Word: blindnesses
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...framing the American mindset toward history, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote that we as a people prefer "a spirit of sentimental appreciation rather than of critical analysis." In other words, under a veil of blind nostalgia, Americans quickly become attached to a particular narrative as the one correct interpretation of a murky past. Challenges to this worldview, then, are often met with the most vitriolic of reactions, as champions of the established historical guard fiercely defend that which they consider "proper" American history...
...landscape, using any means possible to bury one another. First, they tussled over celebrity endorsers (George Michael, Elton John for Coke; Madonna, Michael Jackson for Pepsi), and then they began airing negative ads. Pepsi launched its massively successful "Pepsi Challenge" commercials, showing real people choosing Pepsi over Coke in blind taste tests. Coke responded with a parody ad in which a chimpanzee was offered the choice of both soft drinks and a tennis ball. The chimp wasn't much of a cola fan - it picked the tennis ball...
...mill plonk. "The quality of grapes produced by it is evidenced by the wines now in the cellar," wrote the St. Helena Star in 1882, "one of which - the Zinfandel Claret - we have rarely seen equaled." Most wine aficionados believe that the 1976 "Judgment of Paris" - the historic blind tasting by French critics who, to their own shock, preferred American entries to French - was the first time the New World beat out Old World wines. But the Franco-Swiss is a reminder that Napa Valley has been holding its own since the end of the 19th century, when American wineries...
...Pope's role in the Father H affair, Dr. Huth says he thinks that Archbishop Ratzinger did not know about the case, simply because it seems unlikely that he'd be aware of everything that happened in his diocese. But the psychiatrist criticised church officials for turning a blind eye to the priest's history of abuse by not launching a thorough investigation. "Senior figures in the Catholic Church covered up the allegations of abuse in order to protect Father H and the church's image," Dr. Huth says. "The Church has an idealised, 'unworldly' attitude towards issues of sexuality...
Philanthropic dollars are seeding the reinvention of Detroit. Demographer Kurt Metzger heads up Data Driven Detroit (DDD), an agency that just completed a plot-by-plot analysis of the city's 139-square-mile footprint, without which Griffin would be flying blind. DDD is backed by $1.85 million from the Kresge and Skillman foundations. Robert Bobb, emergency financial manager for the Detroit public schools, draws one-third of his $425,000 salary from an alliance of philanthropies led by the Eli Broad Foundation. And if all goes according to plan, Detroit will break ground this year on a trolley line...