Word: beards
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Secret Room, by Uri Shulevitz (Farrar, Straus & Giroux; $15). Once upon one more time, we have the slightly dippy king who craves the answer to a riddle ("Why is your head gray and your beard black?"), the humble but clever man who provides it and the nasty court counselor who is jealous. Humility prevails and spin-doctoring fails, as invariably happens in stories. The author's angular tempera illustrations are vivid and funny -- the camel on which the king perches is an unusually thoughtful and sardonic beast -- but the somewhat preachy story doesn't add much...
...apartment, like her grandmother before her. "People are disillusioned," she says. "We have education and health care, but we don't have food or freedom. What can I give my child?" She feels caged and angry. "They control everything," she says, making the gesture of a hand stroking a beard, which is how Cubans silently refer to their supreme leader, Fidel Castro. The woman down the hall reports regularly to the local block committee about her, says Ana, "because I am not a conformist." She finds peace in her Bible, though her faith has earned her a black mark...
...food they cannot find elsewhere. If his neighbors snitch, the government will confiscate everything. Wearing a white polo shirt, gold Seiko watch and Italian shoes, Octavio shrugs at the danger. "I will do what I must for my family," he says, "no matter what Fidel ((he makes the beard gesture with his fingers)) says...
...more to save the government's face. We're making some changes to look good to the outside world." He explains how each new decree will still leave the state in charge. "They don't want to take these measures, or any measures," he says. "The man with the beard knows very well that these steps signify that the power he has is being lost...
Inside the hideout were a loaded .45 automatic handgun, a .32 revolver, plastic masks, wigs and fake mustaches and beard, burglary devices, ski hats, latex gloves and "a scanner to monitor police transmission and a book to help decode them," according to the Globe report...