Word: vacuous
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...there is a single grating habit that has afflicted young writers of the past decade, it is a tendency to define characters not necessarily by their histories or heartaches or small triumphs but, more economically, as a sum of their pop-cultural tastes. Want to show that someone is vacuous? Put him in Gucci loafers. Want to convey sophistication? Mention a character's love of Godard. Want to suggest that a person has developed unrealistic notions of familial closeness? Have her reminisce about watching The Brady Bunch...
...tough, sober and humorous in the same instant. But for all his brilliance as a performer, what Powell says as he begins a nationwide swing ostensibly designed only to pitch his memoirs (for which Random House has reportedly paid him $6 million) is so essentially noncommittal and even vacuous that one reaches back to an earlier soldier-politician for instruction...
...remainders in the Republicans' feeble team of candidates, many are marked by public distaste. Against the creeping slime of Sen. Phil Gramm (R-Tex.) or the downright meanness of Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kans.), Clinton could paint himself as the nice guy, the family friend. Against vacuous Gov. Pete Wilson (R-Calif.) or inexperienced Gov. Christine Whitman (R-N.J.), Clinton could calmly dismantle their arguments in every debate. But who knows? As the president who lost Congress in 1994 and lost on health care, Clinton qualifies for `damaged goods' status...
...wake of a war that has devastated the breakaway region, killed hundreds of civilians and fighters, and created more than 300,000 refugees, Yeltsin's declaration seemed more vacuous than victorious. General Jokhar Dudayev, the Chechen separatist leader, remained at large, and his fighters have vowed to continue their struggle in a mountainous country tailor-made for guerrilla warfare...
...balanced-budget law is vacuous, but term limits have virtue...