Word: petted
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Affection without any ambivalence," rhapsodized Sigmund Freud, "a feeling of close relationship, of undeniably belonging together." He was speaking not of mothers or even of psychoanalysts but about Jo-fi, his pet dog. Americans understand. An estimated 52 million dogs reside in U.S. homes. Also 56 million cats, 45 million birds, 250 million fish and 125 million other assorted creatures. Yet despite the antiquity and ubiquity of the human-animal bond, neither Freud nor anyone else has shed much scientific light on the phenomenon. "Animals are so taken for granted," says Alan Beck, director of the University of Pennsylvania...
...that touch of hearth to institutional settings. In U.S. prisons, the Birdman of Alcatraz has numerous descendants. In Lima, Ohio, at a facility for mentally ill inmates, part of the courtyard resembles a barnyard. Sheep, goats, ducks, rabbits -- even deer -- roam around. "We're finding the prisoners who have pets are less violent," says Psychiatric Social Worker David Lee. In a double bonus, women inmates in Gig Harbor, Wash., are training special dogs to aid the handicapped. For one family with a daughter who suffers from a neurological disorder, a dog was schooled to pick up signals of an impending...
...always put on a great show, but until recently it has been mostly onstage, not onscreen. At the dawn of her solo career 15 years ago, Bette (rhymes with pet, sweat, coquette and martinet but never regret) declared her intention to become a "legend." She made good on the boast with a song- and-comedy act that elicited raucous laughs and heaving sobs on both sides of the footlights. She was the Callas of Camp, peppering her program with naughty jokes in the spirit of Mae West and Sophie Tucker. Midler's good-timey raunch made her famous...
Guidelines for when killing is okay: "Yo man, I give cats a chance. Like, if I pet them, and they purr then everything's chilly. But I'd been taking this cat's shit all night long, and, like, once it was just in the wrong place and at the wrong time. So I nuked...
...terrible thing to waste. So California is spending $735,000 over the next three years to promote residents' self-esteem and help them to avoid becoming criminals, drug abusers, teen mothers or welfare dependents. The 25-member task force on Self-Esteem and Personal and Social Responsibility is a pet project of Assemblyman John Vasconcellos. To counter criticism of the blue-sky nature of the project, the San Jose Democrat argues that prevention is cheaper than cure. "We spend billions on the symptoms of social ills after the fact," he says, "rather than searching out and addressing the underlying roots...