Word: pickings
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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When we reached the bargain basement itself, Namo passed into a trance--like state, staring at the islands of gods-at-slashed-prices, shouldering his way roughly through the crowd of rabid shoppers, and stopping now and then to pick up an item for closer examination, or to give it a trial squeeze. I followed Namo, partly because he seemed to be onto something, and partly because he was unstoppable. The apotheosis of the rational consumer, he weighed and considered, clutched tightly then stepped back, fondled and dismissed. I began to get the sense that nothing would please...
...want what you had more than the next fellow. The book ends, skipping forward 15 years, in 1956, with Crews just home from the Marine Corps, cropping tobacco with his cousins under a hot Georgia sun. As it got hotter and hotter, his cousins began to pick on him a little bit; three years in the Marine Corps had not prepared him for this. Looking up, Crews mumbled, "Goddam...
...stupor. There is, as the man once said, "always something" to slap you in the face, to dash a little cold water at you before you start out on a hot summer day. The slap this year came from Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, who journeyed down from exile in Vermont to pick up an honorary degree and chide America for flabby morals and a lack of purpose. The national press took note, as it usually does when people start talking about morals or anything else at a Harvard Commencement, and even the First Lady took the time to say she thought America...
With prices out of control, greatest hits albums are not a bad way to save money, but there are several drawbacks. First, a good album is not merely a collection of songs but has a thematic unity and a coherent wholeness that is lost when you pick a couple of tunes from several LPs and throw them together into a mishmosh. Second, a record company executive's idea of a band's best songs may not bear much resemblance to the ones you yourself would consider a group's top efforts. Third, it's just not considered cool to have...
Santas come from different backgrounds. Many of the Volunteers of America sidewalk Santas are ex-alcoholics in the Volunteers rehabilitation program, and the Kris Kringling is part of their therapy. Several sidewalk Santas are city workers who see an enjoyable way to pick up an extra ten or fifteen dollars for their own Christmases. Many retirees don the red suit and beard; as one, an ex-Ringling Brothers property man, said, "Sometimes you don't know what to do with yourself, that's why I'm doing this...