Word: lightened
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...irritatingly smug about the rewards of living in the country, is angry now at the cordwood, the mud, poor mired Linda, and himself. He is spinning wheels, wasting time. Great deeds remain undone, great orthodontist bills are unpaid. Awash with self-doubt, he heaves the birch chunks out to lighten the truck, then jacks, wedges, winches and ponders. At last Linda groans free, and all that remains is to retrieve the half cord of jettisoned birch. There is never a thought of leaving the firewood behind: in darkest February, it will heat the woodsman's ten-room New Hampshire house...
...lightly. Others insist that defendants get railroaded out of their right to a trial by prosecutors who "overcharge," i.e., charge defendants with worse crimes than they committed, to force them into guilty pleas. What everyone agrees on is that plea bargaining is at best an expedient to lighten case loads...
Although he writes in a style of studied unconventionality and portrays his depraved characters sympathically, Wedekind nevertheless wrote a morality play. The characters are not human beings but types and all receive their just deserts by the final curtain. However, no sense of optimism or serene belief in retribution lighten the atmosphere of depravity and despair. The world remains cold, detached, evil--and absurd...
...performances of Lulu's successive lovers vary according to how skillfully Wedekind wrote the parts. Christian Clemenson is delightfully boorish as the crude Dr. Goll. His braying inanities lighten the otherwise disjointed first act. Brian McCue's portrayal of Scwarz, however, is uneven, improving considerably from the first act to the second. When he first meets Lulu in the opening of the play, McCue relies too much on a series of mannerisms--rising on his toes, rubbing his hands, pacing around briskly--that distract attention from his passionate words. Japes Emerson turns in a sporadic performance, though he is cursed...
...serious apprehension when one reads the Ayatullah's declaration that "the press will be free ... except for those articles that would be harmful to the nation" [Jan. 22]. The restrictions sound all too familiar and similar to those allegedly enforced by the oppressive regime the Ayatullah claims to lighten and improve. And who will decide what is harmful to the nation? The Ayatullah and his entourage...