Word: modestly
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...mind sharing a few stories over a two-hour lunch of foie gras and braised veal. "Shortly after your hostages were taken in Tehran in 1979," he recalls, "the Americans asked my advice. I told them, 'When dealing with rug merchants, you need something to trade.' " The count's modest proposal: kidnap the Ayatullah Khomeini and exchange him for the 53 Americans. "After weeks of reconnaissance, my people came up with a detailed plan to land a helicopter near Khomeini's residence, neutralize his guards and whisk him away. The CIA loved the idea, but Jimmy Carter nixed...
Macdonald, who died in 1982 at age 76, has now been accorded a solid if not definitive biography. A Rebel in Defense of Tradition (BasicBooks; 590 pages; $30) by Michael Wreszin is the kind of academic "lumbering dinosaur" -- the author's modest self-appraisal -- that might have sent its subject to his typewriter harrumphing with dismay. Wreszin dutifully portrays the man and his times but too often paraphrases rather than quotes directly from a writer whose style was the essence of jaunt and spark. (In fairness, Wreszin does have the good sense to cite Macdonald's lead...
...Melrose Place does have something that sets it apart from most of the failed prime-time soap operas of recent years: modest goals. The show does not set out to capture a historical era (Homefront) or reproduce the glitzy New York high life (Tattinger's) or create a parable about going home again (Angel Falls). The characters on Melrose Place have a bland, modern universality. Indeed, watching the show again for the first time since its debut, one is struck by how the personnel have blended together. There was once a black neighbor (Vanessa Williams); she has moved away. Michael...
...administrative staff successfullyestablished an administrative fellowship program,"Hoyte said. "And while the increases in thenumbers of underrepresented administrative staffwere modest, we have to remember that this ishappening while the University is in a period ofcost-containment...
...them, especially Watson, could have stolen the spotlight. But no one did. It is a tribute to Williams' command as a subtle leader among team players that this chemistry worked. The musicians knew it. The audience knew it. And Williams knew it, even if he was too modest to admit...