Word: pump
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...volatile Everyman, ourselves pushed to the limit, and then beyond? Or was he in fact an aberration? Often, besides, eccentrics may simply be weirdos in possession of a VIP pass, people * rich enough or powerful enough to live above convention, amoral as Greek gods. Elvis Presley could afford to pump bullets into silhouettes of humans and never count the cost. Lesser mortals, however, must find another kind of victim...
Statistics on the trend are hard to come by, but the evidence is widespread. "We're selling at least 50% more martinis than we were two years ago," reports Kevin O'Mara, bartender at the Pump Room in Chicago's Ambassador East Hotel. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, the vodka martini, though spurned by purists, is now the most popular drink in the nation's capital. Its appeal has helped boost vodka imports from 51,000 gal. in 1976 to 5 million gal. today. At Bloomingdale's in Manhattan, Buyer Susan Davis cannot keep martini sets in stock...
...president of the Claremont Economics Institute in California, "then I think that's a danger. The Fed will have to print substantial money next year to keep the economy out of a recession." But in an election year, when the Administration would plainly prefer a loose monetary policy to pump up economic growth, Greenspan could be accused of playing politics at the expense of prudence. Declares Kellner of Manufacturers Hanover: "The financial markets won't let Greenspan grease the skids for the politicians in 1988. Only if a recession began might the Fed be able to do something. But then...
...together for a reunion concert. There is Mark the pianist and accordionist, a geek with glasses in a white dinner jacket and purple slacks who is also the minister of music at his church; Debbie the drummer, an ex- prom queen in a strapless gown who exchanges one pink pump for a running shoe, the better to thump her bass drum; Mary the violinist, of stern Scandinavian stock, uptight, humorless and "best remembered locally for her performance as Anita in West Side Story"; and Mike the gentle, wistful synthesizer player who found himself during the 1967 Summer of Love...
...fondly. The accomplished performers who wrote the show and some of the musical selections -- Mark Hardwick and Debra Monk (who collaborated previously on the 1981 off-Broadway hit Pump Boys and Dinettes), Mary Murfitt and Mike Craver -- are all Middle Americans by upbringing, not New York City wise guys. They've been there. When Debbie sings an ode to shopping malls and interstates called Ohio Afternoon ("Ohio fun . . . diesels dragging out on Highway 1"), she gets all misty. When Mark and Mike have at a couple of Zez Confrey ivory ticklers like Dizzy Fingers and Coaxing the Piano, their doofus...