Word: phenomenons
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Stupidity is one of my favorite subjects. "It is always amazing," Jean Cocteau wrote, "no matter how often one encounters it." Like sleep, stupidity is a universal, surreal and mysterious phenomenon, a brownout, the mind passing through a tunnel. Sometimes stupidity is hilarious; most of the world's jokes are told by one ethnic group about the stupidity of another ethnic group. In its sinister forms, stupidity turns up as evil's incompetent half brother--evil without supernatural prestige. The "Evil Empire" was, in a more practical sense, the stupid empire; systemic stupidity, not evil or good, brought the Soviet...
...body of research, reported in Monday?s New York Times, indicates that social status may be an additional factor in assuring good health and longevity. Medical researchers are not sure what exactly accounts for the better health of people in higher socioeconomic classes, but the research suggests that the phenomenon may be due to something beyond the circular fact that people in higher classes tend to have better health habits -- such as not smoking -- than those in lower classes. Researchers believe that one key factor responsible for the observed differences may be the lower stress -- and lesser accompanying vulnerability...
...last column, I considered writing some great ideological manifesto that would be my parting salvo against injustices here and elsewhere. Instead, I went to see "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace." I decided to use the Star Wars "phenomenon" as a lens through which to examine some of the joy and wonder I've tried to write about in this space this past semester. Warning: if you haven't seen "The Phantom Menace," spoilers ahead...
...discussions have spanned a wide variety of topics, and the phenomenon of The List has become some sort of hit TV show minus the commercials and unemployed white people in a Central Park West apartment...
...second-tier, ESPN2 level of fame: he was a member of the teen group Menudo, he once co-starred in Les Miserables on Broadway, has appeared on the ABC soap General Hospital. The cultural wave Martin is riding--Latin pop--we must admit, is also not an entirely new phenomenon. Salsa, rumba, mambo and other Latin musical forms have made inroads on American pop music--Celia Cruz, Ruben Blades, Gloria Estefan, Ritchie Valens, Los Lobos, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Machito, Willie Colon, Tito Puente and many, many others have, for decades now, scored hits, excited crowds and pioneered new sounds. TIME...