Word: icon
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Your cover story on the most influential people in the U.S. [THE TIME 25, April 21] was a sad commentary on the direction in which American society is evolving. There was a time when American icons influenced history by their strong moral leadership. Today they are predominantly career bureaucrats, par-tisan activists, shallow entertainers, mediocre musicians, salvation gurus, shock artists and others who make a living dredging the murky depths of society. In a society where the social fabric is frayed and there is little role for human values, any icon that people can cling to seems a good...
...Puritans weren't alone in their suspicion of the icon. The next wave of settlers in the Northeast, the Quakers, led by William Penn, despised most arts. Music was a distraction, poetry (beyond the simplest hymns) a snare. So the lack of Quaker painting is hardly a surprise, though some artists--most conspicuously Benjamin West--came from Quaker families and left the faith. The only painter who lived and died a Quaker was the Philadelphia "primitive" Edward Hicks (1780-1849), and he felt moral qualms about...
...more than two years after attracting $2 billion in start-up capital. "You can tell he was depressed over the business stuff he's got into," says a colleague. "He always says, pleadingly, 'I'm only a film director!' But of course he's much more: studio owner, pop icon, a father, a mentor, a major mogul in spite of himself...
...Mitchell, once an icon of independence and 1960s wanderlust, the little girl who was to be her only child never quite left her mind. Over the years, as her fame grew, she wondered about the child's parents, her health, her future. It was not until a Canadian tabloid published the story of her adoption four years ago that Mitchell began speaking openly about it. But she was besieged by pretenders and began to lose hope...
...current World War II icon, the Iwo Jima memorial, won't do. For all its majesty, it remains a memorial not to World War II but to one branch of the U.S. military. Its official name, in fact, is the Marine Corps Memorial...