Word: fathoming
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Pleading innocent with an explanation is the comic lot of many Anne Tyler characters. The predicament is obviously shared by her readers, whose number has been growing steadily for 20 years. The reasons are not hard to fathom. The author's style has evolved from women's magazine fiction of the '50s and early '60s. Then the accent was on conventions and the theme of togetherness. But Tyler loosened the bonds to accommodate more expressive decades. Young lovers became old marrieds who became newly single. Squares turned into oddballs as her perceptions deepened and her imagination grew frisky...
...authority are many: creating false impressions, pretesting the public reaction to an action before taking it, even saying one thing while preparing to do the opposite. Those who manipulate the news now have a clear advantage over those who seek to report it and over a public trying to fathom what it all means. The ability to manipulate public opinion was systematized under Franklin D. Roosevelt, the first President to give importance to the role of press secretary. It has become an art form under Ronald Reagan. The press's constant worry about being misled accounts for most of those...
Researchers are only beginning to fathom the complex biochemical reasons for this effect. Fish, specifically such cold-water species as cod, salmon, sardines and mackerel, contain certain polyunsaturated oils that are found in no other foods and have profound effects on body chemistry. A diet rich in these fats reduces the tendency of blood to clot, much the way that aspirin does; it also helps lower the level of cholesterol in the blood. Both effects could help explain the low rate of heart disease in Eskimos...
...know. Imagine, if you will, a mere servant attempting to love a real person. You never know, it might work out, but only when the lady or gentleman in question is not really a lady or gentleman. At every opportunity, Porter shows Gaston and Maria unable to fathom the protocol of the Penthouse...
Some day, although it is not likely, I may fathom the reason for Bombeck's popularity. I find her provincial and inane. I am amazed women's brains do not rot during the time they are listening to her. Alexandra Mayerle Minneapolis...