Word: manhattanization
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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When he tested positive for the AIDS virus, in 1984, Caleb Schwartz was 28. What that means is that for most of his adult life he has expected to die prematurely. A while ago, when he was looking for a new apartment in Manhattan, he would only consider elevator buildings. He was in good health at the time, but he had to keep in mind the day--in two years? in five?--when he would be too weak to climb stairs...
...Eric, a stage manager and haberdashery salesclerk, died in '86. His extreme weight loss and hollow-cheeked pallor gave him a look of near theatrical decay, and his paranoia and memory loss were not then recognized as symptoms of dementia. He was surprisingly granted a luxurious room in a Manhattan hospital, with a uniformed guard at the door; we later discovered that the staff was being extra cautious because another AIDS patient had jumped from the roof a day earlier. All visitors were required to wear surgical masks, but almost no one did; we didn't want Eric's last...
...outward appearances, Newt Gingrich was spending his Christmastime in an unusually relaxed manner. He gazed upon his beloved dinosaur bones at the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan, then traveled with his wife Marianne to visit relatives in Pennsylvania. But the leisurely itinerary masked grave deliberations between the Speaker and the House ethics committee. And in a written statement released on Saturday, Gingrich made a dramatic admission: "In my name and over my signature, inaccurate, incomplete and unreliable statements were given to the [ethics] committee, but I did not intend to mislead...I did not seek personal gain...
Well, maybe. But cigar bars are sprouting up all over the place, with sales of premium, hand-rolled cigars rising about 50% this year, to nearly $600 million. Luxury goods from Jaguars to jewelry are flying out of stores, and Manhattan's chichi restaurants can't possibly charge enough...
...more definitive, albeit unscientific, bellwether that the good times may be back is the price of prime Manhattan real estate. The Corcoran Group, a New York City real estate broker, has no trouble selling eight-room apartments at an average price of $1,170,000, vs. $889,000 last year, many to Wall Street types, who typically pay 100% cash. Chairperson Barbara Corcoran sees only one difference from the '80s: "Then everybody bought with reckless abandon. In the '90s they put on a show of caution--and then they buy with reckless abandon...