Word: monarchical
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia doesn't usually travel light. An official visit from the 86-year-old monarch typically involves an entourage large enough to fill at least five jet airliners and includes a mobile medical clinic, a handful of his four wives and 22 children, and an ample selection of senior royal advisers and cabinet ministers...
...going back to humanity's first civilizations. Ancient Mesopotamian kings lined their cities and citadels with friezes depicting glorious conquests - often using the common visual theme of a giant potentate in front of his army, literally stomping on the heads of his foes. The effect was to boost a monarch's prestige and cement his political authority. Through the sacred Gate of Ishtar in Babylon, returning warrior kings would march into the city down a passage flanked by 60 giant lion statues on either side, with murals of the gods smiling upon them...
...Monarch of Melodrama So she changed careers and became an actress. For much of the '80s, Fawcett was the monarch of the TV-movie biopics, spinning plausible impersonations of heiress Barbara Hutton, photojournalist Margaret Bourke-White and Nazi hunter Beate Klarsfeld. In the 1984 The Burning Bed, she earned an Emmy nomination (her first of three) as a real-life battered woman who sets the rack of her shame on fire, with her abusive husband in it. She took a similar part - another woman who exacts vengeance from the man who raped her - in William Mastrosimone's off-Broadway play...
...This isn't cynicism. Democracy in India truly is a remarkable thing. Since the departure of the British from the subcontinent, India is the rare country in South Asia that has never been ruled by a dictator, a monarch or a general. It is a beckoning example of freedom and stability not just for the rest of the region but for any of the world's poor, volatile countries...
...here the duo lowered their voices in awe - perform for the Queen at the Royal Variety Show. The annual gala requires the Queen to sit through a hodgepodge of musical numbers, pasteurized comedy and novelty acts, a torment that might have been secretly devised by republicans to drive the monarch into retirement. Nevertheless, all the contestants dutifully averred that such an opportunity would be the highlight of their existence. "It would be the biggest thing in my life," said Shaheen Jafargholi, a singer from Wales who at 12 has arguably not had much time to rack up memorable experiences...