Word: screech
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...recurring image in popular culture--perhaps from cartoons, or maybe sitcoms--of a mother dragging her son to an opera to introduce him to "culture." Invariably, the small boy (or sometimes brutish Neanderthal husband) fidgets in an oversized seat of plush velvet as metal-horned, breast-plated Wagnerian heroines screech unbearably in German. For the boy, the opera is long, boring and utterly meaningless...
Huey wouldn't let the President and Congress get away with letting the government screech to a halt because they can't get serious about budget reform. He wouldn't let the budget pass without a tax increase for the wealthy. Huey would demand a greater redistribution of wealth; Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-III.) would get his budget plan passed immediately if Huey were still around...
While your carry-on is being X-rayed, you step through the metal detector. It screeches. You dump your coins in a tray and try again. Screech. You remove your metal-rimmed glasses. Screech. As other latecomers fidget behind you, you remove your belt -- and finally pass through. The machine is so sensitive that your tiny buckle...
...yellow-bellied robin is always the first bird to wake in the mornings in the rainforests of northeastern Australia. Its singular call is soon echoed by a chorus of others--the screech of cat birds, the gunfire of Macleay's honeyeater and sometimes the eerie laugh of the kookaburra...