Word: compassable
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First degree, third degree. Ceremonial apron and secret handshake; the Square and the Compass; the letter G for the Grand Architect himself. There was a time when America was dying to know and no one was telling. Freemasonry, which claims to be the world's oldest fraternal society, has been called the civil religion of the American Revolution. As recently as 1959, its U.S. branch constituted an earnest and convivial army of 4.1 million. Yet today those ranks are decimated. True, the group is still a philanthropic presence, donating some $750 million a year to charities. But its 2.1 million...
...Freemasonry probably began formally in the 1600s as an English gentleman's club, but by 1717 had evolved into an engine of the European Enlightenment. Its members were committed to egalitarianism, civic participation and other ideals expressed through tropes of the stoneworkers trade: the square for straightforward virtue; the compass to circumscribe one's passions; the plumb line to stay upright. There was little religion but much ritual, which enraged churchmen and engaged conspiracy theorists, who still flood the Web with Masonic villainies, but it posed no problem for the Deists, who frequented the Continental Congress. Benjamin Franklin joined...
...three months of 1998, to $243 million, due in part to derivatives. At the end of last year, its total risk from Asian derivatives--should others default--was more than $3 billion. Bankers Trust's derivatives' delinquencies have leaped from zero to $330 million in a year, and the compass points to Indonesian and Thai clients. In total, the bank has some $5 billion of derivative credit exposure in Asia. And Greenspan was quite right to be concerned about CIBC. The bank has nearly $1 billion in gross foreign derivatives with parties that are below "investment grade" (translation: risky...
...cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, your issue is the perfect antidote. We are reminded of those who have led us to accomplishments and of the tyrants who brought on disaster. If we look at our past in this light, we will find your report a compass pointing us to a brighter future. JACK D. FOSTER Barnard...
...need something," pronounces the TV producer. "A guide. A talisman. A set of rules. A compass to steer us through this everlasting night." It's typical of this intense, unsettling play that the most truthful (and very nearly the only coherent) thoughts are expressed by the character who's a stand-in for Satan. The rest are a desperate, surprisingly poignant lot who are powerless to resist their appetites yet aware that facing up to them is part of the struggle toward salvation. That struggle, and this evening, are hard to shake...