Word: cards
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...setting for satirical novels. The classic of the genre is Henry Adams' Democracy, published in 1880, which bitingly portrayed the social and political corruption of the time. This year has produced Christopher Buckley's The White House Mess, a comedy about Administration intrigue, and John Ehrlichman's The China Card, a thriller loosely based on the China policy of his former boss President Nixon. Particularly since Watergate, journalists have attained star quality, becoming part of the panoply of fictional heroes and villains. Indeed, Regrets Only hit Washington at the same time as the movie version of Heartburn, Nora Ephron...
...through the sky with the help of technology felt out of place in the 20th century ("I cannot stand this age"). He argued frequently that modern life had provided people with material comforts but no clear reason for continuing to live: "We can no longer survive on refrigerators, politics, card games, and crossword puzzles. We can no longer live without poetry, color, love...
...Wolfe sounds a persistent theme: warning signals usually precede "unpredictable" criminal acts. Her accounts are too brief for a true understanding of minds gone wrong, but she makes even the most absurd act -- and its subsequent explanation -- seem plausible. A carefully polished alibi is undone by an overlooked credit-card receipt. A medical researcher disappears, and the explanation lies in her $650 shopping spree at an A. & P. As Wolfe indicates, chance and coincidence were once the favorite devices of Victorian novelists; today they are the unseen weapons of policemen...
...line. The frustrated defector excitedly explained that he had an important matter to discuss with the Ambassador or the CIA. The embassy's consul, hearing the ruckus, came out to investigate. The man, now desperate, flashed his Soviet passport. No reaction. Next, he took out his military identification card. A glimmer of comprehension. The consul copied the Cyrillic letters and sent them upstairs to the CIA station chief. Minutes passed. No response. The distraught man exclaimed that he would be shot if they did not do something quickly. Then a CIA man, curious about the fuss, took one look...
...executed coup last week revealed some of the uncertainties still surrounding the new leadership, its failure underscored the continuing popularity of Aquino. Yet the wild card Enrile was the person on whom both sides found themselves staking their hopes. As the Shakespearean tempest raged on, it appeared that Enrile's own hopes might only increase. After all, as the poet wrote, "the soldier's virtue" is ambition...