Word: pedantic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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When F.D.R. rewarded him with a seat on the Supreme Court in 1939, Frankfurter continued to play the role of public pedant. He treated the high court's conference room like his old Harvard Law School classroom, and his colleagues as mere pupils. He nattered and chided them, picked favorites and virtually graded their judicial opinions...
Despite his literary and historical allusions. Gould never comes across as a pedant. Rather, he seems to be a well-rounded scientist with a genuine desire to communicate scientific ideas as effectively as he can--and he succeeds. If Gould had led that elementary school field trip, We'd probably all be studying paleontology today...
...every four years, party members battle over their platforms as if they were writing another Constitution. They demand that certain planks be added, others withdrawn, and insist on nuances that would baffle the most finicky pedant. The fact is that platforms are greater than the sum of their planks. They indicate the direction in which a party is heading; at the least they exercise a subliminal influence on the nominee and, if he is elected, on his policies. Occasionally, vital issues are at stake. The refusal of the Republican Party to compromise with slavery in 1860 marked a turning point...