Word: main
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Number 45 Bahnhofstrasse is an imposing building in central Zurich. Its monumental columns are topped by the sculpted heads of a peasant patriot, a mother, the god Mercury and William Tell, the mythic Swiss hero. This secular temple is the main branch of the Union Bank of Switzerland. Inside, there are acres of reddish brown Tessin marble. The ornate overhead moldings frame a 20-ft. by 30-ft. skylight. A uniformed guard approaches: "Who are you? What are you doing? Identification papers, please." Is this brusque aggressiveness necessary? "I am only following orders," he says in German...
...most damaging blow to Swiss credibility came on the night of Jan. 9. During regular rounds at the main Union Bank of Switzerland office in Zurich, security guard Christoph Meili, 29, peeked into the shredding room. There he saw two carts full of documents waiting to be destroyed. Meili noticed that some of them concerned dealings with Germany during the 1940s, including sales of confiscated properties. All of them were protected by recent Swiss regulations forbidding the destruction of any documents that might help clarify Switzerland's wartime banking role...
...main problem with airlines is prosperity. The carriers find themselves flush with cash, a condition they rather like. The profits are rolling in now because of a gritty, singleminded and profoundly painful campaign of cost cutting over the past five years, in which airlines have done everything from "outsourcing" (i.e., contracting out to other firms) plane cleaning and baggage handling, to whacking travel agents' commissions, to laying off ticket agents, middle managers and mechanics, to shrinking passenger seats and eliminating meals...
...airlines do business. The mid-1990s have seen the major carriers, in effect, stop picking one another's pockets. Where once they seemed to have a policy of infinite expansion into competitors' territories, now they view wholesale expansion as too dangerous. The last carrier to seriously invade another's main hub was a Continental operation called Continental Lite, which attempted to win market share in major Eastern markets. Continental Lite sank in 1995, losing $300 million. Since then the hub-and-spoke carriers have retreated to their fortresses while beefing up their commuter-feeder operations. Northwest dropped Washington's National...
...England of an area that, in fact, was settled before most of New England, in the mid-17th century. The steep roofs of the New England-like houses are lathered with snow, and the surprisingly tall pines are shagged with ice, the way they get in Vermont. The main difference is the beach; there is snow on the beach...