Word: forme
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Most Americans have few qualms about embracing the rawest form of dog-eat-dog capitalism (including the only health care system in the world based entirely on private profit), and yet their unwillingness to label anyone as intrinsically less worthy and their commitment to "being nice" indicate a sense of compassion. Some might see a contradiction, but I think there's a logic behind it. Merciless selection seems less objectionable if we insist that no one is intrinsically unfit. The losers are victims of circumstance, who, in principle at least, can be helped to succeed...
American higher education starkly reflects this unwillingness to seriously label anyone unfit. Costa Rica, my home country, is an extremely egalitarian society in which it is considered bad form to make anyone else look bad, or to try to make yourself look too good. But if you want to get into the University of Costa Rica your performance on a standardized admissions exam is the only factor determining your admission and your ability to enter the career of your choice. The idea that a university should employ a large number of admissions officers devoted to reading application essays and listening...
...aspects of life--loses everything else. "One gets used to things getting harder," he realizes. "One ceases to be surprised that what used to be as hard as hard can be grows harder yet." Disgrace is a mini-opera without music by a writer at the top of his form. Its bleak vision lingers, shattering any hope of a redemptive state of grace...
...permitted on the stand at the Yankees ticker-tape parade. (The first two actions were reversed by courts on First Amendment grounds; the barred legislators did not go to court to test the proposition that standing on the platform like a big shot is a constitutionally protected form of expression.) At this point, New Yorkers would not be surprised to hear that someone who took a position contrary to the mayor's in a late-night discussion of how a Jack Dempsey-Rocky Marciano fight would turn out had awakened the next morning to find a municipal water-treatment plant...
GERD THYSELF An upset stomach may not be the only thing to worry about when taking aspirin or ibuprofen. The so-called nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories may be linked to a severe form of heartburn called gastroesophageal-reflux disorder, or GERD. Researchers found that the chances of getting GERD doubled among 12,500 Medicaid patients who took the painkillers routinely. Before starting a regimen of aspirin or the like, check with your doctor...