Word: backspin
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...late, the modern player has been wringing his overlapped hands over something called square grooves. Though the U.S. Golf Association has demonstrated scientifically that the benefit of these ruggedly faced irons is negligible, even those traditionalists on tour who are offended by the idea of backspin out of the rough have been changing cudgels in self-defense. "Golf clubs aren't only tools, they're totems," says Frank Hannigan of the U.S.G.A. "The game turns on illusions...
...some 20 books of collected short pieces, Perelman offered a unique amalgam of elegant phrase and pratfall comedy. Behind each one was the carefully drawn self-portrait of a curmudgeon, skewering the pretentious, detonating popular culture and putting backspin on cliches ("Jigwise, all is up"). The role of sulfurous commentator was not a disguise. Don't Tread on Me proves that the life story of Perelman was the adventures of Mr. Hyde and Mr. Hyde. Early on he decided that Will Rogers' statement "I never met a man I didn't like" was "pure flatulence, crowd-pleasing and fake humility...
...round, however, as expected, West Germany beat China. The team disappeared from the competition. And Hu Na, 19, disappeared from the team. She was, in fact, defecting to the U.S. For American immigration officials. Hu's decision put the ball in their court with a tricky bit of backspin, since approval of her request will imply a certain level of political persecution back home. Her attorneys dismiss speculation that her motives involve net financial gain. Still, Hu is considered by some to be one of the top 20 women players in the world. As a top pro manager points...
...setting (Santa Barbara, Calif.) and the plot (which involves, among other factors, sins of an older generation) appear to be borrowed from Ross Macdonald. It works, in part, because Czech-born Director Ivan Passer (Intimate Lighting) is a junk-ball twirler with an ability to put a loony backspin on bitterness. In his pictures people strike out laughing. More important, he finds a way to make one care about losers without imputing hidden heroic virtues to them. And Writer Fiskin knows how to construct revealing scenes economically, with characters talking truly tough instead of merely smart-mouth...