Word: ironical
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Banta regularly reports on the rigors of life behind the Iron Curtain, and much of his appreciation for such tribulations comes from his personal experience. Trains with no heat. Telephones often on the blink. Sources too scared of eavesdroppers to talk except in person -- and in private. Even getting into some countries can be a trial. After presenting his perfectly legal visa to the passport officer on entering Rumania, Banta was taken to the departure lounge for the next flight out. But the kindly officer did give Banta enough Rumanian lei to call the U.S. embassy to protest...
Talbot is not the only entity who might go up in smoke. There is a fire down below in the ship as well; red-hot iron bars have been inserted into the huge block of wood that supports the wobbling foremast in the hope that the constriction of cooling metal will stabilize the structure, allowing for more sails and greater speed. A sluggish progress suddenly becomes a race against time...
...were playing with a child's Erector Set, the crane operator maneuvers a ladle filled with 230 tons of molten iron toward a giant furnace and pours into its maw a glowing glob of 3000 degrees F metal. After 45 minutes in the oxygen-fired furnace, the iron turns into liquid steel, which a computer-controlled casting machine quickly forms into slabs 40 ft. long. Presto! In just 3.8 worker-hours, one-third less than the U.S. industry's average, this modern plant has produced a ton of steel. It is one of the most efficient mills in the world...
...make more steel per worker, the industry carried out a long-overdue modernization drive. As recently as 1974, one-quarter of all steel in the U.S. was still being produced by old-fashioned open-hearth furnaces, which take eight hours to turn molten iron into steel, compared with 45 minutes for the more efficient oxygen-fired furnaces. Since 1982, American steel companies have poured $9 billion into upgrading their mills. Open hearths now produce only 5% of domestic steel...
...trying time -- particularly for the teenage boy. He is exultantly proud of his newfound sense of masculinity, but his body, alas, remains an embarrassment. Where are those flauntable biceps and triceps? Earlier generations of frustrated youth sought salvation in Charles Atlas' body-building exercises or strenuous programs of pumping iron. Many of today's teens, however, are subscribing to an ominously simpler solution. Explains Dr. Robert Willix Jr. of Fort Lauderdale: "Before, the 97-lb. weakling on the beach turned to weight lifting. Now he turns to steroids...