Word: blur
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Quayle to disarm the hard-liners even before Bush left Europe. Quayle uttered anachronistic noises to the Washington Post, including a nostalgic reference to the Soviet Union as a "totalitarian state." If Quayle's partial retraction a few days later -- he changed the description to "authoritarian" -- seemed to blur the Administration's view even more, that was part of the game. Behind the scenes, White House officials reminded conservatives that the overtures to the Soviets were extremely popular. "The big question is, Can we break 80% in our approval rating?" said a West Wing aide only half jokingly...
...attention, racing through the audience on "Only The Good Die Young," cartwheeling off his Steinway on "Big Shot," and performing nearmagical tricks with the piano. Joel played behind his back, used his feet and alternated hands with such speed that at times he seemed little more than a blur at the keyboard...
Regan would argue that he didn't violate the tax law. (A former IRS commissioner was prepared to testify to much the same thing, but the jury was not allowed to hear this because the judge accepted the Government's argument that his views might blur the issue.) Regan's trades were part of a hedging strategy under which you buy and sell related securities at the same time. You lose on one and gain on the other, but if you've done the math right, you'll usually lose a little less than you gain. Yippee...
...damp in their new gray wool uniforms. Loud harassment is the order of the day ("Pull that neck in, mister. You call that bracing?"). It has been this way since Thomas Jefferson founded the academy in 1802, and in the crowd of intimidated cadets the figures tend to blur -- until destiny selects them for service in Viet...
...alive. The barest Antarctic rock is crawling with microbes. Viruses float on the dust. Bacteria help digest our food for us. According to modern evolutionary biology, our very cells are cities of formerly independent organisms. On the molecular level, the distinction between self and nonself disappears in a blur of semipermeable membranes. Nature goes on within and without us. It wafts through us like a breeze through a screened porch. On the biological level, the world is a seamless continuum of energy and information passing back and forth, a vast complicated network of exchange. Speech, food, posture, infection, respiration, scent...