Word: oddness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...odd and compact art form, and somewhat unnatural. A person feels uncomfortable composing a little song of himself for the classifieds. The personal ad is like haiku of self-celebration, a brief solo played on one's own horn. Someone else should be saying these things. It is for others to pile up the extravagant adjectives ("sensitive, warm, witty, vibrant, successful, handsome, accomplished, incredibly beautiful, cerebral and sultry") while we stand demurely by. But someone has to do it. One competes for attention. One must advertise. One must chum the waters and bait the hook, and go trolling for love...
...changed in recent years. One reason that people still feel uncomfortable with the form is that during the '60s and early '70s, personal ads had a slightly sleazy connotation. They showed up in the back of underground newspapers and sex magazines, the little billboards through which wife swappers and odd sexual specialists communicated. In the past few years, however, personal ads have become a popular and reputable way of shopping for new relationships. The Chicago Tribune publishes them. So does the conservative National Review, although a note from the publisher advises, "NR extends maximum freedom in this column...
...lobbying and political-action group that claims 6.5 million members. Falwell started Moral Majority in 1979, thrusting the religious right into front-line politics. The way Falwell saw it, if liberal clergymen could march for civil rights, conservative Fundamentalists could wage political war on immorality. Moral Majority espoused an odd ecumenism that aligned Falwell on various issues with Catholics, Jews and Mormons, all scorned in the past by strict Fundamentalists...
...everyone else's business and gossip is the preferred mode of entertainment. "There were no secrets in Krashnik," says the narrator of The Image. "People peered into keyholes and listened behind doors." Thus when the marriage between a village beauty and a bright yeshiva boy remains stubbornly unconsummated, the odd reason why cannot long escape becoming common knowledge. As before, Singer's tales of rural life reveal the complexities of so-called simple folk. In A Nest Egg for Paradise, a prosperous and pious Jew named Mendel falls victim, once, to the seductive appeals of his sister...
...small blaze mysteriously ignited in a kennedy School ashtray last week, baffling fire officials investigating the odd incident...