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This is what Florida has done to us. Nearly eight years after Bush--um, "became President"? Can we agree on that?--the Florida recount still grips our politics, down to its semantics. To choose a verb is to take sides. Florida is not just a state but a state of mind: the widely held attitude that the game is rigged (by the courts, the media, the voting machines ...) and that any close election is suspect. Florida looms over politics like the Alamo, the Maine and the grassy knoll all rolled into...
...whale on the Republicans. But with those lessons came a zeitgeist that views elections as dirty unless proved otherwise. How to marshal the spirit of '00 rather than be destroyed by it will be the challenge for whichever candidate wins. And I apologize in advance for using that verb...
...State, people with higher friend counts seem cooler, more attractive, and more confident. Given the bizarrely circular nature of celebrity, in which you can become known simply by being known, Facebook seems like an ideal tool. In a culture where “friend” has become a verb, the acquisition of another recognizable acquaintance translates to enhanced social capital. Or does it? The Penn State study found that, once someone had more than 800 friends, people started deeming him insecure. It’s unclear how 800 became the cutoff, but there...
Part of the problem is that, while fictional pop star Montana is loved by tweens and preschoolers, Cyrus is 15. Critics called the photo "sexualizing," but that's precisely the wrong verb; teens do not need professional help to become sexual. The sexualization that some parents really fear is off-camera. They see their daughters being pushed down a slope that starts with sexy princesses and ends in rehab. Pop culture, they say, is making kids grow up too fast...
...Michael Mello, a professor at Vermont Law School who has written extensively on the death penalty, chose an apt verb when he was reached for comment on the decision. "I'm still excavating the opinions," he said by e-mail. It was quite a pile to wade through. "But I think it's as confusing as the road map required through Furman," Mello continued, referring to the 1972 case - nine separate opinions making up the longest text in Court history - that began America's frustrating attempt to create a consistent, rational death penalty. When it comes to the death penalty...