Word: minotaurs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...subject, Palmer turned to Typhoeus typhoeus, commonly known as the minotaur beetle. Barely larger than a pebble, this long, shiny black bug is found throughout sandy areas of Europe, where it feeds mainly on rabbit, sheep or deer droppings. It is named for its three distinct horns-two large ones separated by a smaller one-that project threateningly from the male of the species...
Each of these skirmishes lasted nearly three minutes, and the entire battle often continued for more than an hour. Finally, as one minotaur gained the upper hand, his vanquished foe either left the burrow of his own accord or was actually pushed out by the winner (who invariably turned out to be the larger beetle). Thus, Palmer reports in Nature, the minotaur's horns, and perhaps similar horns in other beetles, seem to have been evolved for only one purpose: combat...
...difficult to imagine a more delightful revival than that mounted by the New Phoenix Repertory Company. Harold Prince has directed it with a marvelously light touch, and the cast bestows elegance on the incessant sexual innuendo. To unravel the plot would be as tricky as negotiating the Minotaur's labyrinth, but it remains understandable throughout the evening...
...conservative than Congressman Barry Goldwater Jr. Designed as a pilot program, the campaign and its response have provided a representative sample of what-and who-is bugging citizens all over the U.S. The most common complaints concerned the difficulty of penetrating the bureaucratic labyrinth, only to find a Minotaur at the end. Almost as numerous have been insoluble hassles with billing computers and instances in which a would-be buyer was turned down because a credit bureau provided a report based on unfavorable but unchecked information. (Some credit-bureau employees admitted that investigators are afraid of losing their jobs...
...within the province of dramatic genius. Yet the in spired lunacy of France's Georges Feydeau merits no lesser accolade. Some critics maintain that he wrote the same play 39 times in 35 years (1881-1916). That is only half-true. Feydeau's plots are like the Minotaur's labyrinth, except that they are apoplectically funny. One is led on and on with a zany Cartesian logic, but one can never retrace one's steps and relate the story coherently...