Word: direness
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...first step as Dean was to write a letter to the Faculty warning them of FAS’ dire financial straits and to brace them for the “brutal” measures he would impose—including a three-year freeze on departmental budget growth. Knowles has continued to write the budget letter every year, keeping the faculty apprised of his initiatives and goals...
...Jacob Cheung's Midnight Fly, two tourists?Michelle (the ever-fabulous Anita Mui) from Hong Kong and Miki (Junna Risa) from Japan?meet in France, then go on to Morocco, with dire results. For this English-language tale of sisterhood under stress, Cheung, whose 1989 Beyond the Sunset and 1992 Cageman won best picture at the Hong Kong Film Awards, has the gloss of sumptuous photography and lovely work by the two leads. But narrative implausibilities assure that Midnight Fly ... doesn't. Really, what are the odds that one woman's husband will be the other's lover...
...sounds quite dire, but this is actually fantastic news for those of us whose employment does not directly depend upon darting in and out of international locales on a semi-daily basis. These findings, after all, provide us with a great excuse for extending our vacations: You wanted me back at the office for that board meeting next week? Ooh, sorry. No can do. I?ve recently learned that returning from Fiji so quickly could be dangerous to my spatial cognitive functioning. And I really can?t imagine you?d want an employee hampered by such a terrible impediment hanging...
They are best known for secret handshakes, embroidered aprons and the dire penalties reputed to be inflicted on those who break their oath of secrecy. But today's Freemasons insist that tattletales are no longer-if ever they were-subjected to "having my throat cut across, my tongue torn out ... and buried in the sands of the sea." In fact, so eager are Britain's Freemasons to dispel the sinister associations that still cloud their reputation that the United Grand Lodge of England (UGL) whose 300,000 members represent 90% of the Masons in England and Wales has hired...
...energy plan. The trouble started in Toronto at the end of April, when Vice President Dick Cheney, whose task force drew up the plan, delivered a speech in which he seemed to mock conservation as a means of dealing with energy shortages. The attempt was to lay out the dire reality; the effect was to just sound dour. One sentence in particular - "conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy" - led to a wave of bad press and gave the administration's critics fresh ammunition to dismiss...