Word: backgrounder
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...alumni sons. Bender commented that prep schools. Bender commented that this reflected the belief that "in this too rootless world inheritance and nurture mean money." Yet inheri- tance and nurture mean more than money. A qualified applicant doesn't come out of a wallet. A good family, cultural background and an excellent education mean a great deal beyond academic credentials...
...about Richard Brautigan and this book. I was walking along this muddy path in the woods, right near my house in Maryland, when I heard this faint screeching up ahead. As I got closer, I could distinguish a man's voice. He seemed to be screaming frantically against a background of loud, chaotic piano-banging. I kept on walking, and the voice was exactly like Hitler's, even down to the 1930's crackly sound. My God, I thought, it's Hitler screaming against a piano! But no, I was wrong. It was only one of those play-by-play...
...religious groups claim that civil marriages would break the unity of the nation, for it would be impossible to make certain of the Jewish background of potential wives and husbands. Because of this concern, remarriages after civil divorces which are not performed by the rabbis may result in "bastard" children, who, according to the religious groups, are out of the pale of Jewish life...
...power play by the CIA to maintain the United States' dominant position in Latifundia, a fictional South American country, sounds like the inevitable background for one more pale carbon copy of The Ugly American. Classified communiques pop up like toast at the breakfast table, a recording device is hidden in a tie clip, new leaders are found by a spin-the-bottle technique, and the real rapport between nations rests on a Jellolike foundation of friendship between Latifundia's President and the American ambassador. Despite the apparently insurmountable handicap of so familiar a scenario, Robert Wool has managed...
...President of Latifundia, is an odd political animal-part pure schemer, part selfless leader. An ex-football hero and the son of a prostitute, he is as wily and emotional in his diplomatic dealings as a wildcat forced to play parlor games. Almost his opposite in personality and background is Carl Aspinwall, the U.S. Ambassador to Latifundia. Harvard-educated scion of an aristocratic New England family, Aspinwall has tried to build a diplomatic career on plain dealing, only to find his word and position repeatedly betrayed by shifts in policy...