Word: awkwardness
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
President Bush's seven-hour visit to Colombia came at an awkward moment. Revelations of ties between powerful politicians and criminal paramilitaries have brought down eight lawmakers and forced out President Alvaro Uribe's intelligence chief and foreign minister in the last four months. A new U.N. report says extra-judicial killings by the military are rising in the country. Colombia had the highest murder rate of trade unionists in the world and 4,000 disappearances last year, according to Human Rights Watch...
...only it were that easy for the rest of us. Saying no can be awkward, guilt inducing, nerve racking, embarrassing, even risky to friendship and career. "No may be the most powerful word in the language, but it's also potentially the most destructive, which is why it's hard to say," says William Ury, director of the Global Negotiation Project at Harvard University, who addresses that struggle in his new book, The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes. Ury, a professional negotiator whose work has taken him to such conflict-ridden...
...dizzy. The beginning set-up features Beyoncé lying suggestively in a pool, and doesn’t compliment the tempo of the song. Nor is it ever clear why Beyoncé would want to climb into the trunk of a Rolls Royce, as she does for a few awkward moments. Nevertheless, “Upgrade U,” with its infectious sound and eye-catching imagery, will satisfy fans and should convince most viewers to let Beyoncé upgrade them...
...Awkward as it may be for an outsider to intrude in the doings of a country or a church that is not his own, I nonetheless believe that the Most Rev. Archbishop Peter Akinola has some explaining to do. The Anglican Primate of Nigeria, one of the most powerful churchmen in Africa, needs to clarify his stance on a Nigerian anti-homosexuality bill he initially supported, which assigns a five-year prison term not only for practicing gays, but also for those who support them. Akinola either needs to publicly renounce, in strong terms, his early support of the bill...
...sensation of phoning somebody I knew nothing about, who wasn’t expecting my call, and who didn’t work for my cell phone company was daunting and more than a little awkward. But he didn’t care. Neither of us obeyed those bizarre rules of first introductions and the world...