Word: hands
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...dating to 1794). Some say that before the French Revolution, aristocrats drove their carriages on the left, forcing the peasantry to the right. Amid the upheaval, fearful aristocrats sought to blend in with the proletariat by traveling on the right as well. Regardless of the origin, Napoleon brought right-hand traffic to the nations he conquered, including Russia, Switzerland and Germany. Hitler, in turn, ordered right-hand traffic in Czechoslovakia and Austria in the 1930s. Nations that escaped right-handed conquest, like Great Britain, preserved their left-handed tradition...
...remains a curiosity and a bit of a historical mystery why the world is divided over something as basic as which side of the road to drive on. The fact that most people are right-handed has a lot to do with it; that's why, for much of history, travelers have stuck to the left. Ancient Romans using chariots are believed to have held the reins with their right hands and a whip with their left; to avoid whipping oncoming drivers, they favored the left-hand side of the road (called "left-hand traffic"). It's also easier...
...unusual metaphor. The writing illuminates not only the landscape and the people in general, but also a succession of unforgettable characters that illustrate the range of issues confronting modern Africa. One essentially tragicomic figure is the Sikh whom Naipaul meets on the plane to Nairobi; on the one hand, the author is repelled by the bumbling, garrulous man, overeager to befriend a stranger who is similarly of Indian origin. Yet Naipaul writes with uncharacteristic feeling for the Sikh’s profound predicament as a British Asian going to Tanzania to try and extricate his own mother. He writes...
...intuitive connections to the things around her serve as a foil for the often laughably cerebral shoptalk of the others. “She picked up a leaf from the edge of the sidewalk and spoke to it for a while, moved it along the palm of her hand, put it rightside up and upside down, stroked it, and finally she took off the leafy part and left the veins exposed, a delicate green ghost was reflected against her skin,” writes Cortázar. When La Maga disappears, a despairing Oliveira returns to Buenos Aires to track...
...wizarding worlds, the Dark Lord has entrusted the young Draco Malfoy with a daunting assignment that endangers the lives of multiple characters throughout the school year. Voldemort’s most formidable opponent, Headmaster Albus Dumbledore, has begun to show signs of increasing fragility, ominously symbolized by his injured hand. Hogwarts, once seen as a rare safe haven, begins to lose much of its structural integrity. Despite the film’s grim tone, the storyline isn’t all danger and darkness. After a two-year absence, Quidditch is back, and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint) joins the Gryffindor...