Word: oversold
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...after Apollo, something went wrong with the nation's space program. Despite successes -- such as the Skylab space station and the series of unmanned missions that will reach its climax next month when Voyager 2 arrives at Neptune -- the program seemed to founder. The space shuttle, for example, was oversold as the one answer to U.S. space-transportation needs. But it is too big to put astronauts in space efficiently, too small to launch the largest payloads and too unreliable to live up to the 60-flight-per-year schedule once promised. The result, even before the Challenger accident...
...control still faces daunting practical and philosophical objections. Even some advocates think it is oversold. Police officers tend to equate guns with drugs; so long as the crack trade is not significantly reduced, they think, the inner-city shoot-outs will rage on and contribute to the impression (not entirely justified in light of slight overall declines in the national crime rate) of a rising tide of violent crime that has driven so many peaceful citizens to arm themselves. On the practical side, writing a definition of paramilitary weapons that would distinguish them from some types of semiautomatic hunting rifles...
...concluded that in Washington on all these decisions we deal with, it's never as bad as the critics say it's going to be. And never as good as the advocates expect. I agonized when the Bridgeton hit a mine in the Persian Gulf. Had I oversold our capabilities? I was in a blue funk. The Vincennes Airbus shootdown was painful for me. I had lived in fear of such a mistake. But once it occurs, I believe you have no choice but to face up to it -- publicly -- well aware that you'll be criticized no matter what...
Bakker and Dortch could receive lengthy prison terms. They were charged with illegally taking some $4 million in bonuses out of the PTL trough. In addition, says the Government, they vastly oversold lifetime "partnerships" that promised lodging at the Grand Hotel and other accommodations at Bakker's Heritage USA theme park in Fort Mill, S.C. In one variation of the scam, some 9,700 hapless "partners" were offered the right to stay regularly in what turned out to be a single bunkhouse with 48 beds. As for the Taggart brothers, they are said to have helped themselves to $1.1 million...
...several hundred farmers whose attorneys agreed last week to consolidate their lawsuits into one national class action against Chubb. In most states, insurance laws dictate that coverage cannot be canceled once the initial premium is paid. Among Chubb's defenses: it did not realize that Good Weather agents had oversold the policies, mostly within two days of the deadline, without permission. But the plaintiffs counter that Chubb, which specializes in up-scale homeowners' and commercial insurance, has been in the business for more than a century and should know how to monitor demand. Insurance authorities in at least five states...