Word: substandard
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...film has almost no verbal humor. A Frenchman shouts insults at the knights, but he's nothing compared to the man in "The Argument Clinic," and the soundtrack compounds the problem by being substandard. Even the music (by ex-Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes) is lackluster, without any of the tang or catchiness of "The Lumberjack Song" or "Dennis More...
Other investigations, meanwhile, were confirming a familiar story: society, families and the medical profession have not really met their obligations to the elderly. Many nursing homes are overcrowded and understaffed and offer little medical attention to their patients; substandard conditions and financial skulduggery are common throughout the industry. In Illinois, for example, the mysterious deaths of several nursing-home patients in Lake County triggered a legislative investigation that could expand to cover the entire state. In California, the office of the city attorney and the bureau of consumer affairs are planning a joint probe of Los Angeles nursing homes...
Unfortunately, the school is not unique in its substandard educational offerings. There are countless South Boston Highs around the nation. As long as they exist, neither blacks bused in to them from ghetto schools nor the whites who already attend them will have a chance for a decent education...
However, Milne says middle-income housing is necessary if only to achieve a proper social "mix and balance." While Petrocelly points to U.S. census figures showing 5000 units of substandard housing in Cambridge, Milne says, "In the past six years, four out of five new housing units built in Cambridge have been subsidized, low income units. In terms of balance, it's time for more middle-income units. You have to look at the total picture of what Cambridge has been doing...
...malevolent absurdities. This book's innocent pleasures stem from seeing how far the author can jump. The Consumer Bulletin Annual, for instance, hardly seems a bouncy platform for whimsy. Yet Barthelme somersaults from it into the tale of a hapless soul whose purchases consistently turn out to be substandard. "Consider the case of the bedside clock. 'Check for loudness of tick,' the Annual said. I checked. It ticked. Tick seemed decorous. Once installed in home, it boomed like...