Word: sterne
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...emphasis but also for nuance: a little wink when he wants his listeners to join him in a smile, a rabbit chop or a wagging finger when he wants them to remember who is boss. His probing, dark brown eyes are constantly scanning his listeners, looking by turns stern, quizzical, amused, playful. When eyes meet, they both challenge and hint at shared confidences. Whatever lies nearby -- a fountain pen, a gray glasses case from a Paris optician, his gold-rimmed bifocals -- quickly becomes a prop for Gorbachev's one-man show. When the hands are at rest, his thumbs twiddle...
...summoned them. The economy was really good, he said, but not as good as it should be. His budget man, Richard Darman, supplied the figures: the $100 billion estimated deficit next year could really be $200 billion. Attendees shifted their polished shoes. The President looked unusually stern, not like a man who just two hours earlier had released his net-worth statement showing his assets totaling $2,352,500. But Bush was only one of about half a dozen millionaires who had come that day to rescue the republic from debt...
...diet business to Wall Street in the 1980s. "Without touching on the issue of greed," he said, "some companies in our field have overpromised quick weight loss. And the promises have grown increasingly excessive." Others doubt that an industry with so many players can effectively police itself. Ronald Stern, president of the nutrition division at Slim-Fast, a firm that sells liquid-diet products over the counter, asserted that "companies are moving to do things properly, but the industry can only do so much. If there are regulations, we will welcome them...
...American pop culture. Heavy-metal masters Motley Crue invoke images of satanism and the Beastie Boys mime masturbation onstage. Rap poets like N.W.A. and the 2 Live Crew call for the fire of war against police or the brimstone of explicit, sulfurous sex. Comedians like Sam Kinison and Howard Stern bring locker-room laughs to cable TV and morning radio. On network television, sitcom moms get snickers with innuendos about oral sex. In movies, the F word has become so common, like dirty wallpaper, the industry's conservative ratings board doesn't even bother to punish the occasional...
Jokes like these gave the FCC an excuse to muscle and perhaps muzzle the shock jocks, notably New York City's morning maven Howard Stern. Was Stern hurt by this notoriety? Not at all: his show is now aired also in Philadelphia and Washington. Turn him on, and odds are you can't gulp down your morning coffee before you hear him say "penis." Last year, in the guise of his comic superhero Fartman, he placed a call to Iran and mercilessly berated the poor Shi'ite who picked up the phone. Fans of shock-jock jokery highly prize this...