Word: length
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Much has been made in recent weeks of the shared birthday of Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin, two juggernauts not only of their own age, but of all the years since. New Yorker writer Adam Gopnik explores their legacies in this book-length series of essays, focusing on their abilities as writers and thinkers of the highest caliber. As Gopnik writes, "Literary eloquence is essential to liberal civilization; our heroes should be men and women possessed by the urgency of utterance." With their adherence to logic and observation, and devotion to thoughtful expression, Lincoln and Darwin - in addition to everything...
...origin of Lincoln's facility with words: "The frontier America of Lincoln's youth was first of all a rhetorical society, where the ability to speak in public, at length was central to social ambitions; giving a speech in 1838 in Illinois was the equivalent of putting on a play in 1598 in London, the thing you did into which everything else flowed. (We are, by turn - and a writer says it with sadness - essentially a society of images: a viral YouTube video, an advertising image, proliferates and sums up our desires; anyone who can't play the image game...
...absolutely hideous taste. Whether this is intentional, only costume designer Patricia Field (Sex and the City) knows for sure. What Carrie Bradshaw might have pulled off, Becky sinks under. Colors, plaids, accessories, boots - it's all garish; she doesn't wear or carry a single appealing object for the length of the movie. This is oddly comforting. We're officially 14 months into this recession, and many of us are not just tightening belts but swearing off shopping altogether. Confessions, perhaps inadvertently, assures us that being deprived of Gucci boots can be a good thing...
Clive Owen, your standard-issue obsessed movie hero, fights for the length of The International to bring down the rogue bank IBBC, which has committed financial and war crimes on a vast scale. Don't waste your time, or your life, says bank biggie Armin Mueller-Stahl. "The system guarantees IBBC's safety - because everyone is involved." This corrupt bank will be protected, in other words, by all the other corrupt banks. And regulators. And politicians...
...celebrate. But I've been a pretty good member and I've worked hard and I've gotten a lot of legislation through. I've done a lot of things for the people I serve and for the country. I'd rather be remembered for that than for the length of time I've served...