Word: phenomenon
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...billion cosmetics industry, you don't need supermodels like Cindy Crawford. You don't need to ply customers with giveaways. And with the advent of the Web and stores like Sephora, you don't need counter space at Saks or Macy's. The business of beauty, that most undemocratic phenomenon, has been made over by boutique companies offering such offbeat products as transdermal vitamin C patches (Osmotics), Saint-John's-wort lipstick (Tony & Tina) and shimmery body powder (BeneFit...
...snarky Will & Grace, the book of heartfelt life lessons from dying professor Morrie Schwartz (Jack Lemmon) to his ex-student, sportswriter Mitch Albom (Hank Azaria), has become phenomenon enough to merit a punch line (a wealthy client fires Will, blithely telling him to read Albom's book and appreciate all he still has). But for the unironic masses who've kept this memento Morrie a best seller for more than 100 weeks, ABC has needlepointed an Oprah Winfrey Presents telepic that's as earnest as life is short. However worthy the book, its carpe diem aphorisms don't translate well...
...After all, in addition to accurately describing a life, biographies give the reader a chance to get into some famous person's head. Two current bestsellers probably owe their success to this phenomenon: When Pride Still Mattered, the story of Hall of Fame Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi, and John Glenn: A Memoir, the life of the former Mercury astronaut and former senator. Both of these books are about people who lived lives far removed from that of the average book-buyer, making the chance to relive their lives all the more thrilling. In the case of the current...
...wrestler known as Mankind, and The New, New Thing, the story of technology/computer pioneer Jim Clark, both represent a move away from the typical biography in which the life of a single person is the subject of the book. Instead, these biographies tell readers about a larger phenomenon through a smaller lens, funneling the world of professional wrestling and technology into personal stories that readers can relate to and understand. Given that biography is used here as an enticement into an otherwise dry text, it seems that ever-problematic truth might not be the most important thing in writing biography...
...Anecdotal indications suggest that burnout is a fairly widespread phenomenon on campus," Ducey writes in an e-mail message...