Word: californiaisms
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Much of the credit for saving the redwoods belongs to the California-based Sierra Club and San Francisco's Save-the-Redwoods League, which was founded 50 years ago. Creation of the park comes none too soon. At the present rate of logging, the virgin stands of redwoods would last only another 20 years, a mere second in the lives of trees that were swaying in the Pacific breeze when Christ was born...
Entitled "What Trees Do They Plant?" (meaning: "What constructive plans do protesters propose for the society of the future?"), the Daley defense was produced by Henry Ushijima, a California-born filmmaker who for five years has been paid by Chicago to turn out short documentaries celebrating the city. Actually, "Trees" was a surprisingly artful whitewash. In his handling of English, Daley is the Casey Stengel of American politics; he was wise enough to limit his physical participation in the film to two brief appearances. Ushijima waded through miles of television footage made during the convention week and spliced to gether...
...that will probably never go out of style. But the new phenomenon is the upsurge in new superstitions-the faith in flying saucers, the theory that H-bomb tests caused rain and that the test ban has since caused droughts. Even scientists are highly susceptible to superstitious beliefs. One California physicist who flies to Washington once a month eases his fear of a crash by carrying a special amulet: a copy of TIME, a magazine he otherwise dislikes...
Apollo Flight Director Gene Kranz disclaims any superstition, yet regularly dons a white vest during launches, a red vest during long flights, and a flashy gold-brocaded vest immediately after a safe splashdown. At California's Hughes Aircraft Co., any unmanned space probe, like Surveyor, is accompanied in the control room by more crossed fingers, arms and legs than a contortionists' convention. Most space scientists believe in Murphy's Law: "If something can go wrong, it will go wrong, and at the worst possible time." Is there really a Professor Murphy? Answers one California scientist: "Sure, just...
...Centers Corp. now cranks out 20-page personal horoscopes for a mere $15, the electronic brain taking only a minute to compute a life history that flesh-and-blood astrologers need a week to prepare. Necromancy, the art of communication with the dead, has undergone a rebirth, abetted by California's Episcopal Bishop James Pike, who engaged in a seance at which he claims to have talked with his suicide...