Word: goddessers
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...Japan's renewed sense of identity has also stoked a spiritual rediscovery. Under Shinto, the country's native religion, which blends a reverence for nature with Japan's founding myths, the Japanese Emperor is considered the direct descendant of the sun goddess Amaterasu; it was in Emperor Hirohito's sacred name that Japanese soldiers fought in World War II. When a battle-vanquished Hirohito announced in 1946 that he was not, in fact, a god in human form, some Japanese distanced themselves from the animist tradition. While shrines remained and festivals continued, Shinto was initially condemned by the occupying Americans...
...gold medals are actually silver covered with about 6 grams of 24-karat gold. Winter Olympic medals have no standard design, hence their strange shapes and nontraditional materials, like those of the 1992 Albertville medals, which were mostly glass. Summer medals, however, almost always depict Nike, the winged goddess of victory, on their front in some fashion. Since 1972, host cities have designed the medals' back. This year Beijing represented Chinese culture with a ring of jade inlay...
...which still held sway throughout the eastern Mediterranean and beyond: an imposing statue of Hadrian in military regalia shows him trampling a barbarian - powerful imagery in the Greek portion of the empire, which had been traumatized by rebellion. His breastplate further emphasizes the Greco-Roman union, displaying the Greek goddess Athena standing upon a she-wolf that was a symbol of Rome...
...Obama's people and Berlin authorities finally agreed to stage the speech instead in front of the Siegess?ule (victory column) monument - or "Goldelse" ("Goldlizzie"), as Berliners affectionately dub it because of a golden statue of the goddess of victory that crowns the monument. Built in the second half of the 19th century to commemorate Prussian victories against the French, the Danes and Austria, the column has been a backdrop for various mass events, such as the annual "Love Parade," a huge open-air techno party. The right location, some commentators only half-jokingly remarked, for a political rock star...
...Cyndi Lauper era. The Wayback Machine keeps spinning until we are in Weimar * Berlin, with Madonna in Dietrich drag warbling Teutonic twaddle: ''Like a wer- gin, touched for the werry vurst time.'' She is Carmen Miranda (Going Bananas), Gene Kelly (La Isla Bonita), the Brigitte Helm robot goddess from the silent film Metropolis. She saves her best anachronistic joke for last: the steamy Justify My Love is performed in stately cadence and Edwardian morning coats. It might be the Ascot Gavotte from My Fair Lady. Nostalgia, as wispy as the scent of marijuana that permeated the SkyDome, is itself decadent...