Word: downwardly
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...Travolta's apparent indifference to the upward and downward lurches of his career that draws him the nervous attention he has trouble comprehending. People in the movie business like to pretend they inhabit a rational universe, one where you can determine a star's course through a series of well-plotted career moves. Strolling equably through a universe he implicitly defines as chaotic, playing what amounts to a real-life Chili Palmer--mannerly, sweet-spirited, yet utterly confident of his own strength--Travolta calls all their operating assumptions into question. And deepens his own mystery...
What will keep today's young safe from the downward spiral--which is not only the familiar descent of children bearing children and disintegrated families and AIDS, but also the more general American sexual devolution, the swamp of the id? Basketball has lost its sublimating magic...
...Democrats are not well positioned to bring Perot followers into their camp. They have hardly begun to recover from last November's drubbing, and in many ways are still spiraling downward amid internal strife and organizational turmoil. Worse, the party has yet to articulate a coherent message. At a New York City luncheon of the party's top contributors earlier this year, Democratic Party chairman Christopher Dodd was asked pointedly, "What does the Democratic Party stand for?" Dodd's hemming and hawing did not satisfy the crowd. "It soon became apparent that he didn't have the answer," recalls Gary...
...power gardening makes sense in an age of downward mobility, when a middle class eager to stem a free fall will grasp at affordable luxuries. They can't afford 500 acres in Shropshire, or even a house as big as their parents', but there is some solace in growing their own endive. For those anxious about the fate of the family, the garden at least offers the illusion of control, of nurturing something that won't run wild the minute it reaches adolescence. Those nostalgic for a simple, agrarian past can siphon the sense of virtue attached to the idea...
Additional artifacts could lie buried if, as Weeks believes, the tomb had an unusual split-level design. The ceilings of the corridors to the left and right of the statue of Osiris slope downward and then drop abruptly about 4 ft.-strong evidence of stairways. Says Weeks: "I think there are more rooms on the lower level." Moreover, while the doors that line the corridors all lead to identical 10-ft. by 10-ft. chambers, the openings themselves are only about 2 1/2 ft. wide, too narrow to accommodate a prince's sarcophagus. That suggests to Weeks that the rooms...