Word: aridity
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...tour of duty during the Second World War. The stressful monotony of his job has forced him to forget those younger, happier days, until his old friend Antonio (Marcello Mastroianni), intrudes on Robert's busy schedule to remind him of old times. Says Antonio to Robert, "Youva become arid, lika desert." Thus begins Antonio's program of re-hydration...
This mammoth chronicle is Michener's longest yet, and like so many of those before it, contains perfunctory characterization, arid prose and an authentic gift for conveying the mighty sweep of history. This time the locus is the Lone Star State. Michener begins his tale in the early 16th century, when Tejas was unexplored Mexican wasteland. In the kilopage fictification that follows, events and personalities pass in review: the Alamo and the Battle of San Jacinto, Comanche raids, cattle drives, oil, religion, high school football, superpatriotism and real estate dodges. Much of this is fascinating, but it is propelled...
...will not be clear for days or perhaps weeks how the U.S. will react. Until now the Geneva negotiations have been paralyzed. During the arid summer round, one U.S. representative told his Soviet counterpart, "Go ahead, tempt us. Make us an offer we can't refuse." Now Moscow appears to be trying to do just that. Further, the Soviets' move on the diplomatic chessboard will strengthen their argument that the summit can and should produce results. Reagan, on bidding Shevardnadze farewell, acknowledged that the visit had produced "progress" but declined to characterize it. Shultz, while saying that Reagan...
When West German Social Democratic Leader Willy Brandt arrived in Moscow in late May, the reception was, well, arid. The former Chancellor's delegation was sobered to discover that at banquets, once-free-flowing vodka had been replaced by fruit juice and mineral water. Remarked a member of Brandt's party: "We should have brought our own vodka." The dry state of affairs is the result of Leader Mikhail Gorbachev's campaign against drunkenness. He has raised the drinking age from 18 to 21 and banned alcohol at official functions...
...there was a twist. Rather than inveighing against traditionalism, as radicals are supposed to do, Glass was in revolt against radicalism itself: the overintellectualized and emotionally arid music that had dominated contemporary composition for decades. By writing in a deceptively simple, joyously propulsive new style that came to be called minimalism, he hoped to restore the historic bond between composer and listener. Unlikely as it seemed, while bouncing along the potholed streets of Manhattan or dodging the drunks in his chosen neighborhood of New York City's Lower East Side, Glass was confidently engaged in the most stimulating musical revolution...