Word: banal
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...Russia's May list of the country's 100 richest people could have irritated someone who was or wasn't included. Klebnikov's death could have been revenge for some past reporting, or sparked by fear of a new revelation. It could even have been caused by a more banal business dispute. There is no guarantee that the real story will ever be known. Many observers suspect the investigation will be used, as one U.S. diplomat remarks, "to settle a few old scores." But a lot more hangs on the case than the Kremlin may realize. The continuing crackdown...
...walked a much more subtle path. The stories he has to tell of the music business’ endless convolutions are not quite sordid, but neither are they ever boring—Slichter’s voice is vicariously thrilling at the highs even as it chronicles the maddeningly banal roadblocks to chart domination...
...Bieng, an idyllically beautiful village in Indonesia's war-ravaged province of Aceh, Bilal heard the shots in the early hours of June 3 but didn't dare to venture outside until well past dawn. The sight that greeted him is so commonplace in Aceh as to be almost banal: Ishak, a 51-year-old farmer who was standing watch over Alue Bieng that night, was sprawled on a wooden platform used by the village's night watchmen, his T shirt pocked with bullet holes. Beneath the platform lay a pool of blood and the brass casings of the seven...
...Banal Undertaking
...greatest works of art are inevitably turned into kitsch, their fame exploited to sell the most banal products. Guernica adorns T shirts, the Mona Lisa is woven into welcome mats, Sunflowers brightens up your morning coffee mug. Edward Hopper's Nighthawks has suffered the same fate. Prints of the iconic 1942 painting of a gloomy diner have shown up in several generations of American college dorms - there's even a mouse pad. Has reproduction robbed the image of its morose power and reduced Hopper, one of America's greatest artists, to the ranks of the one-hit wonders...