Word: manias
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...megamovie Lord of the Rings has a history that predates Elijah Wood's hairy toes. Amid the cultural storm of the 1960s, American hippies put down their bongs, turned down the Hendrix and transformed an obscure three-volume fantasy by an Oxford professor into a counterculture classic. Rings-mania swept U.S. campuses, prompting TIME to comment, in the quaint parlance of the age, "The hobbit habit seems to be almost as catching as LSD." New initiates wore buttons declaring "Frodo Lives" or "Go Go Gandalf," while Ringworms, the trilogy's hardcore fans, learned the fictional languages Tolkien invented...
...harbinger of a rising economy--and it's not the only one we're seeing. The stock market has been quietly rallying. Initial public offerings of stock remain few, but those getting to market are being snapped up fast for the first time since the last gasp of Internet mania in early 2000. And the benchmark 10-year Treasury bond, a proxy for mortgage rates, shot from 4.17% to 5% in a blink. Higher rates are a burden to borrowers--but one that usually precedes a stronger economy. "The worst is over," declares Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com...
...while Potter-mania is sweeping the Harvard campus, don’t expect to bump into anyone running around with a lightning scar for now—Harry Potter is only 11 years old in the movie and 15 in the books so far, so it will be a few years before Potter: The College Years is unleashed. Furthermore, students will have to content themselves with Folkore and Mythology 107b: “Witchcraft,” taught by Professor Stephen A. Mitchell, since Harvard will not be offering classes on Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unfortunately, midterms still take...
...flawed but richly explored ones (The Sopranos). Above all, it is about rediscovering community in a culture that lionized the individual. Even the dark drama Six Feet Under features a gay character finding solace in, of all uncool places, his church. Most conspicuous is the World War II mania, from Saving Private Ryan and Tom Brokaw's encomium The Greatest Generation right up to this fall's HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, which has rolled boomer reconnection with parents, guilt over easy prosperity and a longing for communal purpose (be careful what you wish for) all into one trendlet...
...never understand exactly how the Harry Potter mania began in the first place, but what is clear is that its effects are far-reaching and will be here until a new, better fad comes along, which does not seem likely any time soon. What could replace lovable Harry and his idiosyncratic friends? What adventure could be more exciting than a day at Hogwarts? And perhaps with the new Harry Potter movie promising to break box office records and further cement Harry’s place in popular culture, the real question should be, who can stop Harry...