Word: whack
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...raise within a few months and quit when he was refused. Sullivan quickly capitulated and was soon paying him $60 a week, a preposterous sum for the time. All his life, no matter how much he made (and borrowed: friends and patrons lent him thousands of dollars at a whack), Wright felt poor, thanks to an unhesitatingly indulged taste for swank -- chamois underwear, high-performance sports cars, whatever was gorgeous and rare...
...problem is that the economics of recycling are out of whack. Enthusiasm for collecting recyclables has raced ahead of the capacity in many areas to process and market them. Right now, says Victor Bell, a veteran Rhode Island recycling expert, "the market can't keep up with the recycling binge." In recent years many states and municipalities have passed laws mandating the collection of newspapers, plastics, glass and paper. But arranging for processing -- and finding a profit in it -- has proved tricky. As trucks loaded with recyclable materials arrive at processors, backlogs develop. Worse, the glut has depressed already soft...
...these people had the intent, critically attentive gaze of opera buffs checking out a diva's pitch. "Was that spurt realistic enough?" they seemed to be mentally debating. Was that a clean whack that took off the arm of the papier mache fan? Periodically they moved their heads in a sort of approving nod: good spurt, good whack...
...mentor, Lenny Bruce) had poked fun at these subjects, but none with as sharp an eye or as much performing brio. Carlin's unctuous radio deejays, TV newscasters and commercial pitchmen were not simple parodies; he used them to satirize a whole society that had its priorities out of whack. "The sun did not come up this morning, huge cracks have appeared in the earth's surface, and big rocks are falling out of the sky," a Carlin newsman once announced. "Details 25 minutes from now on Action Central News...
...more likely to engage citizens in the political process. Women also score better on the issues that cut close to home, among them welfare, health care and education. When it comes to the electorate's No. 1 concern -- the economy -- voters seem inclined to let women take a whack at the mess. "There's a feeling we should give women a chance," says Douglas Muzzio, a political scientist at New York City's Baruch College. "They can't do much worse than the men." Certainly voters seem very receptive to the idea of women in high office. In a Times...