Word: contrarian
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With hope and a dash of contrarian good sense, this writer recently revisited the world of daytime soap opera, reasoning that like so much else in our postmodern culture--Las Vegas, fondue, Rob Lowe--afternoon dramas might have transitioned into hip. Little research was needed to prove this theory false. Sets still seem to draw their inspiration from the simulated Americana of a Holiday Inn lobby in Colonial Williamsburg. And on almost any given day, the chance of making it through the afternoon without hearing someone say, "I don't need any DNA test to prove that...
...personal survival is your war aim, then surrender is always an option. We will never know exactly when the decision took root in the contrarian lobes of Slobodan Milosevic's brain. But three weeks ago, his body language changed. For weeks, whenever he received Russian special envoy Viktor Chernomyrdin, the Serbian leader would loll arrogantly back in his seat and hold forth, filling the room with his self-serving discourse. Since launching a diplomatic shuttle on April 14, Chernomyrdin had spent dozens of fruitless hours with Milosevic, most of them listening. Then on May 19, the Russian detected a subtle...
...could try to make the contrarian argument that the ghettoization of crude male programming on cable television represents some triumph for feminism, however minuscule. But what the trend really signals is a feverish effort on the part of cable enterprises to reach a segment of the population not yet served by its own self-identifying slice of not-very-good television entertainment...
...details or even hint at how he would get these big things done. ("Come fall, we'll be making a series of major proposals," he says.) For now, at least, people don't seem to mind. His call for reform has helped establish a beachhead in New Hampshire, a contrarian state famous for punishing front runners and lifting underdogs. Gore has the state's top 100 Democrats more or less locked up; after that, most folks are up for grabs. Some 400 have joined Bradley's New Hampshire campaign, and his events around the state draw full houses, though...
Like pro wrestling, this fight is most interesting for its colorful combatants, and it's hard to know whom to root for. Hitchens is a tweedy contrarian from the British upper classes, a page of Evelyn Waugh brought to Washington. His Oxonian socialism led him to bash Princess Diana after her death and demonize Mother Teresa in a scathing book. The sharp-elbowed Blumenthal made enemies as a rabidly pro-Clinton journalist, and even more as the Clintons' lofty--some would say supercilious--ambassador to the White House press corps. But the real question is Who's winning? Hitchens took...