of babies' brains have fueled a kind of anxiety that is unwarranted," says Craig Ramey, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Alabama, referring to the imaging technology that vividly depicts areas of high and low brain activity. "Parents may be conveying to their children a franticness about doing everything right." University of Chicago psychology professor Janellen Huttenlocher, who reported correlations between the size of toddlers' vocabularies and how much their mothers talk to them, fears that parents may feel compelled to jabber incessantly around their...