Word: fatales
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...that sine qua non of successful coups: the immediate arrest of popular potential enemies before they could begin organizing a resistance. In particular, the failure to make sure that Yeltsin was taken into custody (there were some reports that an attempt at an arrest was made, but botched) was fatal. Inexplicably, the putschists did not even pull the plug on the communications of anyone except Gorbachev. Bush and other foreign leaders were amazed at how easily they could get through by telephone to Yeltsin; he in turn seems to have had no difficulty coordinating action with other coup opponents across...
...first the coup seemed to confirm the norm. The news administered a dark shock, followed immediately by a depressed sense of resignation: of course, of course, the Russians must revert to their essential selves, to their own history. Gorbachev and glasnost were the aberration; now we are back to fatal normality. "Every country has the government it deserves," Joseph de Maistre wrote...
...praised Thomas' personal success in rising from rural poverty in Georgia to the federal Court of Appeals but criticized his "insensitivity to giving those who may not have any bootstraps the opportunity to pull themselves up as well." Translation: liberal activists view Thomas' skepticism toward affirmative action as a fatal flaw. Within hours, the AFL- CIO's executive board joined the opposition, and the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights is now virtually certain to fight Thomas too. The latest pile- on by Thomas' adversaries poses an obstacle to Senate confirmation, which until last week had seemed a good bet. Most...
...third big theme is snooping. Just as South Africa's government engages in constant surveillance, so, in McClure's vision, do its citizens spy on one another, usually out of jealousy or greed. The consequences are often fatal. This peeping and prying is a focus of The Steam Pig and of two other memorable entries: The Caterpillar Cop and The Gooseberry Fool. Fittingly, Zondi and Kramer meet in The Song Dog after surreptitiously trailing each other, each in search of clues to his own case...
...happens, V.I. Warshawski, starring Kathleen Turner as the private eyeful, is a sorry excuse for a film. It opened last Friday and may be forgotten in a week. But bad pictures as well as good feed the pop-cultural zeitgeist (cf., Fatal Attraction, Pretty Woman, Ghost). And Warshawski shows Hollywood once again scrounging to resolve a lingering dilemma: how to get women into the summer-movie mainstream...