Word: enigma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Ultimately, no one really knows what factors come into play when the succession is decided. The process is still an enigma, enveloped in nearly 70 years of Bolshevik devotion to intrigue and secrecy. As far as experts can tell, a tiny handful of powerful Politburo members, perhaps as few as five or six, and usually only those based in Moscow, normally control the process. Says a Kremlinologist at the U.S. State Department: "There are no votes taken. They palaver until the consensus is reached." In the final hours of the decision, the military and the KGB may become more influential...
Despite the visibility of his office, Bok remains an enigma in the eyes of most students at Harvard. They see him during Freshman Week, at basketball games. We invited him to a wine and cheese party in a dormitory room--and he came...
...organ and brass apostrophe in 2001: A Space Odyssey, Strauss's blazing essay in orchestrational virtuosity ranked high in audiences' esteem. Maazel and the Viennese give this mettle tester a commanding reading, capturing the grandeur of its arresting introduction, the suavity of its incongruous waltz and the enigma of its bitonal ending. The rarely encountered, frankly Wagnerian tone poem Macbeth, Strauss's first attempt in the genre, makes an appealing, generous bonus...
There are only about 60 Watteau paintings on whose authenticity all experts agree, and his life is obscure. Since the Renaissance there have been few great artists about whom less is known than Watteau. He is almost as much of an enigma as Vermeer. He was born in Valenciennes in 1684, the son of a Flemish roof tiler. Until a few years before, Valenciennes was part of Flanders, not France; and Watteau's Flemish origins may have had more than a casual meaning to him, since the main influence on his work was Rubens. Nothing is known about...
...nearly 20 years by an avowed Socialist. The company is Schlumberger (1983 revenues: $5.8 billion), a leading oilfield-services firm. The executive is Frenchman Jean Riboud, who is profiled in The Art of Corporate Success (Putnam; 184 pages; $15.95) by Writer Ken Auletta. Riboud, 64, is a corporate enigma. A hardheaded capitalist in business matters, he is nevertheless a confidant of Socialist French President François Mitterrand...