Yearly Archives: 1999

Doublespeak

9/16/1999 – 4:51 pm

Perhaps the strangest thing I’ve seen on television this year was the clip last week of National Security Advisor Sandy Berger saying that the U.S. is not the world’s policeman and that the situation in East Timor is an Asian problem and would have to be solved by Asians. Just six months ago, Mr. Berger […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

The Death of Cynicism

9/9/1999 – 4:53 pm

Several years ago, I had the opportunity to spend some time in West Virginia. The people I met there were wonderfully unpretentious. A local story then making the rounds ended with the line: “Honest officer, I was just helping that sheep over the fence.” I relate that story less for its barnyard humor than its […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Mutants in the Marketplace

9/2/1999 – 4:55 pm

The September issue of Consumer Reports will be hitting the newsstands any day now and you may want to pick up a copy. It’s worth checking out. It includes a list of foods that contain genetically-modified ingredients. I haven’t seen it yet, but I think this list will run to many pages of fine print. […]

By floegel | Posted in Commentary | Comments (0)

Not in Kansas Anymore

8/26/1999 – 4:56 pm

The college students return this weekend, high school football teams have been practicing for two weeks. Mornings are cool in New England and summer is nearly over. The school year begins next week or the week after, depending on where you live, and school officials have been busy hatching plans to improve local education systems. […]

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Vive la Difference

8/19/1999 – 4:59 pm

Maybe you can file this one under “tomorrow’s news today.” As November turns to December, a story prominently displayed in the news will be the meeting of the World Trade Organization in Seattle. In one sense, this is not news. Week in and week out, there is almost always some kind of international trade meeting […]

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Apocalypse Now

8/12/1999 – 5:01 pm

If you can hear me then the world did not come to an end yesterday when the last solar eclipse of the millennium threw a moonshadow across Europe, supposedly conjoining prophecies by Nostradamus and Malachy of Armagh in an event some said would bring the death of the pope or the Mir space station crashing […]

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You Dirty Rat

8/5/1999 – 5:02 pm

Did you hear they’re replacing laboratory rats with lawyers? It seems there are some things rats just won’t do. Okay, that’s a joke, and perhaps not a good one. But sometimes truth is stranger than humor and as it turns out, rats are being replaced, not with lawyers, but with plastic.

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