Word: thwacking
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Last week, when George W. Bush gave his own party a carefully placed thwack--saying the G.O.P. is too often dour, obsessed with wealth and indifferent to the "human problems that persist in the shadow of affluence"--he managed to do a few tricky things at once. He got credit for being warm and caring and optimistic while distancing himself not just from congressional Republicans but from Washington itself--all by trumpeting the success he and other G.O.P. Governors have had reducing crime, welfare dependency and the like. "Something unexpected happened on the way to cultural decline," he said. "Problems...
...Mattingly tossed a ball between them without a trace of effort, bodies rearing up and pivoting gently in a casual parody of a pitcher's full windup toward the plate. Every easy toss was delivered at a speed greater than a good high school fastball pitcher could generate. Thwack, thwack, thwack in the leather. And the silence between the men on the field. It was interesting to note that even at their level, this was still a game of catch...
...comes from an ancient Polynesian hunting weapon," he said. "I guess you would just thwack the animal on the head...
Today, The U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt glides stealthily in the Adriatic Sea off the coast of what once was Yugoslavia. Ironically, the motto of the Western powers for most of the Bosnian conflict has been to "Speak hypocritically and thwack yourself with a small twig." Western leaders regularly repeat their mantra of how "Bosnia was a great failure of Western leadership," as if they are speaking of some other Western leaders and that with the admission of guilt all their sins are absolved...
Harding and her confederacy of dunces thought they could eliminate the Olympic figure-skating competition with one thwack of a metal baton on Nancy Kerrigan's leg. They would then skate to riches, and nobody would know better. In fact, everybody went to jail but Harding, who plea-bargained her way to probation...