Word: enigma
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...EXECUTIVE ENIGMA...
Stuck with a bearded enigma at the center of his tale, Vidal packs the edges with peripheral figures. Nearly everyone who was anyone during the 1860s, from Henry Adams to Walt Whitman, is given a walk-on role. This process extends to some 19th century notables already deceased. Vidal manages to insert the information that Francis Blair, an aged visitor to the Lincoln White House, knew Andrew Jackson...
...decent housing and then are denied the means to effect acceptable solutions [Feb. 13]. Meanwhile, social and political apathy at all levels of government and society provoke an attitude of "Don't bother us with the facts; just house the people." The result: today's public-housing enigma. Local public-housing authorities still represent the best approach to addressing housing issues. They remain the only entity in the residential field whose sole objective is the provision of shelter, not the accumulation of profit...
CHRISTMAS WOULDN'T BE the same without the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU, alias "The Grinch") waging its annual legal campaign to remove Nativity scenes or "creches" from Christmas displays. Numerous courtroom challenges and conflicting decisions have transformed the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment into a bewildering legal enigma. But the U.S. Supreme Court this year may substantially clarify the extent to which municipalities can promote the religious aspects of Christmas in the pending case of Lynch v Donnelly...
...There is no definitive David Bowie," he once remarked. Ziggy and the Duke have been slithered out of, like shucked snakeskins, but their creator remains a well-nurtured enigma. Perhaps by design: in concert or in conversation, he always seems like a scrupulous creation. The body, even relaxed, seems conscious of pose. The face?Leslie Howard sketched by George Grosz?can be nearly beautiful, but the mouth splits its sculpted lines when it turns up into a toothy, gratified grin, like Chaplin's as he watched a fat man fall. Bowie's eyes, always appraising, seem to look straight down...