Word: nicholson
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Gist: It's difficult to think of a simpler concept for a book than one about walking. It's one of the most pedestrian (saw that one coming, huh?) topics around. As author Nicholson writes, "Looked at a certain way, walking is the most ordinary, natural, ubiquitous activity. What could be more commonplace or lacking in eccentricity than the act of walking?" Nothing, right? False, as Nicholson demonstrates over a few hundred pages. In song, in literature, in wacky walking wagers, he breezily explores every possible cultural manifestation of perambulating...
...Lowdown: As rambling and leisurely as a walk through the English countryside, Nicholson's cultural history is confident in its lack of consequence. Essentially a collection of anecdotes, The Lost Art of Walking is buttressed by the sheer fun of said anecdotes - lists of walking-themed popular tunes and miniprofiles of the stroll-obsessed. It's a fruitful topic: walking is so essential to daily life that one can connect the act to almost every and any historical event or human endeavor - battles, expeditions, feats of endurance, or plain old human evolution as we move from crouched primates to upright...
...Marvin [Nicholson], the trip director, came out to Senator Obama and whispered in his ear. Senator Obama said, "What's wrong with the plane?" Marvin said there was something wrong with the hydraulic system. He told us that we would be landing in a city other than our destination and that we might want to assume the brace position. [Obama] said, "What's that?" Marvin explained, and Obama's reaction was one word: "Golly." After we landed safely, the first thing he did was call his wife, who had been watching it on cable. Linda Douglass, Obama spokeswoman...
...Mbeki's ouster is certainly a victory for the more hardline element among Zuma's supporters, who had been calling for the President's head ever since a judge last Friday threw out corruption charges against Zuma on procedural grounds. Most damaging to Mbeki were Judge Chris Nicholson's remarks that he found Zuma's complaints of political interference in his case to be plausible. Nicholson made it clear that his judgment in no way exonerates Zuma, but he also accused Mbeki and members of his cabinet of having improperly intervened to ensure that Zuma was prosecuted. "It's quite...
...Saturday's decision also diminishes chances that the controversial 1990s arms deal over which Zuma has faced charges, will ever be properly investigated - although its corrosive legacy will live on. In his ruling last week, Judge Nicholson called for a commission of inquiry "to rid our land of this cancer that is devouring the body politic and the reputation for integrity built up so assiduously after the fall of apartheid." Instead, it appears that Zuma will assume the presidency before he ever has his day in court...