Word: flickingly
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Then Palmer introduced a second male, and, as he had expected, an entomological display of macho erupted. Battling to assert their supremacy and win a female, the two little beasts went at each, other like monsters in a Japanese sci-fi flick, pushing and shoving each other with their horns. If one beetle seemed to be getting the upper hand, the other often slumped on its side, blocking the first beetle's path. The more aggressive beetle would then use his horns as levers in an attempt to dislodge his opponent. Sometimes the defender flipped over on his back...
These days Flick, a shy-looking industrialist with horn-rimmed spectacles, has a problem, and it may cause a lot more smashed crockery in those Munich beer cellars. He pocketed $1 billion when in 1976 he sold to a German bank 29% of the stock of Daimler-Benz, which makes Mercedes cars. Under West Germany's tax code, Flick has to spend all of that sum by Dec. 31 in ways that will "benefit the national economy"-or else pay 50% in capital gains and income taxes...
...Flick inherited his fortune from his blood-and-iron father, Friedrich...
Papa was a self-made Ruhr upstart who earned a bundle speculating in scrap after World War I, created a vast industrial empire, and earned a seven-year war-crimes sentence for making P.O.W.s do forced labor for Hitler. Flick Senior bounced back after serving only three years of his sentence. Released in 1950, he was ordered by the Allies to sell his rich holdings in either coal or steel. He chose coal and collected more than $50 million, which he used to build an even more prosperous empire based on petrochemicals, paper, steel-and Daimler-Benz stock. Today...
Friedrich Karl Flick sold most of his 40% holdings in Daimler because he figured that the oil crisis darkened the future for cars. Until the present moment, he has been able to reinvest only $300 million, leaving $700 million to go. He bought 12% of the shares of the U.S.'s W.R. Grace Co. (petrochemicals, real estate, restaurants) for $130 million, last month acquired control of West Germany's second largest insurance company for $100 million, and added $70 million to the capital of his conglomerate...