Word: stale
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...obesity epidemic was a hot topic, and McDonald's suffered from the backlash. For the first time in its 47-year history, the company saw a quarterly loss. Its stock was down to $12 a share. You couldn't just blame bad p.r. for the company's woes. Stale food and tired stores also kept people away. "McDonald's was actively dissuading customers from coming back," says John Glass, a Morgan Stanley analyst...
...President can tap into changes in the culture and encourage them. When Obama rejected, in his Inaugural speech, the "stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long," he was rejecting an attitude--of baby-boom cultural warfare, of cable shouting matches, of all-or-nothing showdowns--and betting that his audience was tired of them...
That concert also showed, though, that you can't just wish acrimony away. There was an immediate controversy when a prayer by gay Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson was left off the HBO broadcast. There's a whole talk-show industry devoted to feeding those "stale political arguments." And we've seen overblown predictions before that events would ennoble American culture--see, again, 9/11...
...before last year's NFC Championship game in Green Bay. "He said, 'It's cold out here. It's freezing. I can't feel my toes. But it's temporary. Winning is forever.' That's a good one." I couldn't believe man vs. nature could trump man vs. stale celebrity-interview tropes. Then I remembered that these guys have probably never read Jack London...
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them - that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works - whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held...