Word: conundrum
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...Bush's White House is a conundrum, a bastion of telegenic idealism and deep cynicism. The President has proposed vast, transformational policies-the remaking of the Middle East, of Social Security, of the federal bureaucracy. But he has done so in a haphazard way, with little attention to detail or consequences. There are grand pronouncements and, yes, crusades, punctuated with marching words like evil and moral and freedom. Beneath, though, is the cynical assumption that the public doesn't care about the details-that results don't matter, corners can be cut and special favors bestowed...
...brought women back to their pre-feminist roots—or did the feminist movement itself create the current paradigm? How can a modern woman cope with the conflicting demands of biology, social pressure, and ambition? Dowd may not propose any real solutions, but she does lay out the conundrum with panache, pace, and page-turning...
...warning or explanation. The smells defy explanation: they are not always near sewers or bathrooms, and they are rarely in the vicinity of any fat people. The problem with thinking about foul stenches is that one question invariably leads to another. We had set out to solve one conundrum, but we soon found ourselves “riddled” with other puzzles. Like: What’s a more powerful fart: Dropping a Silent-But-Deadly into one of those deceptively absorbent chairs in the Lamont reading room, or utilizing the superb acoustics of Sanders Theater...
...dividing the two sides, which could hardly have been expected, but there was no hint of progress toward resolution, a more reasonable hope. How American plans to develop space-based strategic defenses can be reconciled with the quest for deep reductions in strategic offenses remains as much of a conundrum as ever. An American negotiator who is a regular at the ongoing arms-control talks in Geneva remarked, "It's nice to have our bosses wish us luck and urge us to do our best, but the nitty-gritty of our work here is going to be as tough...
...some very real political limitations. She has a clenched, wary public presence, which won't work well in an electorate that prizes aw-shucks informality; she isn't a particularly warm or eloquent speaker, especially in front of large audiences. Any woman running for President will face a toughness conundrum: she will constantly have to prove her strength and be careful about showing her emotions. She won't have the luxury of, say, Bill Clinton's public sogginess. It will take a brilliant politician to create a credible feminine presidential style. So far, Senator Clinton hasn't shown the ease...