Word: fortresses
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Nonetheless, the riots in Michigan seemed to emphasize the urgency of Burger's plea. They began in the State Prison of Southern Michigan in Jackson, a dreary, 57-acre fortress built in 1926 to hold 4,000 inmates, but currently filled with 5,600 convicts. Most are hardened criminals serving long sentences for crimes ranging from arson to rape and murder. Jackson's undermanned staff -there is only one guard for every 100 inmates-admits that it cannot cope with the heavily armed prisoners; according to one estimate they hone and hide more than 50 knives...
...Chappaquiddick, in 1969, Edward Kennedy practiced what might be called the pre-emptive deflective confession. The idea was to assume the guilt in one large abstract gulp in order to silence any further specific inquiries. It did not work well for Kennedy. He spent a full week in a fortress of silence while the reassembled talents of Camelot labored over a text for him. Then he went on national television to take the responsibility of a young woman's death unto himself but also, simultaneously, to leave himself in a state of dazed blamelessness. His biggest mistake-all penitents...
...three decades after the death of Jesus, when a Galilean fisherman solidified his authority over the church, and a Cilician Jew spread Christ's teachings throughout the Mediterranean world. Masada (ABC, April 5-8) begins a few years later and chronicles the last desperate stand, in a Judean fortress, of 960 Jews against the more than 10,000 soldiers and Jewish captives of the Roman Tenth Legion. In achievement, though, the two shows are worlds apart: one is standard solemn biopic, the other a provocative, often eloquent drama of the near first rate...
...where are Halberstam and Wolfe and Talese when we need them? Probably deterred by the work it would take to pry the secrets out of the Hearst fortress, perched pretentiously on a mountain over the Pacific just south of San Francisco, and probably too offended by the vulgarity of the story. Instead we have a new book by two California writers, Chaney and Cieply, a mere outline for the possible investigative epic of family and corporation. One almost always feels as if the door to the closet with all the skeletons were only opened a few inches...
Segovia, to the north of Madrid, seems to have remained firmly rooted in the distant past. Its two principle attractions would probably have inspired Ruskin, Swinburne, or Byron: a Roman aqueduct in working order and the Alcazar, an ancient fortress. Around these lie Gothic churches and Moorish ruins. Segovia includes none of the artificial modernness effected in Madrid or Barcelona: it is simply a small Spanish town in an arid wilderness...