Word: odd
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...great virtue of Keith Gordon's film is that it does not insist on its own metaphorical importance. It remains an anecdote, a memory of an odd moment of grace wrested from the rush of megahistory. Written, directed and acted with intelligently focused simplicity, it is a movie to seek out and to treasure...
...Book of J. Bloom booms again in the preposterous, opinionated, thoroughly entertaining THE AMERICAN RELIGION (Simon & Schuster; $22). The eminent Yale critic, who sees religion as "spilled poetry," turns tastemaker on U.S.-made faiths, especially Southern Baptism, where he stumbles badly, and Mormonism, which he lauds for odd originality. Pentecostalism? "Daring." New Age? Can't read the stuff. A portentous subtitle transmits Bloom's wish: "The Emergence of the Post- Christian Nation." Oh, yes. Bloom thinks America's hidden creed is Gnosticism, and, for the American, god is none other than himself...
...Wednesday at Soldiers Field, Harvard showcased that talent for the last time, closing its odd, frustrating season with a merciless 14-2 pounding of Northeastern...
Expo does not suffer in the comparison. There are a dozen works of intriguing, even distinguished architecture. Some of the 100-odd buildings seem commissioned by clueless bureaucrats inclined to toll-booth architecture, and several by well-intentioned arts-and-crafts types, but the surprise is how many compelling, even cutting-edge buildings have been put up. And there is not much correlation between national wealth and pavilion quality. A few small countries can be very proud, and some big, rich countries ought to be embarrassed...
...decline of religious training for children, constituted a change for the worse. Karlyn Keene of the American Enterprise Institute has gathered a remarkable collection of survey data that show that expressed American attitudes toward family, sex, drugs, etc. have remained quite stable and "traditional" over the past 20-odd years...