Word: buttoned
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Charles de Gaulle looked at young John Kennedy in Paris and told him that he doubted the U.S. would launch its missiles if Europe were invaded by the Soviet Union. It infuriated Kennedy, who felt he would press the button in any showdown, and do it before Nikita Khrushchev. Lyndon Johnson, trying to get his determination across to Aleksei Kosygin at Glassboro in 1967, used the singular method of locking eyes with the Soviet leader and not bunking until Kosygin looked away...
...crisp evening last week, Amy Carter stepped up to a podium on the Ellipse, just south of the White House, and pressed the button controlling the lights on a 30-ft. blue spruce and 50 smaller trees around it, one for each state. But for the first time since Calvin Coolidge began the tradition in 1923, the big tree did not burst into light. Only the white star on its top and the tiny blue bulbs on the smaller trees blinked on. "Amy has lit 50 trees-one for each American hostage," explained President Carter to the 7,500 surprised...
Speak & Spell. This cheerful-looking little red box, made by Texas Instruments, signals for attention with a four-note tune when a child (or wondering adult) presses the On button. Then, when the Go button is pressed, the machine says, in a deep, pleasant, male voice, "Spell wash." The child presses W, and the machine pronounces the name of the letter: "Double-you." When the speller finishes punching the letter buttons, he presses Enter, and the machine says, "That is correct. Now spell extra." Or, if the speller has made a mistake, the machine says, "Wrong. Try again." The sentences...
...writing a threatening letter to the telephone company. The machine itself does not yet have a dog or a typewriter, and it becomes impatient within a couple of minutes when its opponent is thinking. Then it says, gruffly, "Enter-your-move." There is a useful voice turn-off button for such moments. Except for this bit of coffee-housing, Challenger has no small talk and no emotion, and after the human player has forced a perilous and gallant end-game win at level 6, it is a real disappointment to hear it say, uncaring and without expression: "I -lose." Voice...
...Stoppard is a rabbit breeder of words-button-tailed, twitchy-nosed, big-eared, bright-eyed and always on the hop. Onstage, words do lead to talk, too much talk, perhaps, in this play, but much of it is exhilaratingly Shavian. In the new guise of a didact, Stoppard comes out for a free press ("Information is light...