Word: frail
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...praise could be taken as a comment on the mess the Kingdom was in when Abdullah gradually began taking over following King Fahd's stroke in 1995. Custom dictated that Abdullah, as heir apparent, take the helm; the King, now 80, still appears for ceremonial functions but is too frail to run the country. During Fahd's 20-year reign, government spending as well as Saudi births soared, while oil revenues declined from $40 a barrel in 1980 to about $20 today. Fighting off Iraq's Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War also set the Kingdom back $60 billion...
...months. Yet Margaret too had been unwell. When last seen in public, just before Christmas, she was confined to a wheelchair, her face disfiguringly puffy - apparently from medication - and shrouded by enormous dark glasses. With both her left side and her eyesight seriously affected by strokes, Margaret was a frail, spectral figure - in poignant contrast to the vibrant young woman who once rewrote the book on proper royal behavior...
Margaret's nephew Prince Charles, who, after hearing the news, traveled to the royal Sandringham estate in Norfolk to stay with the now frail Queen Mother, paid tribute to his "darling aunt." Said he: "She had such a wonderfully free spirit. She loved life and lived it to the full." She had incredible musical talents and a very sharp mind, he noted, and she would be hugely missed by his family. For all her faults, Princess Margaret will also be missed by many Britons. If nothing else, the passionate, unpredictable princess brought life and color to a royal family once...
...differences separate Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. One is devoted to Hindu nationalism, the other to a strong Muslim nation. One governs the world's most populous democracy, the other rules by diktat. India's leader is 20 years older and the frail veteran of 47 years in politics; Pakistan's is a fit career soldier whose political life began just two years ago in a military coup. Vajpayee is a master orator given to flights of poetry; Musharraf is a plainspoken man with a blunt, forthright style. The first has succeeded by adroitly...
...years ago, when TIME's editors were choosing "the" song of the 20th century, my suggestion was "Cheek to Cheek" - a dance-and-romance tune composed in an ambitious, 64-bar structure. Berlin pitched it smartly to Astaire's frail but persuasive tenor voice; for example, in the phrase "And my heart beats so that I can hardly speak," the melody zigzags up to a note Astaire can hardly sing. The song's daring swings of rhythm and emotion consecutively express three moods of a lover in pursuit - bliss ("Heaven, I'm in heaven"), jauntiness ("Oh, I love to climb...