Word: foil
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Leading a climbing team up Mount McKinley, the highest peak in North America, Captain Richard Garrison, an Army chaplain, discovered that even the remote Alaskan wilderness has been despoiled. There, at 8,500 ft., was a pile of garbage -- partly eaten food, foil wrappers from freeze-dried meals, plastic bags and other trash left behind by previous climbers who had disobeyed the basic outdoor rule to backpack out all such junk. "It really detracts from the experience," says Garrison...
When he recovered, the voice of more than 400 animated characters resumed a career that had made him celebrated as the comic foil of Groucho Marx, George Burns and, most memorably, Jack Benny. It was for the Benny show that he regularly played a polar bear, an antique car, a "Union Depot train caller" ("Anaheim, Azusa and Cuc . . . amonga!"), a parrot, a Mexican ("What's your name?" "Sy." "Sy?" "Si"), and the choleric Professor LeBlanc, Jack's violin teacher: "Meester Be-nee, could I have some water, please?" "Water? Yes. There's some in the cooler down the hall." "That...
Fortunately, Akeem has Semmi as a foil. Hall's Semmi is a smarmy, false opportunist, but like Akeem, he's a caricature. Together, Akeem and Semmi are like adult versions of Wally Cleaver and Eddie Haskell. Their squabbles are amusing, but Hall and Murphy's cameos are funnier and more interesting than their primary roles...
Sharansky's game plan, which he first sketched out on a piece of prison toilet paper, had three objectives: not to cooperate with the KGB; to penetrate and foil its methods; and to expose its cruelty and lies to the outside world. He never wavered. Armed with his intelligence, his sense of moral rightness and his innocence of the charges, he confounded a team of 17 KGB investigators who had fabricated a case of high treason against him. Conducting his own defense, he turned his trial into a shambles as he demonstrated the falseness of the evidence. When his thundering...
...made meals. Even the hassle of restaurants is too much for the weariest workers, who prefer the barefoot comforts of home. Some may make the effort to arrange the dinner on a plate and eat at a set table, but many, if not most, just dip plastic forks into foil or Styrofoam containers and collapse in front of the TV screen...