Word: flame
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...because of this, we have no idea how to respond when people disagree with us. This explains all the exorcisms and flame wars. The assumption that to be intelligent is to be left of center implies that anyone who disagrees is either confused or has recently experienced some sort of intellectually damaging event, like walking into a post. When someone bashfully admits to wanting smaller government or thinking that privatizing social security might not be such a bad idea, instead of trying to discuss, we rush them to UHS for a battery of tests and sprinkle them with secular water...
...middle-aged men who keep the flame of jetpack obsession alight are a quirky, entertaining bunch, united by their "heart-wrenchingly beautiful dream" to fly "like a twisted bird, for a wingless, breathless twenty-two second orgasm in the air." Montandon paints funny, faintly sad portraits of this group. "These are the anonymous, doughy faces of obsession," he writes. Among them is Jeremy McGrane, a 32-year-old New Hampshire resident who built his own "beautifully sleek, blue-corseted rocket belt," and who speaks candidly about the all-consuming nature of his pursuit: "Most guys are dreaming of alcohol...
...uncultivated or primitive. For many years considered by Western intellectuals to be pompous and decadent - Voltaire called it a "worthless repertory of declamations and miracles" - the Byzantine Empire is now seen by historians as a crucial bridge connecting antiquity to the Renaissance, as the keeper of the sacred flame of classical learning through the so-called Dark Ages. It was also a melting pot of influences. Byzantines, who were devout Christians, considered themselves the inheritors of the Roman Empire, despite the fact that they spoke Greek. Their knowledge, exemplified by the advanced engineering and spectacular architecture of their capital...
...boots - inappropriate, he believes, for serious engagement with the auto's pedals - and he hates the casual good cheer she brings into the claustrophobic car they are obliged to share, and above all he despises himself for being drawn to her. We know that eventually he's going to flame out disastrously, but the suspense we feel as we wait for that to happen is exquisite - funny to observe, perhaps, but discomfiting (and dangerous) as well...
...violent sea in which their ships had catastrophically collided in disputed territory.But now he had called her. Yes? What? Yes. Yes. She felt as though her insides were ripping, palpably giving way. Her flesh expanded masochistically, straining forward as it sensed the approach of the ravenous tongues of flame, exploded as she felt rather than smelt the heavy aura of manure and wet straw and damp flesh burst into and flood the hall. He had come. Yes. He had conquered. A wave of liquid fire consumed her body: the first. Again, a wave. It was an ocean that begged...