Word: lightens
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Reeves hoped the dramatic group would "lighten things up." But the audience in the council chambers didn't laugh, and sound problems (the young comedians weren't speaking into microphones) brought dozens of angry calls from people trying to watch the meeting at home on public access cable television. The audience grew impatient as the comedy group exceeded the 17 minutes they were allotted...
...local banks to follow suit. The single market influences food prices (bananas in Germany will be one-third more expensive thanks to new E.C.-imposed tariffs on South American imports), health (no cigarettes with more than 15 mg of tar can be sold in the Community, forcing France to lighten up its legendary Gauloises), and even noise (all lawn mowers must adhere to the same decibel regulations...
...Lighten up. The situation is probably not all that bad. It often seems as if everyone who discusses dating at Harvard is complaining about it. This makes sense. When people gloat, the natural reaction is a desire to punch them. Besides, people pleasurably involved in relationships usually have better things to do than openly analyze their situation...
Despite differing interpretations of the poetry, there was a continuity to the evening in the constant emphasis on personal hardship. All three performers dressed entirely in black without a hint of bright color to lighten up their outfits, and the historical descriptions made real the tragedy behind the poets' lives. Tsvetaeva's daughter and husband were both arrested by the Soviet authorities in the late 1930s, and in 1941 she hanged herself. Akhmatova's son was arrested three separate times; her husband was shot by the Bolsheviks; and her lover Nikolai Punin died in a labor camp...
...which Stipe for once breaks free of his bonds and takes flight on a larky lyric: "Let's play Twister/ Let's play Risk/ See you in heaven if you make the list." By then, though, it's impossible not to hope that next time out Stipe will lighten up a bit and leave the weight of the world on someone else's shoulders...