Word: cryptics
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Even the invitations were cryptic. Printed on shocking-pink paper, they read, "Please come to Madonna and Sean Penn's birthday party Aug. 16. Please be prompt or you'll miss the wedding." Those on the select mailing list understood the reference: the bride would turn 27 on her wedding day, and the bridegroom 25 the day after. The card instructed guests to phone a special number to find out where the supersecret event would take place. Not even the chic caterers knew where to deliver their delights (pizza and curried oysters, Madonna's culinary favorites) until the very last...
Harvard has bandits. They’re bundled between the pages of cryptic, bland reports about the curricular review; they lurk behind the provost’s wresting away faculty control of grants; they laugh as departments defend themselves after falling out of favor with Mass. Hall. The secretive, non-participatory, top-down processes brought to Harvard by the current administration threaten a key principle of university governance: those who lead the University’s intellectual life, the tenured women and men of Harvard, are best suited to make decisions affecting that intellectual life...
Ironically, much of Greenspan's success is attributed to his obsession with data and his uncanny ability to obfuscate. Known around Washington as Greenspeak, his signature style is marked by drawn-out, cryptic statements on the economy that leave listeners alternately impressed and befuddled. "His style of speaking reflects his style of thinking--careful, very nuanced, analytically driven and balanced," says a Fed official...
...play’s cryptic title succinctly embodies the duality of the religion’s conflict. Paying homage to a sermon in the Holy Q’uran that promises martyrs in the name of Allah will be rewarded with 200 virgins, the title refers to recent interpretations and re-readings of the text that suggest that word for “virgins” could actually mean “raisins.” Since the latter translation would deeply undercut the seriousness of suicide bomber missions, the settling on a single interpretation of the sermon...
Wetherby revives an ancient pleasure: the need to think while watching a movie. One could almost be back in the 1960s, when films like Last Year at Marienbad demanded to be approached like cryptic crosswords. For upwards of two hours we stretch our intellects to find the key to Wetherby's emotional life. The film's characters do not easily yield to analysis, though they are surely worth the bother. Their stiff upper lips are pursed in ruminative silence. And when they speak, they have something to say; Wetherby is a devilishly clever talk show. Moreover, they inhabit a film...