Word: curious
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...greatest essays were to be wrenched from the five years he spent there. A Hanging (1931) records both the execution of a Hindu man and the writer's revulsion at the event: "It is curious, but till that moment I had never realized what it means to destroy a healthy, conscious man. When I saw the prisoner step aside to avoid the puddle I saw the mystery, the unspeakable wrongness, of cutting a life short when it is in full tide." Shooting an Elephant (1936) portrays "the dirty work of Empire at close quarters." A rampaging elephant in Moulmein...
...central China, giant pandas survive almost entirely on bamboo. "It's 99.9% of their diet," says George Schaller, director of the Animal Research and Conservation Center at the New York Zoological Society. Schaller has been studying the pandas in their native habitat since December 1980. Unfortunately, by a curious botanical twist, a staple of their diet, the arrow bamboo, is now undergoing one of its periodic blossomings. When this happens, once every 45 or 50 years, a whole mountainside of bamboo may erupt in flowers, scatter seeds and then perish. The bamboo will regrow in a few years...
...gentlemanly fight last week with Roberto Duran, undisputed Middleweight Champion of the World Marvin Hagler was both an evident winner and an obvious loser, perversely confirming the curious viewpoint of the Las Vegas judge who scored six of the 15 rounds for nobody. The fight was not as close as the scores indicated (on two of three cards, Duran could have taken the decision in the last round), but it was close enough to reprieve Duran as a personification of shame and to reduce Hagler as a figure of terror...
...very curious facts remain concerning this legislation--the 60 day limit has never expired in the past, and if it does now, there is no guarantee that the President will obey the law. Indeed, there are serious doubts about whether he should obey. Congress has extended this game of "chicken" over Lebanon to 18 months through amendment to the Resolution; hardly an affirmation of confidence in its legality. This constitutional ambiguity lies at the heart of the debate over the War Powers Resolution. It urgently needs reassessment and adjustment in light of recent history...
Conversations fill the gaps in the days, endless hours of idle chatting, serious talk and slightly nervous joking among buddies. The Marines have never been quite comfortable with the curious, frustrating nature of their Lebanese mission. In the stark light of last weekend's catastrophe, their speculations now have a tint of terrible, sad sweetness. "I've never really been in combat," said one young officer a few days before the bombing, "so I can't say what combat is. All I can say is this is regarded as a hostile-fire situation...