Word: comic-opera
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...Washington share a consensus in favor of statehood for the capital. Congressional Democrats nominally support creation of "New Columbia," which would have two seats in the Senate and one in the House, all certain to be filled by Democrats. But Republican opposition and the district's propensity for comic-opera government keep statehood low on the agenda...
...President of Panama from 1956 to 1960; in Panama City. The target of the first liberation campaign sponsored by Cuba's Fidel Castro, De la Guardia in 1959 invoked the Rio Treaty, calling on his neighbors to help repel the threat. The "invaders" turned out to be a comic-opera troupe of adventurers who had been recruited by De la Guardia's chief political rival, Roberto Arias, and his wife Ballerina Margot Fonteyn. As the coup fizzled, Arias fled, Fonteyn was arrested, and the Cubans, repudiated by Castro, were induced to surrender by a delegation from the Organization...
...Barbados the next day, another airport welcome took a comic-opera turn. Reagan stepped off Air Force One, listened to a band attired in starched white tunics, navy blue trousers and pith helmets play a quite creditable version of The Star-Spangled Banner, and mounted a small platform to receive a military salute. Suddenly a loud bang, followed by several more, made his security men jump. Smoke drifted over a friendly crowd of thousands, many shielding themselves from the sun under brightly colored umbrellas. It turned out that the Barbadian army had wanted to give the visiting head of state...
...Fruit Co. was cheered on as it went buccaneering through the region, buying governmental favors for the sake of more and cheaper bananas. Bananas, in fact, were the raison d'être of Central America in the minds of most Americans, who saw the "banana republics" as a comic-opera fiefdom for U.S. commerce...
...fighting took place around Lang Son, a provincial capital twelve miles south of Friendship Pass on Highway 1 leading to Hanoi. The Chinese claimed the city's capture during their initial drive; the Vietnamese never conceded it. More likely, the blitzed city belonged to neither. One almost comic-opera theory was that at some point a Chinese unit had rushed in just long enough to hoist a flag, then hurried out again to avoid entrapment by Vietnamese in the surrounding hills...