Word: aura
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Forgotten for the moment were the prize burnt-sugar cake, the first-place parsnips, the Ferris wheel, and other folksy pleasures of the Du Quoin state fair. In this small Southern Illinois town (pop. 6,691), harness racing fans could even forget the aura of scandal that periodically haunts the sport-such as last June's scandal at Yonkers Raceway, which involved an amazingly low Exacta payoff, indicating a betting coup. But here, at the 46th running of the Hambletonian, no betting was allowed or ever had been by long tradition. The U.S.'s most prestigious race...
Problems at Home. The domestic political impact of Nixon's great adventure abroad was still far from clear. Certainly the Democrats were now on the defensive about the war issue; they faced the possibility that Nixon in 1972 will have the brightened aura of a world statesman and peacemaker. Potential Democratic candidates for the presidency could only applaud Nixon's coup. The quixotic candidacy of Republican Congressman Pete McCloskey, centered so completely upon the war, looked even more forlorn...
...scenario is fairly clear-cut; it is the mise en scéne that is so complex. Cinematographer David Watkin (Catch-22, The Charge of the Light Brigade) lights the sumptuous sets to give a consistent aura of hallucination. Russell lashes his actors into a histrionic verve that is reminiscent in equal parts of the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Living Theater and Bedlam. The supporting cast (Dudley Sutton and Michael Gothard most prominent among them) act like a chorus and look like creatures from a Bosch triptych. Oliver Reed is suitably forceful as Grandier; it is indeed his best performance...
More likely, however, the trip is intended to upgrade the Agnew image. After his abrasive appearances on the U.S. banquet circuit, distance may lend Agnew the aura of an American statesman. Then, too, there is not much for Agnew to do at home just now. Summer months are slim ones on the political fund-raising circuit...
Woodstock would hardly seem to deserve its luminous aura. There were beatings; hundreds took poison acid; at one point at least 75,000 people screamed "Jump" to some kid on top of a three hundred foot scaffolding; all "natural for a city of 400,000," said the papers. There were deaths at Woodstock also, three of them, but along with two births they were attributed to the "life cycle." A boy without a place to sleep lay down in unknown field and was run over the next morning by a tractor. Now no camera crew was present then, or when...