Word: oprahism
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...marveled at the ingenuity of the contestants who, not allowed to go to a gym at night, tried to lose pounds by running up and down their hotel hallway. And I also discovered a uniformity in idol worship: when asked to list those they most admire, almost all named Oprah, God, Katie Couric and Julia Roberts, in that order...
...past two weeks, Time has been asking famous and accomplished people to tell us their SAT scores. Most of them declined - which is a little strange, since the big bad test couldn't possibly hurt Alan Greenspan or Oprah Winfrey. But the SAT occupies a central place in the American psyche, lying at the terrifying intersection of ability, class and pride. As TV's Conan O'Brien put it, "It has taken 20 years to forget the trauma of that damned test, and looking up my scores would be like going back to Vietnam...
...sitting in this Core class and the professor begins to discuss St. Augustine's Confessions, in which the great philosopher/priest pours his heart out Oprah-style, revealing all his sins and indiscretions to the readers (and God) in the hope of salvation. Among other things, the saint apparently thought about sex a lot and liked to destroy orchards...
...news, meanwhile, is that we have no culture of our own. Oh, we have "painters," yes--just take a trot through the Carpenter Center, or the modernist wing at the Fogg. And we have "writers," absolutely--turn on Oprah's Book Club, she'll introduce you to them. "Musicians," too--that Eminem fellow is pretty popular, right? And we've got plenty of great minds--most of them tenured at Harvard, if you believe the promotional literature...
...amphibious. Imagine being governed by columnists, commentators and talk show hosts. Envision a Cabinet consisting of Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, Don Imus, Robert Novak, George Will, Tim Russert, Eleanor Clift, Peter Jennings, Bill O'Reilly, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, John McLaughlin, Ollie North, Mort Kondracke, Jack Germond, Bill Press, Oprah Winfrey, Jerry Springer - all shouting at once, interrupting one another, sneering, one-upping, gesticulating, rolling their eyes, looking for all the world like a classroom full of first graders waving their hands, all seized at the same time by a desperate urgency to get to the boys' and girls' rooms...