Word: awkwardness
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...That's Green's gift: to show how people learn codes of affection and aggression from watching movies, but when they try to pull them off in crucial situations they come out awkward, embarrassed and futile. The threat of domestic tragedy looms over Snow Angels, suggesting some exotic blend of Peyton Place and Twin Peaks; but its triumph is in portraying folks who, no matter how often they flail and fail, keep reaching out for human connection...
...story; he remains a bit part of Bock’s overlarge collage of Las Vegas personalities.Of these personalities, it’s notable that the centerpiece and catalyst of the action, Newell, is the least developed character in the entire novel. He is supremely unlikable, trapped in an awkward period of adolescence that never reaches beyond spitefulness, and nothing ever redeems him. Our inability to connect with his character ultimately undermines the mystery of his vanishing. At first it seems interesting not to reveal the true reasons behind Newell’s disappearance, as it represents the idea that...
...Mike Huckabee was no athlete. He didn't have money for nice clothes and felt awkward among his classmates. But ambition fueled him. Though no man in his family had ever finished high school, he aspired to be a leader. So in the seventh grade he ran for student council, against a popular football player...
What Huckabee lacked in resources he more than made up for in showmanship, including campaign tours with actor Chuck Norris and professional wrestler Ric Flair. In a Republican field of awkward campaigners, Huckabee shined as a rare politician who mastered the art of oratory. His style, filled with emotion and alliteration, followed the rolling pace of a Baptist preacher, his former profession. When he talked about Washington politicians, he spoke of "civilians in suits and silk ties." When he mentioned the military, he spoke of "generals with mud and blood on their boots." He railed against the "Washington-to-Wall...
...professor of economics Mankiw done with those profits?“I don’t talk about personal finances,” Mankiw said, adding that he has never considered giving the proceeds to charity.But in recent years, other professors have found different solutions to the sometimes awkward problem of profiting by requiring students to buy their own books, including making donations to charity.With textbook prices sky high, some professors feel an obligation to donate the proceeds they receive by assigning their own textbooks for their classes. Kenneth A. Shepsle, the professor of government who teaches Social Analysis...