Word: trivialized
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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This year a nice trivial resolution is our way of standing up to the hegemony of Y2K hype. And bearing in mind that New Year's-resolution making is traditionally an act of utter futility, it's critical that you keep yours as local and personal as possible. The guilt you may incur in having failed to end world hunger or stop global warming may be unendurable. But if you find yourself on Jan. 1, 2000, surrounded by cold, guttered candles and empty champagne bottles, already unflossed, thinking about elephants and muttering the F word, you can probably deal with...
Print journalists who appear frequently on TV have a phrase they use after they say something silly or make a factual error. "It's just TV," they shrug, and you can understand the attitude. The conventions of the TV talk show, circa 1999, inflate the trivial and trivialize the important. Watching Hardball's Chris Matthews bark at his guests about tax plans and sex scandals, you wonder why his guests don't cover themselves with dentist's smocks to fend off the flying spittle. Kinsley recalls that as co-host of Crossfire, the CNN shoutfest, he once disagreed with...
...creative way of cheating." Crew argues that such incidents do not mean the tests should be abandoned, though others disagree. "The country has gone test crazy," says Robert Schaeffer, a director at FairTest, an organization that monitors standardized testing. "The more you ratchet up the pressure on these Trivial Pursuit types of exams, the more cheating you will...
...Upping the ante of the Internet game-venues isn't hard. Sonygames.com takes all its regularly televised shows and converts them into cyber-contests. "College Jeopardy," "Wheel of Fortune" and "Trivial Pursuit" can all be accessed via a glitzy game page. Compete with BABYSNATCH from Arkansas and Slappy05 from Pittsburgh for world domination with a virtual Alex Trebek. Otherwise, the most intriguing SonyGame is obviously "The Dating Game." By creating a "virtual you" with Japanimation body parts and facial features, meet the love of your life by answering questions such as "what is the most erotic thing about a spoon...
...Republican debate in New Hampshire last week was nothing if not mind-numbing. The relevance of the debate easily could have been lost on many viewers since arbitrary, sometimes trivial questions were asked. Millionaire publishing heir Steve Forbes, for instance, was asked the pressing question: What would he do about lost airline luggage if he became president...