Word: plainness
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...finally reaching the Pacific Ocean was an anticlimax. By that point I was just plain tired of sleeping in cheap motels and eating at McDonald's. The waves were bigger, the beach was whiter, and the weather was nicer--but it wasn't worth the trip. Memphis, Farmington, Amarillo, Little Rock, and dozens of other places I only remember by my credit card bill were what made the trip worthwhile...
...while the Justice Department can flail its arms and scream from the top of Capitol Hill that there's less drug use on the fruited plain, junkies still find more and more drugs to take. According to NIDA, emergency room-cases stemming from cocaine abuse increased 29.3%, and heroin, which is now nearing 100% purity levels in most large Eastern cities, was responsible for a 9.7% increase in such emergencies...
...Plain words, devoid of the electricity of "All men are created equal" or "Liberty, equality, fraternity" or "Workers of the world, unite!" Certainly the image of Rabin and Arafat, once implacable enemies, standing together on the White House lawn captures the drama of the moment more vividly than these words. But the Arafat-Rabin letters will echo loudly through history precisely because of their practical quality. War cries tend to strident emotionalism, while bitter enemies feeling their way toward reconciliation speak wisely in tones of caution. In this case the very flatness of the words was reassuring; Arafat and Rabin...
...since Moses came down from the mountain bearing the Ten Commandments, Hillary Clinton joked last week, has a document been so anxiously awaited as her husband's proposal to reorganize radically the nation's ailing health-care system. That plan -- a 239-page brick of plain white paper printed last Tuesday and stamped PRIVILEGED AND CONFIDENTIAL -- would represent the boldest, most expensive social initiative since the New Deal, bigger even than F.D.R.'s institution of Social Security half a century ago. It would intimately affect the health and livelihood of every American, while shifting billions of dollars in costs...
...states on the range have become a magnet for telecommuters, yuppies and just plain folk searching for the new American heartland...