Word: anguishingly
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Oliver Wendell Holmes, wounded three times in the Civil War, used to thunder a century ago about "this smug, oversafe corner of the world . . . a little space of calm in the midst of the tempestuous, untamed streaming of the world," so far removed from most human want and anguish. That has not changed much over the past decades. But now it is changing. Scarcity is catching us, and we would probably be one of the first nuclear battlegrounds if restraint ever fractured...
...would like to say that the Rev. Sullivan, whom I had a chance to hear speak for the first time in New York at a Ford Foundation conference of university trustees last week, expressed precisely the same anguish that I have felt in trying to make a judgement about the question of withdrawal, or not withdrawal but staying and attempting to accomplish something good, however minimal. I was heartened by that; it's the thing that has caused me the most sleepless nights...
...buzz and the flash. All are part of the sound-and-light show emanating from the versatile new computer phones that are fast becoming an integral part of the increasingly automated, modern office landscape. The bookkeepers are happy because the new phones save money, but desperate cries of anguish are rising from office workers unable to cope with all that electronic wizardry. Their complaints: being disconnected in midsentence, having a third party break in on a conversation or, worse, not being able to get through at all. Their solution: make a futile attempt at retrieving the call and slam down...
WELCOME AS THEY ARE, these funny moments make the play's mood inconsistent. Because Simon is re-creating, even exorcising, a personal anguish, he fails to balance pathos and humor as skillfully as he might have. In the second act, when the marriage begins to show signs of strain, an affair between Leo and Faye abruptly surfaces in an obvious attempt to give the play a little comic relief. This humorous interlude begins promisingly: Leo's attempts to calm the skittish Faye and disentangle her from a toga-style bed-sheet provide the most hysterical moments in Chapter...
...American heroic myth. He is trying to say that in the simple perceptions of unsophisticated people there are a strength and decency too often underestimated by media pundits who have lost touch with the values by which most of America still lives. When we see Scott's anguish as he witnesses a porno film starring his daughter, then watch him plunge bravely into that awful and degrading world searching for his child, we cannot help being moved...