Word: squalidity
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Houston's mayoral race started with a debate over crime and a proposed monorail but ended in the gutter. After voters ousted incumbent Kathy Whitmire in last month's primary, the runoff between developer Bob Lanier, 66, and state legislator Sylvester Turner, 37, turned squalid. Lanier ads portrayed Turner, trying to become the city's first black mayor, as soft on crime and entangled in insurance fraud...
Those still left in the squalid camps -- some have been there for more than five years -- have made it clear they will not go peaceably, and have even threatened suicide. "If armed police enter the camp to force us back," said a refugee leader last week, "we will tie our hands and legs together so we are unified, and we will kill ourselves...
...just released its U.S. debut disk Viva Dead Ponies. According to lead singer Cathal Coughlan, the group hopes to capture rock's old outlaw image by overthrowing the sugarcoated commercialism prevalent on the pop charts today. To promote that "mission," the album dissects a British society rife with "squalid poverty where the poor prey on the even poorer," says Coughlan. Included on the album are the songs Ceausescu Flashback; Look What I Stole for Us, Darling; and More Smack, Vicar...
...here's a free idea for some medical entrepreneur. Give the HMOs snob appeal. Call the thing Executive Health Maintenance. Add a few cheap frills. Change the sales pitch. "Tired of schlepping from doctor's office to doctor's office, waiting around in squalid surroundings, filling out all those forms? Come to Executive Health Maintenance. We'll take care of everything. Not only do we have the best specialists, plus in-house lab tests and pharmacy, all in one convenient location. We have fresh coffee and croissants in the waiting room, as well as a fax machine, current issues...
Ever since the warehousing of 140,000 unwanted or sick children in squalid state orphanages was uncovered after the downfall of the Ceausescu regime in late 1989, Westerners have flocked to Romania to adopt thousands of abandoned babies. A growing number of unscrupulous prospective parents have reached beyond the orphanages, however, and scoured rural villages with the help of local "fixers," searching for children to buy from easily tempted poor farmers...