Word: accountants
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Harris probably could have carried a conventional account of the founding of a bananas republic unaided. But Director Alex Cox and Writer Rudy Wurlitzer are helpful deadpan absurdists. They point up the parallels between 19th and 20th century imperialism with sly, casually dislocating anachronisms. Accompanied by a rock score, Coke bottles, North American magazines carrying cover stories about Walker's exploits, even a Marine helicopter all turn up at ! the strangest moments. At best one thinks of Brecht's presentational theater, at worst (not often) of Saturday Night Live. At all times one is glad to see the spirit...
...spokesman calls the listing a fluke and insists that Beverly Hills will be knocked out of the running for federal funds once income figures are taken into account. Beverly Hills officials, meanwhile, claim that they would never consider applying for grants anyway...
...space are benign and friendly folk. But several recently reported episodes have been more sinister. High on the best-seller lists this past summer stood Communion by Whitley Strieber, previously known mainly as a writer of fantasies (The Wolfen, Warday), who vehemently describes as a "true story" his chilling account of being spirited onto a spaceship by a pack of 3-ft.-high "visitors." When they proposed sticking a needle into his brain, he recalls, one of them casually asked him, "What can we do to help you stop screaming?" More scare stories came from Intruders by Budd Hopkins...
...Special U.S. Prosecutor Lawrence Walsh probes the intricacies of the Iran- contra affair, he is receiving invaluable help from Switzerland. Among the potentially incriminating documents he is studying are thousands of pages of Swiss bank records relating to Geneva accounts once controlled by Lieut. Colonel Oliver North and other alleged conspirators. The relative speed and alacrity with which Switzerland turned over the records may have surprised many Americans, who have always considered the Swiss bank account to be synonymous with anonymity and protection. Is money held in the vaults of Zurich and Geneva no longer safe from the prying eyes...
...confusing answer: sometimes yes and sometimes no. Switzerland has always been willing to help the U.S. track down criminals who used Swiss accounts to stash their loot. But the two countries do not always agree on what constitutes a crime. In the Iran-contra case, there was no problem: North and his associates are accused of fraud, which is clearly a crime in Switzerland. Tax evasion, though, is not against Swiss law. An American who underreports his income can still hide the extra money from the Internal Revenue Service by putting it in a Swiss account...