Word: freighting
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Tonegawa proved that cells accomplish the Herculean task of making antibodies to order by reshuffling parts of the genes that govern the production of antibodies, the cellular building blocks of the immune system. He likens the process to rearranging the boxcars on a freight train. "The dogma was that the order of the genes in any one person is immutable," he says. "The freight train never shifts its cars around." In spite of prevailing theory, Tonegawa found that the "cars" did indeed rearrange themselves in a multitude of different configurations to make the antibodies that fight off diseases. His work...
...thing, it is difficult in 1987 to generate much suspense over whether or not Lincoln will free the slaves. Curiosities have to be piqued by something other than the plot. But Safire does not seem to acknowledge this necessity. His narrative is hobbled to a crawl by the freight of information it must carry. Characters are rarely allowed to act and think like recognizable human beings; instead, they must constantly remind themselves (and possibly forgetful readers) just who they are and what they have done. Hence Union General John Fremont muses about his wife: He "knew that she never thought...
...alternative to crowded highways. Tens of thousands of miles of underutilized railroads could be transformed into medium- to high-speed transportation networks, particularly in the Northeast, Midwest and Sunbelt. Similarly, the great railway capillary systems of cities like Houston, Los Angeles and Detroit, which were once used extensively for freight delivery, could be developed into useful commuter routes...
...illegal crossings of the U.S.-Mexican border. The lone survivor, Miguel Tostado Rodriguez, 21, told how he promised to pay $400 to a "coyote" (the term for smugglers who grow wealthy by sneaking Mexicans into the U.S.) for help in rafting the Rio Grande and hiding in a freight train headed for Fort Worth. All but two of his 18 companions had agreed to make similar payments. Those two were guides, working with the coyote...
That was in 1961, near the beginning of what those who know all the verses to Freight Train now call, with the rueful irony of survivors, the "great folk-music scare of the '60s." For the rest of the decade and part of the '70s too, Rush spent most of his time on the road, as he recalls now, playing concerts and club gigs, getting a lavender tan from stage lights, finding his moments of repose watching the mysterious turning, turning of airport carrousels, living a life that made more money than sense. A song he wrote in those cockerel...