Word: swanking
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...dinosaurs analyzing their own bones. Most of them are moneyed, but they soon must admit to a crucial class distinction: between the aristocracy of the desired and the proletariat of the unloved. In short, they are very like the rest of us. Though his setting and dialogue are tres swank, writer-director Whit Stillman made Metropolitan for peanut shells, and with a cast of novice screen actors. Best of all, he compliments his viewers by respecting their intelligence. Moviegoers should don their tuxes and rush out to return the favor...
...such celebrities as Jane Fonda and Dizzy Gillespie -- so famous for being famous they need no parenthetical explanation even in Moscow -- she had the political sense to leave her gold American Express card at home, the $1,700 Cartier diamond earrings in the jewelry box and a sweep through swank department stores off the program...
Slovenly speech comes off the same spool. Vocabulary, like blue jeans, is being drained of color and distinction. A complete sentence in everyday speech $ is as rare as a man's tie in the swank Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel. People communicate in chopped-up phrases, relying on grunts and chants of "you know" or "I mean" to cover up a damnable incoherence. Neatness should be no less important in language than it is in dress. But spew and sprawl are taking over. The English language is one of the greatest sources of wealth in the world...