Word: ancient
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...RIDDLES ANCIENT AND MODERN by Mark Bryant Peter Bedrick; 207 pages...
...sparkling, if obsessive, study by British Freelance Writer Mark Bryant. "It may come as some surprise to those who have only encountered riddles in the guise of jokes," he notes defensively, "that this skittish footnote to the austere chronicles of our folk-culture heritage has itself an ancient and learned history." As proof, he ventures back to Babylonia to unearth an early example: "Who becomes pregnant without conceiving? Who becomes fat without eating?" Answer: Clouds. In ancient Greece, Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx: "What is it that goes on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon...
...abandon the Olympics, much as the ancient Greeks did a thousand years ago, realizing their great concept was just no longer practicable. Let us return the athletics to the athletes; let us send the politicians back to their politicking and, most of all, let us try to address some of the problems that created the crisis of the Olympics in the first place...
...bright spring morning last week, three young Israeli officials took off by car from their liaison office in the Lebanese village of Dbayeh, on the outskirts of Beirut. Their destination: the ancient ruins of Byblos, about twelve miles to the north, where they ostensibly planned to sightsee and picnic. Inexplicably, however, they drove past their destination along the coastal road. They crossed Christian Phalange and Lebanese Army checkpoints without incident, then suddenly spotted a Syrian checkpoint straight ahead. Realizing that they had strayed into hostile territory, they turned the car around and tried to flee. Syrian soldiers opened fire...
...human propensity to test the worthiness of a thing by seeing how well it stands up to abuse-the instinct to kick the tires on a used car-is an ancient and, if Yeats is to be trusted, occasionally charming habit. It can also be painful. Trial by ordeal, the venerable and once widespread practice by which fire or poison or some other divining element is used to determine a person's guilt or innocence, is the kick-to-test instinct applied to living subjects. It used to be a popular method for deciding whether or not someone...