Word: specialize
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Dates: during 1990-1990
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...their endless struggle to please and appease special interests and large voter blocs, most of the 535 members of Congress have succeeded mainly in diminishing themselves. Their fundamental obligation to order the nation's finances has given way to the politician's primal instinct: inflict no pain; ruffle no feathers; get re-elected...
...subtle: electronic controls for the automatic transmission that allow smoother shifting. Others are more fundamental: the body of a Saturn is built atop a very rigid space frame, which gives structural integrity and protection for passengers. The space frame is not unique to Saturn, but it supports a special feature: all the vertical body panels (doors, fenders, quarter panels) attached to it are made of plastic polymer, which doesn't rust and resists low-velocity denting. The horizontal panels are still made of steel...
...stands on complex issues that might alienate some voters. Another: it can differentiate a candidate from a foe in races where there are few significant policy disagreements. Says Bob Stein, a Rice University political scientist: "Who can explain school finance to voters in a TV ad or even a special program? The issues have become too complex to resolve in a campaign. Voters are looking for the best person and the best mind...
...this world. Dad is a mishap-prone inventor whose botched experiments have turned his brother-in-law into a housefly and his four-year-old son into a 250-lb. clone of Benjy in The Sound and the Fury. We learn these things in the show's 10th-anniversary special -- a nostalgia trip that takes place, oddly, on the program's first episode. Weirdest of all, the series is running, virtually unnoticed, on cable's Family Channel, a new incarnation of the old Christian Broadcasting Network...
...year's funniest prank. The hecklers jeer at love scenes, hoot at tacky special effects and pounce on every dumb line. Creator Joel Hodgson and his colleagues throw in savvy technical references ("I think we just flew through a dissolve," someone cracks during an airplane flight) along with a torrent of smart-mouthed ad libs. "How do we stand on fuel?" asks an onscreen astronaut. "I'm for it," comes the offscreen retort. In the tense few seconds before lift-off, a voice pipes up, "Did I leave the water running?" A scientist leans into a pair of earphones, trying...