Word: whining
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...internal maze of deflectors and scruples. He displayed a genius for undoing his successes. In any case, he had no political traction. For some reason, people heard not so much the substance of his words as his voice, an instrument that tended to reduce his strongest convictions to a whine. Maybe it was the upper Midwest talking, the boyhood as a Norwegian minister's son. In the vibrations of his voice, like wind through fence wire on a gray day, one heard the coming of a Minnesota winter...
...split coffee beans. The Washington Post's Herblock suspects that some cartoonists make Mondale "lumpier" than he is, to suggest stolidity. As MacNelly sees him, "He's very formal, hair in place. Nothing flamboyant. I'm struck by two things, his dullness and a kind of whining." After San Francisco, Mac-Nelly drew a signboard reading GATEWAY TO THE MINNESOTA WHINE COUNTRY...
...between pickup basketball games in the House gym, and legislative strategy is still crafted over cigars and bourbon in musty cloakrooms. Only 22 of the 435 House members are female, and they are regarded warily by the Capitol's male denizens. Women in Congress must not whine, they must not pout and they most certainly must never cry. They must overcome all the stereotypes that many Congressmen, like some other males, have not yet shed about the opposite and allegedly weaker...
...Neill himself--is undoubtedly the play's most powerful performance. He despairs for his parents and brother, but his tenderness for them is plain. His occasional flares of morbid poetry, betraying his artistic sensitivity, grip and startle us. He delivers his lines naturally, with an occasional stammer or peevish whine. Hunching his shoulders, dragging his feet, he even looks like a weary consumptive. His multifaceted portrayal is believable and compelling throughout...
Being jilted or fired rarely brings out the best in people. In addition to the natural reactions of pain and anger, the dismissee must cope with the nearly irresistible urge to whine. That injuring so-and-so will never get away with this: the whole, incriminating story must be told. Usually such narratives are limited in circulation to tolerant friends or impassive bartenders ("Set 'em up, Joe"). But a wider and possibly less sympathetic audience can be sought by those victims outraged and talented enough to write a book...