Word: dickensian
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...These men and women may seem to embody the English tradition of the plucky Dickensian Dodger, but it would be wrong to mistake their ingenuity for anything other than desperation, social workers say. Like those to whom the travel ads all around the airport appeal, Heathrow's homeless are also in search of escape: from debts, legal problems, family responsibilities. They often have mental health or substance abuse problems, and they often refuse help. During the day, some travel by public transport into London to beg, busk or take drugs, while others remain in the airport, sometimes scrounging food...
...Regulars congregate at Kevin Moran's, formerly the Nag's Head, an historic watering hole in stylish Belgravia, to enjoy its open fireplaces in the winter or summertime flowers bursting from the window boxes on its charming Dickensian façade. But Moran says he sees the pub recession just down the road. "There's the Moore Arms - you wouldn't even know it was a pub now - it closed two years ago. Up from there's the Australian - that's been turned into apartments. Opposite, the Shaftsbury Arms is now a Baker and Spice [bakery chain] underneath and flats...
That's not to say the best approach is a cold Dickensian bed. But Einstein's experience does suggest a middle course between moving to Reno for an élite new school and striking out alone at age 15. Currently, gifted programs too often admit marginal, hardworking kids and then mostly assign field trips and extra essays, not truly accelerated course work pegged to a student's abilities. Ideally, school systems should strive to keep their most talented students through a combination of grade skipping and other approaches (dual enrollment in community colleges, telescoping classwork without grade skipping) that ensure...
...Governments and law enforcement agencies don't view the snakehead's activities so favorably. Illegal immigrants have little recourse should the snakehead make off with their deposit, and are vulnerable to Dickensian conditions in the places where they must work long hours to pay off their debt. Knowing the snakehead or his family personally diminishes such risks, and most Fujianese migrants are only one degree removed from the person they will pay to get them abroad. "This isn't like cocaine, where there's one boss in Colombia who directs the whole business," says Frank Pieke, the director...
...capital, every mobile bookstall tells one too. Look on the sides of the carts that are wheeled about the streets bearing dog-eared novels and pirated Lonely Planets, and you'll find a hand-lettered potted biography of the proprietor. The vaguely [an error occurred while processing this directive] Dickensian narratives - weaving hardship with unvarnished hope - have an unvarying theme: the bookseller's struggle against the fates for a better life, and a hesitant supplication to purchase. Sometimes, there's a toddler asleep atop the cart, his or her head pillowed perhaps on a copy of Angkor - Cambodia's Wondrous...