Word: gripped
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...shaper of its own destiny, both private and public. While psychology, sociology and determinist historical theories have become massively fashionable, there is still a strong strain of resistance to the notion that man is formed by environment, by outside powers, or that the nation is in the grip of immutable forces. This rejection of fate, this insistence that everything is possible, is surely the dominant American characteristic, and at the heart of its genius. Other nations cringe before fate, or endure it nobly, or outlast it patiently. America insists on dominating, on bullying, fate. This is very invigorating and liberating...
...think a person gets a better grip on himself and on the world when he spends those early years in a smaller place," muses Bill Moyers, public television's impresario, who was raised in Marshall, Texas. He says that solitude, knowing friends and enemies intimately, having a more hospitable environment-all provide a gentle entry into the harsh world. "People in towns get a better sense of themselves, their places. The families stay closer, the landmarks last longer...
...postponed mentioning Guy Clark's No. 1 (RCA) till now to try to get a grip on myself. Never mind: it's probably the finest country album I've ever heard. The best numbers are "Rita Ballou" ("She's a rawhide rope and velvet mixture/ Walkin' talkin' Texas texture/ High timin' barroom fixture/ Kind or a girl") and "Texas--1947". This is the first album for Clark, a first-rate songwriter who wrote a lot of Jerry Jeff Walker's material. His voice is a raunchy beer-soaked, high whine, gritty and vital. Playboy calls his songs "Larry McMurtry...
...thin majority in the House of Commons, where it now holds 313 of the 631 seats. Labor still maintains a 38-seat edge over the Tories and can count on a few votes from the minor parties to enable it to continue governing, but it may lose its grip on the important committee chairmanships. The Tories, moreover, demonstrated impressive muscle in last week's balloting for town and district councilmen in England and Wales. Of the nearly 16,000 members elected, the Conservatives picked up more than 1,000 new seats; Labor gained only 15 new seats. While...
Cutthroat Foiled. But what were the drawings doing in that narrow chamber? Dal Poggetto has a theory. In 1527 the Medici, who had virtually become kings, were expelled from Florence by a wave of republican sentiment. When the Medici resumed their grip on the city in 1530, a purge of republicans followed, and a cutthroat named Alessandro Corsini was hired to murder Michelangelo-who had vocally sided with the republican cause. According to an old tradition, the great sculptor, who was then at work on the Medici tombs, hid in the bell tower of a church on the other side...