Word: modeste
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...writer-performer understands that a movie company working in the Third World is a colonial microcosm. Its technology is imperious in its imperatives; its largesse inevitably provokes all sorts of mutually exploitative muddles with the locals. This is a valid, if modest, insight, and Gray projects himself agreeably as a rational naif. But The Killing Fields took up themes far transcending show-biz silliness. It was about the 1975 fall of America's Cambodian client state to the genocidal revolutionaries of the Khmer Rouge. Gray's attempt to deal wryly with themes on this scale finally fails...
...like an electrical-utility switching station have had more influence on the shape of reconstruction than any number of visionary architects. Add to that the human tendency to take comfort in the thought that an area that has suffered near destruction can be resurrected in much the same form. "Modest improvements, not truly visionary rethinking," is the norm when cities rebuild, says Lawrence Vale, a co-editor of The Resilient City: How Modern Cities Recover from Disaster. "There is too much urgency to rebuild fast, and not much can be done to withhold that. Visionary ideas don't catch...
...husband and I are in our 50s and have daughters 28 and 25. The older one is doing well, but the younger has been in drug rehab four times and now has a very modest job and apartment. In writing our wills (assets about $3 million), we are unsure how to leave a medical trust for her. Any money she receives will be ill spent. If her sister is the trustee, that will destroy what's left of their relationship. My accountant says his firm does this service. But how can I be sure the fees...
...their kids want to disappear into over-size clothing or buy a new T shirt that's "distressed" to look old or wear a secondhand hat that would look at home on a 19th century train engineer, but they should be grateful for two things: the style is inherently modest--"the girl is not as much of a sex object," notes Azria-Palombo--and it's much less costly than last year's brand-driven, preppy look...
...about how he happened to give up in his efforts to woo and win girls. (Instead he has built up a world-class collection of action figures, "all in their original boxes.") Luckily, Trish (the sublimely sensible Catherine Keener), who works in a store across the street, demonstrates a modest interest in Andy, and their shy, halting relationship begins lifting Virgin out of the realm of raunch toward something resembling romantic comedy...