Word: parvenus
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...years after 1945, Japan and the U.S. became the odd couple of the free world, the brilliant parvenus. They collaborated -- victor and vanquished, senior genius of industry and eager, hardworking apprentice. America sponsored Japan almost ex nihilo, out of the ashes, became its protector and ultimately its best, most lucrative customer. The Japanese stood in grateful awe of all things American and overlaid their ancient culture with a new layer mockingly like that of their sponsors. The Japanese sent back to their benefactors a steady stream of goods, tinny toys in the early years, then better stuff. Much better stuff...
Brown learned to adapt her light, irreverent British sensibility to the New World. "Americans want real information, substance, something solid," she observes. The result was what she calls an "intellectual cabaret" -- a saucy, literate celebrity magazine featuring profiles of Hollywood stars, aristocrats and parvenus, ballasted with some weightier and newsier pieces. Her philosophy of journalism as voyeurism seems to have worked. Since her arrival, circulation has ballooned from 259,753 to 595,844, and advertising pages have more than tripled...
...attic. This nice postmortem couple is no happier than Lydia (Winona Ryder) to be trapped here with trendy Charles (Jeffrey Jones) and the unspeakable Delia (Catherine O'Hara). So the Maitlands have been trying to scare the Deetzes away. Sorry, kids. Go ahead and haunt these New Age parvenus; they'll just invite their friends to enjoy the kicky spectacle. The Maitlands need some serious help, perhaps from the lecherous demon (Michael Keaton) who pesters them with the slogan "Unhappy with Eternity? Call Betelgeuse." Beetlejuice...
...Love, have already done so and formulated their own opinions about it. I don't need to add mine, especially since anything I could say about this lush, polished and beautiful album would only add to the mania. I don't want to encourage a new plucking of parvenus to roll onto the Springsteen juggernaut, a movement that in the last few years has already picked up every eight-year-old and his grandmother...
...hazard of assassination attempts and kidnapings. Their homes have been surrounded by high walls, barbed wire and searchlights, and the richest among them move about town in armored Cherokees, accompanied by bodyguards. These vehicles have come to be a status symbol, and Salvadorans laugh at the many parvenus who buy them not out of fear for the guerrillas but because of a desire to seem important. Most of the residents support the ultraright ARENA party, and the majority campaign actively for the candidacy of Major Roberto d'Aubuisson...