Word: evenness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...company may not be much esteemed in heaven, but, from Eve onward, mere mortals have found Satan a singularly seductive fellow -- spookily charming, mordantly funny, even sexy in a sulphur-scented way. Writers have been especially beguiled, from Marlowe and Milton to Shaw and Stephen Vincent Benet. Indeed, while putting God on display as a character is normally a guarantee of literary disaster, it sometimes seems that stories about his arch-opposite just can't miss. Presumably there is a sound theological basis for all this: virtue could hardly be considered virtuous if it were also indisputably fun, while...
...than attempt to be better. The title character, played by Treat Williams, is the conscience-pricked but ultimately expedient movie executive depicted in Mamet's Speed-the-Plow. Gould is called on the netherworld carpet for seduction and abandonment of a woman who, when summoned to testify, proves insufferable even to the great adversary. Mamet may mistrust all women -- his essay "True Stories of Bitches" featured his mother, sister and wife -- but this shrew is a giddyingly specific blend of utter unreason and serene self- righteousness. Still, her sins pointedly do not excuse Bobby's. Mamet may josh about...
...even the Kremlin realizes that Article 6 as now written is out of date. This provision entered the Soviet constitution only in 1977, at the height of what is now denounced as the "era of stagnation." Sakharov and other liberals have made the repeal of Article 6 a litmus test of the leadership's commitment to genuine progress. They have substantial support. The Supreme Soviet voted 198 to 173 last month to debate Article 6; only 28 abstentions kept the measure off the agenda of this week's session of the Congress of People's Deputies. Gorbachev recognizes that...
...suddenness of Poland's great leap may create new problems, even as it seeks to solve old ones. The country lacks economic institutions that took centuries to develop in the West: it has no stock exchange, no commercial banks, little experience in the rough-and-tumble of a free market. Barry Sullivan, chairman of the First National Bank of Chicago, wondered whether the Poles' eagerness will prove to have been "monumental courage or sheer folly." While none of the Americans doubted the commitment to reform at the top of the Polish government, some questioned how it would be received once...
...house near me worth a minimum of $65,000 was recently offered for sale by HUD for $50,000 (mistake No. 1). I bid $58,100, but lost it to a bid of $54,000 because the Government decided to accept the lower offer even before the bids were opened (mistake No. 2). One bumbled sale a real estate depression does not make. But if it's happening in my neighborhood, you have to wonder whether it won't be happening in others as well...