Word: shock
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Climaxing a decade of disillusionment, the year 1979 tested Americans' capacity to absorb economic shock. Consumer prices doubled during the sputtering '70s, but it was in the decade's final year that the previously unthinkable became commonplace reality. The year that brought 13% inflation, 14% mortgage rates and 15¼% prune rates also saw $225-a-day hospital rooms, $500 off-the-rack men's suits, the 25? Hershey bar and the $3.50 martini. Millions of Americans had to postpone their dreams for a home of their own; the average price of a few-frills...
...Islamic revolution in Iran has sent out shock waves of confusion and distress throughout the monarchies of the Middle East. A state of jitters prevails in the Arabian peninsula, whose petroleum exports are vital to the security of the U.S. and its allies. The rulers of Saudi Arabia, the largest oil exporter of all, are reported to be frightened; a new set of security regulations is in force throughout the country. The governments of the tiny states of the Persian Gulf are also worried, about both their Shi'ite and Palestinian populations and about the wave of Islamic fundamentalism...
Some French fashion chiefs are indignant. Robert Ricci complains that the assertive American-type perfumes should "only appeal to jet-setters who want to shock." Lanvin's marketing director, Jean-Louis Delpuech, scoffs that U.S. perfume makers have tended "to go 'down market' to a type of woman who demands more smell for her money." But others are more philosophical about the demand for perfumes with staying power. Robert Young, president of Yves Saint Laurent perfumes, traces the taste for strong fragrances to the same craving for identity that makes people want designer names on their clothes...
...Shah claims that he was the victim of the progress he made in Iran. "When I began a shock program which would enable Iran to make up in 25 years the backwardness of centuries, I realized that success would be possible only by mobilizing all its resources ... If a country is to be mobilized, it has to be driven, and, while it sets to work, defended against those who would hinder the process. To leave saboteurs to operate in freedom would certainly not have permitted realization of this program...
...words-at each of four levels of difficulty. In addition, the machine plays word games, and can put messages into code. (It also spells any word aloud, when the proper buttons are pushed, and children discover quickly that when improper buttons are pushed, bad words are spelled. The shock value is considerable when the pleasant mechanical voice pronounces "Eff, You, See ...") Speak & Spell, which sells for $64.95, was dreamed up by a Texas Instruments products engineer named Paul Breedlove, who had worked in voice synthesis and thought that the concept might be used in a small teaching machine. The speller...