Word: eared
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...mention of Andrei Sakharov's name in French, Chernenko's hand went up to his ear and he looked puzzled. Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov, who was seated next to French Transport Minister Charles Fiterman, one of four Communists in Mitterrand's Cabinet, uttered an audible sigh of impatience. When the Russian translation was read by the interpreter, a stir crossed the hall. But Chernenko did not even smile ironically, and 55 minutes later the banquet was over...
...anguish of that search lies the profundity of Rabe's work. The playwright is functioning here as far more than a realist with an unsurpassed ear for contemporary speech. What he is saying, finally, is that words have begun to fail. The vocabulary in which his people speak, a jargon derived from televised reductions of reality and popularized psychology, leaves them without the tools they need to know their own minds, let alone the complexities of their shared existence. The bitterest of the many laughs Rabe provides derives from his recognition that the relentless articulateness of his people...
Most importantly, we refused to reflect on an alternative for ordinary university students. Our message to them was to choose sides, to give up their reactionary fantasies of moving with the ruling class and to dedicate themselves full-time to the revolution. When we had the ear of hundreds of thousands of students across America and around the world, we convinced them that there was no way to combine a profession, a career and a family with a contribution to political change. They believed us and made an uneasy peace with the system. Sooner than we, they realized that they...
...Moscow was handling the case of Andrei Sakharov, intellectual leader of the besieged Soviet dissident movement. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient began a hunger strike on May 2 to secure permission for his ailing wife Yelena Bonner to travel abroad for medical treatment. Turning a deaf ear to a growing chorus of international protests and inquiries, the Soviets refused to give any details on Sakharov's health and whereabouts. Said a top Washington diplomat: "They are not capable of taking any positive steps, so they are turning inward and isolating themselves. It is leadership by tantrum...
Although the author is a master of the unexpected, violence is not his specialty. Leonard's principal virtues are a Panasonic ear and an infallible sense of character. His narrative tone is that of the man across the airplane aisle who has a good story to tell, if only he could trust you. Grammar is irrelevant; sentences seem to have been delivered, not written: "At approximately 1:30 a.m. he saw the Silver Mark VI traveling south on John R at a high rate of speed with a black Buick like nailed to its tail." His humor is stag...