Word: spate
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...best triathletes, competing at an Olympics for the first time, will have a view of Sydney's two favorite structures as they swim: the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. But the week after next, at the test event, no one will be thinking about the view. A spate of shark attacks and sightings around Sydney Harbour, including two attacks in two days on schoolboy rowers, has triggered panic among some competitors. "The Europeans are pretty worried about it," says 1997 world champion Chris McCormack. "They're used to swimming in freshwater lakes, where the most you'll find...
...MADE FLESH. But it was also here last year that Muslim riots broke out when Christians objected to a mosque going up nearby. No disturbances rent the peace during the Pope's two-hour Mass, however, perhaps because a Muslim prayer leader preached against disturbances after a brief spate of shouts and whistles, or perhaps because the threat of violence was exaggerated...
...jocks are frustrated by the NCAA's rules, which border on incomprehensible, while the punishments for violations can be devastating to both players and their teams. The reform movement sprang from a spate of NCAA suspensions for sins that are, at best, abstruse. Seven big-name players have missed games this season for alleged rules violations that occurred while they were still in high school. Most notably, St. John's University's star point guard, Erick Barkley, was suspended for taking $3,150 in scholarship aid from a church group to help offset his $23,500 prep-school tuition...
Weber blue agave, the only species authorized for tequila making, has suffered from a 1997 freeze and a recent spate of crop diseases. Even so, these are heady days for the tequila industry. Since 1995, drinkers the world over have turned tequila into a best seller. Global consumption has doubled, making Mexico's national drink the fastest-growing liquor category in the world--another reason for the agave shortage. A major factor in the beverage's popularity has been the burgeoning demand for premium and superpremium tequilas, like La Altena distillery's El Tesoro, or La Gonzalena's Chinaco, made...
...prospect of a presidential election that has raised the political temperature over the issue. If his eagerness to debate gun control is any indication, Clinton obviously feels his vice president is sitting pretty on this issue. And given the general public's rising anger over the recent spate of gun deaths - a frustration reflected in recent polls - he may be right. While Gore has embraced the stance favored by the Clinton administration, Governor Bush's gun control record in Texas has never given the NRA reason to complain. Watch for gun control to take center stage as the presumptive candidates...