Word: krafts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...function in the tale was simply to underscore Russians' jaundiced view of their own rulers. I was reminded of this joke from my youth by the furor over President Putin's recent acquisition of a unique piece of jewelry. At the Russian president's reception for American tycoons, Robert Kraft, the owner of this year's Super Bowl Champions New England Patriots, showed Putin his 2005 Super Bowl ring. It's a 14-karat, four ounces white-gold piece, studded with 124 diamonds arranged to form the team's logo and the words "World Champions." A lesser ring from...
...media had a field day, reporting that while Kraft thought he was just showing his ring to Putin, the Russian president assumed it was a gift. To avoid embarrassment, Kraft released a statement later to the effect that Putin had been so taken with the ring that, "At that point I decided to give him the ring as a symbol of the respect and admiration that I have for the Russian people and the leadership of President Putin...
...what good is effected in pointing that capacious intelligence at fast-moving targets? Why find the missing piece if even the visible pieces will vanish in a shot? Ask Joe Kraft, and he would have said that the good lies in doing it, in using the mind to grasp everything the world can throw at it, baseballs to missiles, because that is how the mind protects the body, protects itself. Understanding is protection. More: understanding is forewarning. More: understanding is life. The individual column does not count, because a column is not supposed to exist alone. A columnist looks...
More: there is always more, a deeper level to spot and land on, like a plane swooping down from bright white and blue into a heavy snow. People like Joe Kraft play Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist all their lives--they cannot help themselves--requesting "more" where others are horrified by, or are deaf to, or fear, or pretend not to recognize the word. The more that is sought is a statement of innocence; one believes in his heart that enlightenment will be cheering, though experience proves that more often it is punishing. Still the optimistic pursuit continues, the pursuer buoyed...
...protest against being overwhelmed by the speed of things, against letting the world get away from us. When Dickens' daughter died, he was in London and his wife in the country; he wrote her a letter telling her at the outset, "You must read this letter very slowly." Joe Kraft died on Jan. 10. You must read his death very slowly. The missing piece is the one that counts. --By Roger Rosenblatt