Word: acidic
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...issue now for the edges of almost any town. I note the chaste welcome center on my left with only three cars in the lot, then the silos and water tank, and finally the nice row of brick stores that have easily endured their freight of souvenirs and the acid marinade of countless photographs to remain as anyone's icon of small-town America. They are not exactly an architecturally distinguished row, but their variety and fantasy of ornament and color make pictures of Reagan's home street in Tampico, Ill., look dour...
...childhood, he joined a high school rock band and, like millions of others, worshiped the Beatles. He wore his hair long, in the distinctive Beatles cut, with strands flopping like a sheepdog's over his forehead. He experimented with drugs, which his idols condoned, and dropped acid when he was only 15. His parents strongly disapproved of the drugs, as well as of the Beatles, and would not let him play their records in the house. They searched his room, and once, when his mother warned him not to lock his bedroom door, he pried it off its hinges...
...into the police dragnet. In the crime-ridden state of Bihar, police assumed that the young man had stolen the cash. They took him to the Rajon police station. When he would not confess, they pinned him down to the floor and punctured his eyes with needles. Then corrosive acid was poured into the bleeding sockets. Saha, whose eyelids are completely fused shut, is one of at least 30 people who have been blinded by Bihar police since the fall of 1979. Only one of the victims was ever tried or convicted...
...mills contaminated every aspect of life. The rivers were soon choked with chemicals and sludge, heavy acid rain ate through the city's beautiful masonry-work and could strip a car of its paint in a matter of three months...
...already distressingly obvious. Marble that was once a bright white is now streaked with pitting that gives it a yellowish cast. Some red sandstone of adjoining buildings has actually begun to flake. The chief culprits are believed to be coal dust and sulfur dioxide fumes; these help create sulfuric acid that attacks the calcium carbonate of the marble. Most of the pollution comes from two coal-fired power plants, a large railroad switching yard and myriad small coal-burning foundries. Still more pollution may be in the offing from a new oil refinery in nearby Mathura...