Word: obvious
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...love the way Tommy Lee Jones acknowledges the change in his son, the changes in the army he faithfully served, the changes in the world we all inhabit. It's no more than a fleeting expression, a flicker in his eyes, and the result is not obvious anger or weary cynicism. It is a kind of acceptance that does not vitiate his desire to see justice done. This is, I think, a great performance by one of the great movie minimalists. And Haggis has provided him with a perfectly matched context, recording without overt commentary the strip-joint, hooker-ridden...
...market up 19% from a year ago, buyers (finally) hold the best cards. To play them, start entertaining all the offers homebuilders and real estate agents are hurling your way. How about a finished basement? Or having the seller pay your closing costs? The downturn has yielded less obvious opportunities too. John Mead, a teacher in Calhoun, Ga., paid $120,000 for the three-bedroom house he found on Foreclosure.com a solid $40,000 less than similar offers he was considering from people not as desperate to sell. (Don't feel guilty about buying a foreclosure; it helps move inventory...
...reading, writing or speaking. The result? The number of first-graders screened for gifted placement shot up from some 100 the previous year to nearly 3,000. Says deputy superintendent Antoinette Dunbar of the decision to start testing every first-grader for giftedness: "Sometimes we overlook the very obvious...
...claim to be reacting to new information. In 1966, during his first race to become Governor of California, Ronald Reagan pledged not to raise income taxes, declaring that his feet were "in concrete" on the issue. State income taxes were collected by withholding, and Reagan believed taxes should be obvious and painful. But once in office, he found that there was no other revenue stream that could balance the state budget, and so he submitted an economic plan that called for higher withholding taxes. "The sound you hear," he said at a press conference, "is the sound of concrete cracking...
Taken literally, these sentences are inane. The second is an overstatement, and the answer to the first is obvious. Fortunately, the hearer assumes that the speaker is rational and listens between the lines. Yes, your point is to request the salt, but you're doing it in such a way that first takes care to establish what linguists call "felicity conditions," or the prerequisites to making a sensible request. The underlying rationale is that the hearer not be given a command but simply be asked or advised about one of the necessary conditions for passing the salt. Your goal...