Word: conning
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Mann finds ways of translating these existential thoughts into the argot of the Chicago ex-con that are reasonably believable; and James Caan finds ways of saying them without choking. Indeed, at the center of the film there is a fine scene when Frank proposes to Jessie (Tuesday Weld), a coffee-shop cashier astonished to have an offer of marriage on her first date with the guy from the back booth, and to find out what he actually does for a living. Here Mann gets a subtler message across, in a scene with comedy, originality and dramatic power as played...
...killers have murdered 20 black youths in the past 20 months. Children are afraid to play outdoors; adults are afraid to let them. Anguished by the murders, Atlantans are also anxious about the barrage of publicity that is ruining its reputation as "the city too busy to hate." Journalists, con men and publicity seekers are all exploiting Atlanta's grief...
...sold in the U.S. every 13 seconds, adding 2 million a year to the nation's estimated arsenal of 55 million automatics and revolvers. That is one pistol for every four Americans. There is no dispute over these facts, but the endless debate over gun control, pro and con, is dominated by facile slogans, contradictory statistics and arguments that owe as much to passion as to reason. The only consensus is that the present patchwork of nearly 25,000 gun regulations-most at the state and local levels-is a costly, bothersome sham. Practically speaking, any person with...
...love Paris in the Springtime. [crescendo con brio...
...strain on the black man and woman, it shows in various ways. Paul Laurence Dunbar, the black dialect poet, explained, "We Wear the Mask." That is one way of surviving; as a con man, a common figure in black fiction. Another way is to "disappear," to pass for white or otherwise become anonymous. The Invisible Man disappeared altogether, forging a life of an existential fact: since he was invisible to the white world anyway, why not go whole hog? The third way-separation-brings America back from fiction to reality. In a sense, separation often seems the most reasonable choice...