Word: last
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...movie opens with an elderly tattoo artist imprinting the image of a dragon onto a mob boss. As he hacks away at the mobster’s skin in vivid onscreen detail, a telegram arrives filled with black dust. The old man recoils in horror, explaining that the last time he saw such a letter, the mocking laughter of his employers was “drowned in blood.” Suddenly, a series of goons are inexplicably beheaded, halved, and cut limb by limb in rapid succession. No sword or swordsman is visible, only swoosh sounds and silver flickers...
...massive library system is a university treasure. Preserving the quality and size of this rich academic asset is a worthy goal, and even in the midst of a recession, when cuts must be made and services must be discarded, the library system should be one of the last to feel the pinch. Hopefully, this principle will guide the university’s plan to revamp the library system to make it more centralized, digitized, and cost-effective, allowing Harvard’s collections to emerge from budget cuts more or less intact...
Every Thanksgiving, or at least for two years running, it has been the practice of the New York Times editorial page to print an appropriately grateful editorial. “Hard-hitting” would not, perhaps, be the most accurate descriptor for these pieces: Last year’s, for instance, emphasized the necessity for solidarity in tough times. This year’s waxed no less optimistic. “It will never cease to surprise how the condition of being human means we cannot foretell with any accuracy what next Thanksgiving will bring...
...Last Monday, the generally sage New York Times columnist David Brooks drew a somber line in the sand for health-care reform: “We all have to decide what we want at this moment in history, vitality or security. We can debate this or that provision, but where we come down will depend on that moral preference.” In the eyes of Brooks and a great many others, reform may very well create a more decent society—but only at the expense of economic dynamism and our oh-so-youthful American spirit...
...believe the health-care system is presently in less-than-robust condition, the argument that we’ll become less dynamic with change makes little sense. If you take a moment to reflect on the last few years, Brooks’s premise that the unregulated market normally directs capital to the fresh, flourishing, and socially productive doesn’t seem entirely truthful. Indeed, we’ve seen throughout the economic crisis that unregulated capital is often prone to fall to the aged, entrenched, and socially disconnected...