Word: gumption
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...While some folks become misanthropic as they age, most of us still crave human contact--especially at a time in our lives when it's harder to achieve. Children move away, spouses die and infirmities limit mobility. The Internet widens the reach of those with the resources and the gumption to get online...
...Toback is a rather serious and self-conscious fellow. So, after a perky start, his work turns into a meandering wrangle. He flirts with a semidaring resolution--a cozy little menage a trois--but doesn't quite have the gumption to go there. Instead, he lurches into a darkness that contains the promise of redemption (or at least responsible adulthood) for his wayward protagonist. We don't believe it for a second. We do, however, believe in the talent of his actors. The vengeful women--a coolly elegant Heather Graham and a flat-voiced, sharp-minded Natasha Gregson Wagner...
What sets Eritrea apart is the self-sacrificing character of its people, the thousands like Olga Haptemariam who rely solely on their own gumption. We meet her behind the counter of the building-supply shop she has opened in Massawa, striving to capitalize on the construction boom resuscitating this shattered equatorial port. "It's my own business," she says, pointing to the stacked cans of paint and tools lining the shelves. "It is doing very well, very nice." She can't wait to expand. "When I get more money, I want to get more materials from Italy, China...
...that wealthy New York donor told him to look after. She was the one he had Vernon Jordan help find a job after she kept calling him seeking help. But oral sex just outside the Oval Office? A dress stained with semen? Clinton is flabbergasted. His enemies have more gumption than he realized...
Liang, at least, is earning money. Not from his official job at the factory making electrical machinery. That decrepit state enterprise hasn't paid him regularly in three years. Like everyone else with any gumption in Shenyang, Liang has turned to moonlighting, with his bosses' eager blessing. There are just three choices for independent entrepreneurs here: restaurants, but that takes capital and there are few customers; street vending, but that requires a product to sell; and driving a cab. Liang chose the cab, a ramshackle Lada he must hot-wire each time he starts it. He rents...