Word: mereness
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...Baby," its milieu may be dated, but its message is timeless). The most significant entry is his pioneering work of new Journalism, "Twirling at Old Miss," in which ever-libidinous Ter visits a baton-twirling academy in Mississippi (where, curiously, the girls all seem to talk like Candy Christian) mere days after Faulkner's funeral. His novelist's eye colors his perceptions: "Next to the benches, and about three feet apart, are two public drinking fountains, and I notice that the one boldly marked 'For Colored' is sitting squarely in the shadow cast by the justice symbol on the courthouse...
Product placement used to be simpler. Jerry Seinfeld gave shout-outs to Snapple and Junior Mints (gratis) to give his sitcom verisimilitude; The Price Is Right still pitches bedroom sets and floor wax. But after Survivor's success, "product integration" (a step past mere placement) is taking in-show advertising to a new level of sophistication and stealth. Products are becoming part of the show, be it the Taco Bell that's a site of a "murder" investigation on a new reality show or an SUV used in a TV-staged transcontinental race. And producers and advertisers are getting cozier...
Less than 50 years later, its own finances in tatters, the hotel was on the auction block, its occupancy rate for the summer season at only 30%. For a mere $3.5 million, four couples bought the place. Sensible north-country folk, they were quickly operating in the black, drawing only on annual profits for the $12 million needed to renovate and winterize the 200-room palace so it could stay open year round for the first time since it was built in 1902. They also bought back 1,000 acres of the original property...
...Then, in 1995, owing more to convenient flight schedules than to a determined strategy, I flew enough miles to qualify for Delta's Silver Medallion status (the lowest of three tiers of Medallion status, each with its own perks). I always thought those elite programs were for moguls, not mere mortals like me. But I quickly learned to appreciate the perks: free upgrades to business class, no blackout dates when you use your accumulated miles for a vacation trip, and other goodies such as early check-in with first-class passengers, preferred seating in coach on the roomier emergency rows...
...forgive me - I suspect that feelings, mere feelings, set a standard that is too low, or anyway that is evanescent and unreliable. "Closure" is nonsense, a con that is retailed by "grief counselors." Feelings are not enough. They wear off, as drugs wear off. Justice has something to do with feelings, I guess. But it needs sturdier reasons...