Word: spurred
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Every son wants such a father, every father such a son. Dad in this case is tall, good-looking Clyde Latham, 87, who lives in the dried-up little West Texas town of Spur (pop. 1,300), where the tumbleweed can outnumber the pickup trucks and the restaurant of choice is the local Dairy Queen. The son is Aaron Latham, 53, a Manhattan-based novelist and screenwriter (Urban Cowboy) and, child of Texas that he is, a splendid raconteur...
...Clyde's invitation, an uncertain Gussie, now 84, visits Spur and shortly agrees to become his temporary "live-in." In Clyde's parlor the two sit in chock-a-block lounging chairs, holding hands, assuring each other without much conviction that they are too old to remarry. Clyde regales Gussie with Texas tall talk ("One day the wind stopped blowing, and all the chickens fell over") and old-timey family stories. He introduces Gussie to the folks at the Dairy Queen. They kiss, they hug. In New York, Aaron frets that his vulnerable father will wither when Gussie leaves...
...cows, money mice, dollar ducks, beyond the dreams of Iwerks or even Walt. The Lion King earned $300 million at the domestic box office, more abroad, and zillions more in video. This summer's Disney feature, Hercules, looms huge: it might make Simba roar with envy; it will surely spur the rebels at DreamWorks, under the command of former Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg, to draw bigger and faster on their animation slate. On TV, The Simpsons, now in its eighth superb season, begot Ren and Beavis, Duckman and King of the Hill. Disney and Warner stores sell upmarket T shirts...
...greatest single legal action in the history of women's sports," said Donna de Varona, the Olympic swimmer and first president of the Women's Sports Foundation. "It's bad law," says Southern Cal athletic director Mike Garrett, voicing a concern that the Brown ruling will spur lawsuits against schools that are earnestly trying to upgrade women's sports...
Despite the problems in the survey, some said such rankings would spur Harvard and other universities to focus on improving the use of the Internet for education...