Word: block
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...maybe the comet has been around the block too many times. The first visit loosens a comet's crust, making later go-rounds more impressive. If the comet comes through too often, however, a new crust can form out of dust falling back onto the surface. This too can lead to false optimism. "With Comet Halley, which has been back many times," says University of Texas astronomer Anita Cochran, "only about 15% to 20% of the surface is active." Admits Hale: "It's been kind of nerve-racking to sit through all those months wondering if the comet would fizzle...
This controversy provides the impetus for the surreal plot of The Term Paper Artist. In the novella, the character named David Leavitt, distraught over the suppression of his novel and suffering from writer's block as a result, hides out at his father's house in Los Angeles and does halfhearted research at the UCLA library for a novel he's pretty sure he will never write. By chance he meets Eric, an attractive undergraduate, who invites him to his apartment to share some marijuana. Hoping for sex, Leavitt learns that the seductive Eric has a more complex transaction...
...problems were mirrored in the male chorus, who had no better luck overcoming the blast of the orchestra and always looked somewhat out of order when coming onstage. There's a heartrending scene in Act Three, for example, in which the duke's toadies block Rigoletto's entrance to their lord's chambers, kicking the poor hunchback until his angry recriminations collapse into a pitiful plea for the return of his daughter. It's a moment that can move one to tears; yet here it looked so stagey that it failed to resonate...
Nowhere has the prospect of deregulation had a sharper impact than in New England. John Rowe, ceo of the New England Electric System, says his company was virtually forced by state officials to put its 18 power plants on the block. "In effect, we were told that in order to get all that we could from our stranded investment [a reference to white-elephant plants and unprofitable long-term power contracts], we should sell off our generation...
Damages have ranged from the theft of thousands of dollars in advanced electronic equipment to vandalism and attempted break-ins. Hardest hit was the 2300 block along Mass...