Word: madding
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...opera about the life and turbulent times of Francisco Goya (Domingo, in robust voice) that omits almost every significant incident in the painter's life? Of a work that concentrates on a historically disputed love affair with the Duchess of Alba (Mezzo-Soprano Victoria Vergara), concluding with a gratuitous mad scene, replete with writhing spirits and fun-house demons? Of a score whose one striking musical device, an insistent, high-pitched whine signifying Goya's deafness, is borrowed from Smetana's string quartet From My Life...
Larson credits Don Martin of Mad magazine, George Booth of The New Yorker and B. Kliban, famed for his cat cartoons, with influencing his style; his work also seems informed by the bloated grotesqueries of Gahan Wilson (Playboy, The New Yorker). Nonetheless, Larson's vision is like no other cartoonist's. If a single theme animates his work, it is that man, for all his | achievements, is just one species on earth, and not always the wisest or strongest one. His prehistoric cave dwellers and chunky matrons with beehive hairdos and sequined glasses are vulnerable and foolish, while his cows...
...mail came the year's most original movie tie-in: a red plastic visor with a 4-in. protruding, well, sort of asparagus stalk. "Fun Facts and Myths About the Pineal Gland (The Gland of the '80s)" reads the press release. "Mad Doctor Edward Pretorious' invention stimulates the pineal gland and causes it to protrude and take on a personality of its own -- much like your official From Beyond Pineal Gland Visor . . . Wear it anywhere: the ballpark, parties, the shower (it's waterproof...
...these possibilities. Nor are the several action sequences as potent as they might be. The assault on the family by jungle adventurers; the destruction by fire and explosion of the fragile civilization the family has so painstakingly made; the storm that imperils them in their last refuge; the mad attack by Allie on a missionary settlement -- all of these are well staged but lacking in resonance. The problem is that the high- pitched whine of Allie's character finally vitiates not merely the viewer's sympathy for him, but sympathy for the movie he dominates, despite the care and courage...
...return against Green Bay this week, McMahon has not lost in 22 starts dating back to 1983. In 40 openings over three injury-prone years, he and the Bears are 36-4, and Ditka is as galled as several of the players. The thought of Mad McMahon riding to the season's rescue on his black chopper does not thrill anyone, especially the coach. "I don't believe you're really that hurt," Ditka told McMahon straight out before the diagnosis. "He's been Sybil-izing a lot lately," McMahon yawned, a coded reference to a multiple personality. "Why would...